I wanted to write a few words about the murder of Jordan Neely. Because of my martial arts background I think I’m uniquely qualified to write about it among the front pagers. Cole quote tweeted this:
— John Cole (@Johngcole) May 3, 2023
I recommend the whole thread that Cole is quote tweeting, but let me copy and paste below what I texted Cole with a couple of additions, which will be in italics:
I teach the lateral vascular restraint and its counter as an aikido instructor. I’m also the demonstration dummy when Saotome Sensei and my more senior colleagues teach it at seminars and in classes. This is because I have a 19 inch neck and because I know how to protect myself if it is applied. When I teach it, I teach specifically that you must not hold it for more than four seconds if it is applied correctly because after four seconds you risk killing the person you’re trying to subdue. This is because you’re basically making the body think it is having a stroke and if you apply it too long you actually cause one/the equivalent of one.
When I lived in Scotland and worked as a bouncer I’ve applied it in a real life situation where I was defending other people from someone who was drunk and violent. I honestly didn’t think I had it locked in properly and I’d never actually applied it before. It was just the fastest and simplest way to get control of the guy’s head. Before I clamped down on his carotid and jugular – hence the name of lateral vascular restraint – I told the guy to stop struggling and I’d release him. He didn’t, so I locked it in and I started to count out loud: “One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, four one thousand” while gently lowering him to the ground. At four one thousand I released the hold, he was out, I checked his pulse, put him in the recovery position, we called the constables and for an ambulance, and I said “FUCK ME!!! IT WORKED!!” The drunk guy I’d rendered unconscious was fine. He came to before the ambulance arrived and they took him off to sober up.
That the guy in New York held it for 15 minutes means he either didn’t have it applied right and wound up asphyxiating Neely or if he did have it clamped on the vessels on each side of the neck he was trying to kill him. Given that Neely is reported to have struggled, my guess it is the former. And that means Jordan Neely was slowly asphyxiated to death. Regardless, holding this for fifteen minutes is way beyond the pale.
Either way this is murder!
A few people here know I had a horrendous April. Fewer still know the grim details and those two helped me make it through, as did another close friend I’ve known most of my adult life, and one of the most special people I have been fortunate to also know almost my entire adult life. I was a raw exposed nerve and I was barely holding it together. I lost it at home a couple of times. The only thing at risk here was my temperpedic mattress, which I used as a pummeling target. But I was very close to completely losing it in public at least once.
Had that happened I could’ve very well been Jordan Neely! There but for the grace of a Deity or Deities or the Universe or what have you go I. And frankly there but for the patience and compassion of four or five very, very special people to whom I owe debts I can never repay go I!
No one should be at risk of being murdered by a poorly trained mixed martial arts wannabe or anyone else because they’re having a bad day or their worst day. If the guy who murdered Jordan Neely isn’t held accountable, and given the NYPD is conducting the investigation I’m not holding my breath, this will be moral insult added to the moral injury of Neely’s murder!
Open thread!
Adam L Silverman
I’m heading to bed.
MagdaInBlack
I’m sorry for what you’re going thru and I’m glad you have people who are there for you. ❤️
Adam L Silverman
@MagdaInBlack: Thank you, but that stuff was really to reinforce my point about Mr. Neely being murdered and why that shouldn’t have happened.
YY_Sima Qian
@Adam L Silverman: Sorry to hear about your struggles, makes us further appreciate the daily updates for the Ukraine war.
The Jordan Neely murder was utterly disgraceful for all involved, including the bystanders, & in some circles the murderer is being celebrated as a hero!
PS: You worked as a bouncer in Scotland?!! What?!
RedDirtGirl
I live in Brooklyn and hadn’t heard about it…
Adam L Silverman
@YY_Sima Qian: Yes. I did my first graduate, or as the say, post graduate degree at St. Andrews. I worked as one of the bouncers at the student union, which was one of the largest nightclub/entertainment venues in Scotland.
MagdaInBlack
@Adam L Silverman: I knew that. Never the less, I meant what I said.
Adam L Silverman
@MagdaInBlack: I appreciate it. I’m going to get cleaned up and rack out. Catch everyone on the flip.
The Moar You Know
Just watched the clip. The murderer was doing a great job of applying pressure to the victim’s jawbone. He had no fucking idea what he was doing.
