The Tragic Murder of Jordan Neely
A Stark Reminder of the Violence and Injustice Faced by the Unhoused Community
It was 6AM this morning when I woke up to several text messages about Jordan Neely.
“Bro, did you see this?” one text said.
Another read, “I can’t believe this young Black unhoused man was murdered on the subway train in NYC…"
Finally, the last message read, “What do we do to protect our unhoused neighbors from violent attacks…?”
I immediately opened Twitter, and there it was: a young Black man, known for his Michael Jackson impersonations and without an address, violently choked and murdered by an ex-Marine. The incident was caught on camera and shared on social media sparking protests and outrage.
Many emotions swirled around in my head as I read the information on Neely’s past, including his 42 arrests1 and lack of access to mental health resources. I had so many emotions reading the story because Jordan reminded me of the long list of cases where violent attacks against the unhoused have gone unnoticed due to decades of social hatred towards this population and a lack of mental health resources.
Violence towards this community is not just about social stigma, hostile architecture, and public sanitation. It has also been fueled by a long history of political and social rhetoric, public policy, and the stripping of access to mental health resources over decades.
In his 2015 article “Tent City, America,” Chris Herring revealed that one of the significant reasons why unhoused individuals do not have access to mental health resources is due to the second mass homelessness era during the Reagan administration, access to mental health support for those experiencing homelessness was cut. Herring notes,
“But few dispute that the contemporary era of chronic homelessness in America began with the Reagan Revolution of the 1980s. Dedicated to lowering tax rates and shrinking the size of government, and more broadly to deregulation and privatization, the administration of Ronald Reagan slashed federal subsidies for low-income housing and psychiatric health centers and deinstitutionalized thousands of mentally ill patients. The all too predictable consequence was a dramatic rise in the ranks of the homeless, and the return of encampments to the streets and open spaces of American cities.”2
I believe that being tired, hungry, and not having anywhere to go should never be an excuse to execute someone for not having access to resources and support.
Violence against the unhosed community has been going on for decades. According to Joern (2009), several instances of violence have resulted in the death of those unhoused and should be considered hate crimes. As Joren indicated,
“Between the years 1999 and 2006, the NCH documented 189 murders of homeless people and 425 incidents of non-lethal attacks on homeless people spanning 44 states. 10 Many of the attacks were gruesome and displayed a strong animosity towards the victim. These cases included such reprehensible acts as: killing a wheelchair-bound homeless man by setting him on fire in Spokane, Washington; beating a homeless man to death and then smearing feces on his face in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and killing a sleeping homeless woman by pushing her off a dock into the river below in Nashville, Tennessee.”3
However, since many people do not understand this country’s long history of hatred and social stigma towards the plight of homelessness, they do not know how this violent act toward this young man, who struggled with mental health challenges, has been fueled by years social constructions, criminalizing policies, and a racialized past.
These factors contributed to Jordan’s death and the many others attacked for not having anywhere to go.
Sociologist Teresa Gowan identified three prevailing narratives centered (that are socially constructed) on impoverished people: sin-talk, sick-talk, and system-talk.
In her book, Hobos, Hustlers, and Backsliders,4 she developed a chart that provides examples of how those narratives shape people’s views about how homelessness should be addressed or solved and why people believe the unhoused should be either punished or excluded.
"Sin-talk" deals with the idea that those who are poor have some type of moral failure or flaw and thus deserve punishment. This rhetoric derives from the Protestant reformer Martin Luther, who wrote that poverty was connected to sin or moral failure. Luther wrote at length about his disdain for the poor and unhoused, which may be connected to a large group of Christians who also hold a strong dislike for those who are impoverished.
"Sick-talk" is the idea that those who are poor must be poor because they are somehow unwell, which does not factor in the lack of resources to address health issues—mental and physical.
"System-talk" is grounded in the narrative that a system or structure has caused those who are poor to be poor. Gowan found that more people believe "sin-talk" rhetoric than the latter forms.
