Black NYT columnist John McWhorter says Jordan Neely ‘DID deserve restraint during subway rant’ but should not have been killed and says he’s sick of weekly ‘terrifying’ encounters with other disturbed individuals on network
- New York Times columnist John McWhorter has stated that he believes Jordan Neely ‘did deserve restraint’
- The controversial columnist accepts his opinion ‘may be unpopular’ but that he is fed up of feeling ‘terrified’ on the transit network
- Linguist argues that it was ‘worth noting’ that Mr Neely had a history of violence against women
New York Times columnist John McWhorter wrote that he believes Jordan Neely, who died on the F train last week after being placed in a chokehold by another passenger, ‘did deserve restraint’.
Neely, who was homeless, was placed in a chokehold by former Marine Daniel Penny, 24, after acting erratically and shouting at passengers that ‘I don’t have food, I don’t have a drink, I’m fed up. I don’t mind going to jail and getting life in prison. I’m ready to die.’
Other passengers helped to restrain him until he went limp. He was then taken to a hospital by paramedics where he was declared dead.
Neely, who was homeless, was placed in a chokehold by former Marine Daniel Penny
McWhorter acknowledges that his opinion ‘may be unpopular’ but that he is fed up with feeling ‘terrified’ on the transit network, especially when accompanied by his two young daughters.
His caveated opinion reflects how the incident has divided New Yorkers, with some, including Democrat congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, labelling it murder, Others have argued the restraint was necessary.
The conservative columnist and Columbia University linguist wrote that it was ‘worth noting’ that Mr Neely had a history of violence against women, racking up three arrests for assaulting women in the subway system.
McWhorter lamented that the subway has become overrun with the homeless and mentally ill, who he says need specialist help, but that it must be acknowledged that these ‘almost always male’ passengers are ‘most likely to be directly confrontational with women.’
In the year to March subway transit crime was down 8 percent from the same period last year, despite this New Yorkers have continued to express unease at their lack of safety on the network.
There were 10 murders on the subway last year, compared to around two a year in the five years preceding the pandemic.
McWhorter has also written a book entitled ‘Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America’
In other recent columns McWhorter has suggested that race is not always the central factor in news events that ignite racial tensions.
In April he wrote that gun violence, not racism, was at the root of the shooting of 16-year-old Ralph Yarl after he was mistaken as a trespasser in Kansas City.
‘The point is not that race doesn’t matter’ he wrote in The Times article, ‘the point is that we can overplay how much it does in assessing what ails America in a general sense.’
Instead, he argues, ‘the grisly prevalence of guns in this country and how readily people use them’ was the determining factor behind the violence.’
The columnist has criticized ‘today’s extremes of wokeness, confusing acting out for action’.
He has written in support of Governor Ron DeSantis’ objections to a new A.P course of African American studies and advocated for more nuanced thinking around discussions of race and police brutality.
McWhorter has also written a book entitled ‘Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America’, in which he argues that the rise of so-called ‘antiracism’ is really illiberal neoracism that is ‘hurting black communities’.