Renie
I’m not agreeing with what the guy did to Neely but there is disagreement on how long the guy had him in a chokehold. Some say it was less than 5 minutes and the 15 minutes was how long it took EMT to get there. There was another guy holding Neely’s arms down while he struggled. At the point the marine grabbed him, he hadn’t done anything other than yelling and ranting; there was no imminent threat to anyone. The NYC Medical Examiner has already ruled it a homicide so hopefully they will arrest the marine.
brantl
If this asshole gets off, all bets are off.
Jeffro
Neely was murdered.
And I’m sorry but what in the hell with the bystanders? I get that they were probably incredibly scared (both of the initial outburst by Neely and then of stepping in to intervene with Neely’s assailant) but my god.
Greg
Of course Mr. Neely was quoting someone,.and I assume that performative Christians will praise the outcome.
https://foodforthepoor.org/prayer/matthew/#:~:text=For%20I%20was%20hungry%20and,’
Ryan
It seems if chokeholds are not allowed by cops, they shouldn’t be allowed by pedestrians.
Ryan
@brantl:
It’s stand your ground on crack.
YY_Sima Qian
Double post deleted.
Baud
@YY_Sima Qian:
How do you think he met Cole?
YY_Sima Qian
@Adam L Silverman: Ha! I had imagined a seedier establishment!
In any case, you must have stories from your previous life as a bouncer, even if at St. Andrews!
Oops: double post.
Adam L Silverman
@YY_Sima Qian: I do. But for another night.
Ksmiami
The murderer at a minimum should have his military pay and benefits withdrawn. I hate ppl who beat up on the homeless.
YY_Sima Qian
@Baud: Ah! Things are starting to make sense.
toine
Know that people, both known and unknown, empathize with whatever you are going through. The dark times come to an end. In a 1 year span my mother died, I got divorced, my best friend was diagnosed with kidney cancer, I was diagnosed with bladder cancer and my son tried to commit suicide. I would never had made it through without special people around me. The most important part is not forgetting that they are there. Peace and strength to you Adam! You have a community behind you!
toine
eclare
So, wait, has anyone been charged? What is going on with this case?
Adam L Silverman
@Baud: I’ve never met Cole in person. I’ve told the story here before, but very briefly as I do have to go rack out: I had been reading the site for a while, but didn’t comment. One night while deployed in Iraq and working off of Combat Outpost Cashe South after coming back on to post, getting chow, and getting cleaned up, I fired up my personal laptop, started texting with the woman I was seeing at the time, and brought up Balloon Juice. And there on the front page Cole had highlighted a story in the Wall Street Journal about one of the soldiers in our armor battalion – 1st Bn/35th Regiment Armor/Task Force Iron Knights. I arranged, at the request of my higher headquarters, to have the reporter come and embed with us in Iraq. He told them he wanted to do a story on the program, they wanted him with us as we were fully and successfully integrated into the brigade. And he was really interested because we were partnering with the Civil Affairs Teams (CAT-As). He gets to our forward operating base (FOB Hammer), we have a whole bunch of stuff – medops, vetops, humanitarian assistance ops, some interviews with local sheikhs and imams – laid on for him to go with us and the CAT-As. As soon as he finds out there’s a named offensive op, he dumps us and the CA bubbas and attaches himself to that effort. The Soldier he profiles was the guy who handled the contract money for his company. He would always wear a mask and a sterile uniform when working off the COP for safety. This reporter has him on the WSJ in a picture with no mask, a non-sterile uniform, full name, home town. I immediately throw my boots on, unplug the laptop, and go running across the COP from my quarters to the Tactical Ops Center (TOC) screaming for the XO and the First Sergeant as the BN commander and the Command Sergeant Major were forward on the op. I go bolting into the TOC, which is a secure facility with my unsecure personal laptop, screaming my head off, and they come running. And a dozen other people. After several attempts and gestures at Cole’s post I finally got them to understand that the reporter – Yochi Dreazan – had put this Soldier’s life at grave risk and we had to get someone on the horn and get him secured. At some point I emailed Cole, told him this story, and we’ve been in touch ever since. When the Syrian Civil War started I did a few guest posts. He offered me the keys to the front page and as I was still helping run COL Lang’s site at the time I turned him down. When he announced he was going to rehab I reached out and told him I’d front page to help make up the deficit.
And that’s how Cole and I connected. He, and Ballon Juice, helped me make sure a Soldier’s life was safe in Iraq because a WSJ reporter had put that Soldier’s life at risk.
Adam L Silverman
@toine: Thank you for the kind words.