Gowan’s (2010) framework provides a helpful analysis of how poverty is constructed and reinforced through language and political/social rhetoric. These narratives have driven policies that criminalize people experiencing poverty and unhoused, thus provoking anger and violence against this population.
Gowan reminds us that the “sin-talk” narrative is the one that most people believe about those who are poor and unhoused, and the best way to address it is through punishment.
However, people forget that punishment towards a vulnerable population can be fueled by hate itself.
Sometimes, people forget how social stigma and public policy can impact:
How the unhoused are seen and treated by society.
How mistreatment based on social stigma can impact the self-worth of those experiencing homelessness.
The emotional toll that social injustice can have on the unhoused.
Whether social constructions influence behavior toward those, who are unhoused.
I wept because, for almost a decade, I have worked in an organization that has worked closely with the unhoused community and seen the violence, public mistreatment, and horrible perspectives about this community.
I wept because time and time again, I have had to write public apologies about the mistreatment that the unhoused community faces while also trying to wrestle through the most challenging moments of their life.
I wept because I remembered this abbreviated public apology I wrote years ago to the unhoused community during COVID-19 on the Love Beyond Walls blog:
Today, I want to apologize to you if you’re experiencing homelessness and have been judged, overlooked, walked by, and abused by the words of people who have never walked in your shoes.
I apologize that you feel alone and like no one has been there for you during a pandemic that has claimed the lives of thousands.
I apologize for ‘hostile architecture’ and exclusionary practices.
I apologize that shelters where you regularly seek assistance have had to be limited or shut down.
I apologize that we live in a society that looks down on you and deprives you of basic necessities like access to mental helath services and safe spaces to exist.
I apologize that you have had to endure social isolation in a magnified way.
I apologize for every single time you reached out and literally got nothing in return.
I apologize when people look at you on the side of the road, they lock their doors and ride by.
I apologize that you find yourself isolated, and are unable to trust the outside world.
I apologize that we have overlooked your traumas and judged you when you developed mental health challenges and used substances to cope with life.
I apologize that some of us haven’t displayed the same love towards you that we want from God.
I apologize that some people have shut the world out during this time, especially, leaving you behind.
I apologize that you sometimes have to sleep outside when there are abandoned buildings all around you that could help you—especially since so many hotels are completely vacant.
I apologize that because you don’t have four walls to your name, our government makes it all too difficult for you to cast your vote and hear your voice.
I apologize and want you to know that I love you, and many others like me out here love you.
I love you for being brave enough to weather your hardships sometimes with a smile and faith.
I am thinking about you today and want you to know my heart breaks for this plight.
I will continue to fight on your behalf and do all I can to help keep you safe.
Your friend,
Terence
If you want to explore homelessness in the U.S., please consider checking out the book “I See You: How Love Opens Our Eyes to Invisible People.”
Or, subscribe to the Love Beyond Walls Newsletter—visit the site and sign up.
Parascandola, R., Kvetenadze, T., Tracy, T., & McShane, L. (2023, May 4). Chokehold death of Jordan Neely ruled a homicide as outrage grows over caught-on video subway killing. New York Daily News. Retrieved May 4, 2023, from https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-chokehold-death-jordan-neely-michael-jackson-impersonator-subway-marine-20230503-qea6c2easfc63kutzl5ljsw6ie-story.html
Herring, C. (2015, December 1). Tent City, America. Places Journal. Retrieved May 4, 2023, from https://placesjournal.org/article/tent-city-america/?cn-reloaded=1
Raegan Joern, Mean Streets: Violence against the Homeless and the Makings of a Hate Crime, 6 Hastings Race & Poverty L.J. 305 (2009). Available at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_race_poverty_law_journal/vol6/iss2/4
Gowan, T. (2010). Hobos, hustlers, and backsliders: Homeless in San Francisco. University of Minnesota Press.
That apology... has me in tears man. The absurdity of that kind of vulnerable self giving love from someone in your position ...that’s Christ for me.