HERE WE GO AGAIN

Like clockwork after the death of a black man at the hands of a white man, the race hustlers, hucksters and other opportunists leaped into action to prime the American public with their slogans and false narrative about the facts and circumstances surrounding the incident.

In case you haven’t heard about what happened on a New York subway train recently, although these days I don’t know how anybody could have missed hearing about it with the media’s 24/7 obsession with headline news every time a black guy dies and a white person is involved. The media and race hustlers have to be upset, however, that the guy who died didn’t do so at the hands of a white law enforcement officer but instead, a white Marine veteran will do for their insidious purposes. Here is what we know thus far. Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old, homeless black man who suffers from mental illness, was on a New York subway train. As people suffering from a particular from of mental illness will sometimes do, he was acting in a menacing fashion according to police officials and subway video. He was harassing passengers and making threats. A reporter on the same train described Neely as screaming in an aggressive manner but he hadn’t attacked anyone. I will add not yet, anyway.

Anybody who rides the New York subway system, and I have, can attest that these rides can be intimidating and filled with tension. For many New Yorkers, the subway is their only means of transportation. Imagine the anxiety they feel each time they go down on the escalator to the train platform to go to work, school or wherever they have to be. It’s dark and often time the smells are not aromatic as street people often use the platform like it’s a restroom. Seeing rats is not all that uncommon. The homeless have made it a refuge. In one story about the incident. one man said that the subway had become a gathering place for panhandlers like himself.

These are quality of life issues that can negatively affect experiences in public spaces. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani hired a head of the New York transit police named William Bratton. When Bratton took over as head of the Transit Authority before becoming head of the NYPD, he made it his mission to clean up the New York subway system. Many of his Broken Windows theory principles were tried and developed by cleaning up the subway. His order maintenance tactics were based on stopping the nuisance-type activities happening on subway platforms like public urination, panhandling, and turnstile jumping. He drove the perpetrators of disorder out of the subway and chased them above ground. Subway rides became less intimidating.

With Mayor Giuliani and Commissioner Bill Bratton gone, the emphasis on quality of life enforcement by police has gone away and been replaced by tolerance for disorderly behavior. The NYPD has been defunded and officers are retiring at a pace outdoing hiring. Not only is crime rising on the streets of New York but down in the subway as well. This is the backdrop of the Neely incident.

Tired of the menacing behavior of Neely, Marine vet Daniel Penny approached Neely and got him in a headlock to restrain him. Two other passengers joined him to assist by holding Neeley’s arms. Neely struggled as the three restrained him. When they got to the next stop, Neely was no longer moving and he was later pronounced dead. The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide due to a compressed windpipe. I do not have all the facts but from what we know thus far we can reasonably make some observations. As a former homicide investigator with the Milwaukee Police Department, I have attended autopsies. Ruling a death a homicide gets people all worked up. There is no need to come unhinged hearing that. Homicide is a manner of death. The others are suicide, natural causes and undetermined. Just because a death is ruled a homicide does not automatically mean that someone is criminally liable for that determination. That gets to the cause of death. In this case, it was a collapsed windpipe as opposed to a gunshot wound, stabbing, overdose or it could be accidental. This investigation is ongoing. However, in my experience as a trained homicide detective, I could easily advise the prosecutor that this was nothing more than an accidental death.

Now let’s get to the actions of the Marine vet. We cannot reasonably expect common citizens to do things in a manner that we would expect say a trained law enforcement officer in the area of arrest tactics like decentralizing someone. A Marine is trained in survival skills. It becomes instinctive. A headlock to subdue somebody with his trained skill set is not unreasonable. Any cop will tell you that some people suffering from mental illness can possess superhuman strength when struggling. I have dealt with it myself. It can take several people to control someone who is violently struggling. Unfortunately, the prosecutor reviewing this is the politically active race baiter Alvin Bragg. He will have a hard time finding a jury pool that isn’t aware of what is going on in the streets of New York. They are tired of reading, hearing and experiencing the rising crime, violence and disorder and policies like no bail for repeat offenders. Bragg’s office, according to one study, has tossed out 69% of criminal cases. Neely, by the way has a rap sheet with 42 arrests. So, these people remain on the streets. Couple that with delayed police response to calls for service and with fewer police on the streets, we see people being more inclined to handling things themselves. They have no other choice. It’s either defend themselves or become crime victims.

When government cannot fulfill its most important responsibility of securing the personal safety of citizens, then it must allow the individual to play a role in protecting themselves. When this happens, prosecutors cannot look at what a better outcome should have been in making a determination. Often times, when citizens engage in these incidents it won’t end perfectly. That doesn’t make it criminal.

The remedy is not to tell citizens not to defend themselves or charge them criminally because it was not a textbook takedown or maneuver to subdue someone. The answer is to restore police resources, empower them and get rid of bad urban policies like no bail and decriminalizing abhorrent behavior. Then people might be willing to rely on police to protect them in public spaces instead of doing it themselves.

Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of America’s Sheriff LLC, President of Rise Up Wisconsin INC, Board member of the Crime Research Center, author of the book Cop Under Fire: Beyond Hashtags of Race Crime and Politics for a Better America. To learn more visit www.americassheriff.com