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
Fucking vigilantes. I guess it was lucky he didn’t have a gun on him, or he might have sprayed down the whole car with bullets. I hope this asshole rots in jail.
Joshua Todd
I teach BJJ (brown belt) and concur, but I’d add this, every former marine and current or former cop, they don’t know how to turn down the dial. They get touched, they go and go hard. It takes forever to get them to learn how to relax and release (which actually helps them to operate better in unarmed combat) and too often they’re in kill or die mode WHEN THEY SHOULD NOT BE.
I’ve taken people down (not homeless, but usually some rando harassing women) on the street and on the subway, and I have never felt the need to put them to sleep, tho it’d be easy. Usually I hold them in back mount until the police arrive.
Cops should never use RNC (I barely trust them with firearms) and people who don’t know how to properly grapple (not Marine combat, but actual grappling) should not use RNC, ever.
Adam L Silverman
@Joshua Todd: Yep.
Joshua Todd
Just to add, if I’d been on that train, I would have made that chucklehead release the RNC… if he didn’t, i would have put one on him. And nearly every BJJ black and brown belt would have done the same.
Because we take what we do very seriously.
Joshua Todd
@Adam L Silverman: hah! I was also a bouncer during my years in grad school. For a grand $3.50 an hour, too.
Adam L Silverman
@Joshua Todd: Also, yep!
Adam L Silverman
@Joshua Todd: I think in my case it was like 12 pounds stirling, but it’s been a long time. Also, I had a fellowship. I was doing it more because it was usually fun work.
SomeRandomGuy
I hadn’t heard of the quoted story, but it brought to mind a chilling story I’d heard, that might be relevant.
An expert swimmer drowned, in a life-guarded swimming pool. How? Trying to swim too far, underwater. Holding your breath, and never, ever, breathing in, under water, is good: suck in water, and you’re not likely to be able to surface.
BUT YOUR LUNGS ONLY HOLD SO MUCH OXYGEN. Hold your breath too long, you *will* pass out. And if you’re unconscious, and underwater, you will die. Hence, the drowning death of the expert.
Trying to asphyxiate someone, with an arm around their neck, will kill them in a very similar fashion. And yes, if your body is sensing blood isn’t getting to the head, it *will* increase blood pressure, until something pops – that, itself, will use up oxygen. And… and…
And I’m not a believer in the Christian hell, or the Catholic purgatory, but god damn, if I heard the killer was forced to be strangled, thousands of times, in purgatory for 15 long minutes each time, feeling his head wanting to explode, and his eyeballs nearly popping out, and, oh, yes, bowels tend to evacuate in “short drop” hangings and other strangulation deaths, before feeling the blackness take over, until they really *got* how horrible their action was, well… I couldn’t say it was injustice. Which is a good summation of why I wouldn’t *want* to be God if I were offered the job.
Baud
@Adam L Silverman:
Sorry for the confusion. It must have been Anne Laurie you threw out of the Scottish bar. :-)
Andrya
The problem is not just wannabe vigilantes…
The police are a huge problem with the mentally ill. They are trained to demand instant compliance to orders, which a person with serious mental health issues may not be able to hear or understand, let alone comply with. There are a lot of unnecessary fatal shootings of mental ill people.
I have posted before on BJ that on Christmas 2014, an elderly (late 80s) relative with serious cognitive decline called the police of the city where I live and told them I was mentally ill and suicidal. (Neither was remotely true.) The police response was a raid at 1am- multiple police cars, flashing lights, police dogs, lots of noise, all the neighbors came out to watch. And the crowning irony was, once I had satisfied them that I had neither illegal drugs nor guns, they DID NOT GIVE ME THE PHONE NUMBER OF THE LOCAL SUICIDE PREVENTION HOTLINE!!!! Basically, they treated my (supposed) mental illness as a crime, but made no effort to actually help me not commit suicide.
There have been some efforts to insure that calls to 988 are followed up by medical technicians or social workers, not police, but much more needs to be done.
Adam, I’m so sorry that you’ve had such a hard time. Since I’m an unrepentant superstitious theist (yes, Carlo!) I’ll say a prayer for you.
MomSense
Adam I am so sorry to hear that you have been struggling. I hope that those April showers do bring May flowers for you. Sending my bet to you.
