MSNBC host Joy Reid claimed that Jordan Neely was a victim of vigilantism and questioned why bystanders did not intervene on his behalf on Thursday’s edition of “The ReidOut.”
Reid held a panel discussion with minister Rev. Al Sharpton and homeless rights activist Shams Dabaron in which they discussed the death of Neely on the New York City subway. Reid compared the death to the Bernhard Goetz case of 1984 and Eric Garner. Goetz shot four black men in the New York City subway, accusing them of trying to rob him, TIME reported. (RELATED: ‘Each Situation Is Different’: Eric Adams Says Let Police Determine ‘What Happened’ To Jordan Neely)
“The Bernhard Goetz case was ’84, and that’s vigilantism. And as you said, in the case of Eric Garner, supposedly in 2022, the Supreme Court of New York upheld the fact that police can’t do a chokehold,” Reid said. “How does this guy get to get away with doing a chokehold that police can’t even do?”
Reid also questioned why the passengers that didn’t assist Neely were not guilty of a crime and dismissed the notion that their safety was at risk.
“And what about the other people standing there watching him die? How is that not a crime?” Reid asked. “There was no one else on train, no one at risk,” she added.
Dabaron, an activist and advocate for the homeless, criticized the media for allegedly depicting Neely’s killer in a positive light by not releasing his name and highlighting his past as a Marine.
“There is something to be said about media who knows this individual’s name and has yet to release it. There’s something to be said about media who is depicting this person as an ex-marine, as if to say that he served the country, so it’s all right,” Dabaron said. “We’re going to protect his identity because somehow he’s a victim, when in reality, what he has done is illegal. So and I also want to center this, he’s an ex-marine, but he’s an ex-marine who is trained to kill.”