SomeRandomGuy
@Joshua Todd: Yeah – I never learned martial arts very well, because my body doesn’t work right. But I loved one ritual I heard: at brown belt, all students were forced to take an oath that they *would not fight* because they now knew enough to kill, but didn’t have the skill to *avoid* killing needlessly.
That’s the right kind of attitude. The idea that other people simply lose their right to life because other people are scared (or, more likely, pissed off) is unbelievably toxic, and yet, it’s what the Republican Party seems to want – presumably on the assumption that they’ll always be the ones doing the killing.
gene108
I hope the person who killed Mr. Neely gets charged. It’s the NYC subway. Someone preaching or having a mental health episode isn’t uncommon on the subway.
Passengers vigorously ignore the person or move away.
I have no idea why this 24 year old wanted to start something.
Nelle
Adam, you are a treasure to us here. Peace be upon your head. Thank you for all that you give.
Kay
@gene108:
This woman with an eight year old wasn’t afraid of him:
Ohio Mom
@Andrya: Half of all people killed by police have a mental disability of one kind or another: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/half-people-killed-police-suffer-mental-disability-report-n538371
I am glad you survived that raid.
Also sending good vibes to Adam.
Another Scott
I’m glad you were able to get help, Adam. Don’t try to carry the world on those broad shoulders of yours for too long – others are willing and able to help. Pace yourself.
Hang in there.
Cheers,
Scott.
Ohio Mom
@gene108:
@Kay:
I went googling for the identity of the killer — I wanted to see if he was a native New Yorker because didn’t his mother teach him how to politely ignore people like Mr. Neely? (Some of my earliest memories are of taking the subway with my mother and brother to visit my grandmother).
But he has not yet been identified.
Gin & Tonic
@gene108: Even Bernie Goetz was arrested and charged, and he was actually being robbed when he retaliated.
Jay
Adam, please take care of yourself. We need you. If you feel have to walk away from the front page for a while, please do it.
rm
I work in a mental hospital where we see behavior like Jordan Neely’s every day, and we don’t murder the patients. The training is extremely clear — you don’t touch a patient unless they are actively trying to harm/kill themselves or someone else. Throwing chairs, yelling, saying they’re going to commit violence — none of that requires restraint. When restraint gets used — very seldom — there’s a technique for holding arms that won’t endanger the person’s life. And it’s only for the moment it takes to stop a suicide or an assault.
This murder makes me sick and angry.
The crowd believes mental illness deserves death. That’s basically what’s happened here. He was in crisis, wasn’t attacking anyone, and needed help.
This gives me some very pessimistic thoughts, better left unsaid.
Ksmiami
Adam, please take care of yourself, pet dogs, enjoy the outdoors. Things will change.
Ksmiami
@rm: what kind of society are we? …
Omnes Omnibus
I’ll just copy and paste what I said about this on a different site: A civilized person doesn’t kill someone for being loud and weird in a subway car. I don’t see a justification for restraining the man, let alone killing him. But then I don’t live in fear every second of my life.
Also, what the fuck were people doing just watching and fucking videoing a man being slowly kill in front of them? I am almost as disgusted by them as I am the killer.
Ruckus
@gene108:
I take the Los Angeles Metro system a lot. This week’s total will be over 100 miles by the end of day Friday. That’s over 2 days. I doubt that any major city transit system is without it’s passenger mental health issues. Every time I ride I see people who obviously live on the street, yesterday there was a man with bare feet, a blanket and a jacket who looked like he hadn’t slept in a bed in a lot of years or even taken a shower in a very, very long time. He wasn’t the only person I saw who obviously lives on the street. I’d say the total runs about 10% of the total ridership. One of the things that I see that sort of surprises me is that the LAPD that on occasion ride the train do not harass the homeless unless they are absolutely causing problems. And that is sort of amazing to me because I once witnessed an unmarked cop car, with 5 huge cops in it stop opposite my business just south east of downtown LA get out and harass a black girl walking down the street. She wasn’t dressed at all like a hooker, which yes I have seen working street corners in LA, she was just a woman walking from one place to another. This was in Newton precinct, one of the LAPD precincts that was under federal investigation at one point in time.
BeautifulPlumage
Thank you, Adam, for giving your perspective on both the chokehold & the pressure of living with unrelieved stress. You have added context to this public murder.
Lumpy
This death is IMO a result of the bullshit “crime is out of control!” narrative that is being pushed by the media and the right. Crime is NOT out of control in NYC but it’s being used as leverage for political purposes. Even our idiot mayor Eric Adams (an ex-cop) pushed this narrative during his campaign (and now it’s coming back to bite him, as the BS narrative continues during his actual term, people are wondering “why isn’t the mayor doing more?”)
I don’t have the exact stats at hand, but a couple of years ago there were about 300 murders in NYC. Then last year, there were about 450 murders… a “50% increase !!!1!!” ZOMFG that sounds pretty horrible except crime in NYC is at historically low levels. In the peak years 70s-90s crime was MUCH higher. If I recall correctly in the early 80s there would routinely be 2000 murders per year. So yes, an increase of 150 murders is bad, every murder is bad. But it doesn’t affect the life or safety of anyone who actually lives here or is here visiting. The “crime epidemic” is a bunch of bullshit being pushed by garbage sources like the NY Post. Getting hammered about it over and over obviously puts people on edge, and leads to overreactions like this most recent vigilante murder on the subway. What bothers me the most is that nobody on the subway told the perpetrator to let go, be careful, etc.
Anybody who wants to check the statistics for themselves can easily find multiple sources on Google. NYC is probably the safest big city in America, and one of the safest big cities in the world
pieceofpeace
Damn, Adam, this was tough(?-inadequate word) to read, for several reasons. If April brought in misery, I somehow feel assured you’ll figure out the whats and hows to your satisfaction.
I join other commentors here with a heartfelt thumbs up for you.
Lumpy
When I said “So yes, an increase of 150 murders is bad, every murder is bad. But it doesn’t affect the life or safety of anyone who actually lives here or is here visiting.” I meant ‘statistically speaking’. Obviously the people who died were affected most horribly. But the odds of being murdered were infinitesimal before, and are only slightly less infinitesimal now.
N M
Adam, may you find some solace and comfort, my man, and your burdens easing. We all love ya here, even though we haven’t met in meatspace!
Lumpy
From the Washington Post story on their front page:
“The rate of violence in New York has come under fire from House Republicans in recent weeks after the indictment of former president Donald Trump in Manhattan. While figures for major crimes did rise in New York last year from 2021, the current level of crime in the city is more comparable to a decade ago, when New York was celebrated as the country’s safest big city, according to a fact check by the Associated Press.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/05/03/ny-subway-chokehold-passenger-dies/
Anybody who has bought into the narrative that “crime is out of control” has been duped.
Dirk Reinecke
South Africa is a violent country, with last year seeing an average of 74 murders per day in a population of 60 million.
If New York with its 15 or so million people only has a murder rate of 450 people a year that is incredibly safe.
New York has a quarter of the population of South Africa, but even quartering the murder rate in South Africa more people get murdered here in three days than in New York in a month.
And I don’t have a gun, and I don’t know how to fight. The media in the US must be frightening people beyond belief.
YY_Sima Qian
@Dirk Reinecke: It’s all relative. Compared Jo’burg, NYC is incredibly safe. Compared to any of the East Asian metropolises, it is incredibly unsafe.
Of course, the propaganda aims of the U.S. reactionaries is not to improve NYC’s public safety to that of Tokyo/Seoul/Shanghai/Taipei, but to frighten people to flee toward the reassuring “safety” of hard handed authority, & to Otherize the diverse/urban/cosmopolitan part of America as Un-American.
StringOnAStick
I’m hoping for better days for you Adam. Seeing this murder has to be especially wounding when you are someone trained to do exactly NOT what was done. I appreciate your work her deeply and never miss a post. I wish you peace.
AJ of the Mustard Search and Rescue Team
Thank you for this context and detail Adam.
Hope May is much better, for you and me both.
way2blue
@Jay:
Yes. I’m always up for learning more about the logistical role of trains in Ukraine from Carlos. ;-)
dimmsdale
thanks, Adam, for EVERYTHING you do here. Grateful for this post in particular, at the moment, because last week I passed this guy (or his twin, maybe there’s more than one of them) doing his Michael Jackson act by the Grand Central shuttle. Remember thinking at the time that he was way too skinny to pass for MJ as I power walked past him to catch my train.
I don’t know if NYC will EVER have a mayor who recognizes the homeless, mentally in crisis, and/or people on the poverty fringes as a part of his constituency, who NEED services as much as the ultra-rich (or the police/punishment bureaucracy) claim they do. I do know how it goes on the subway, though, all the incentives to sit and do nothing while something like this unfolds. I like to think, after all these years of reading BJ, that there’s a little bit of Adam Silverman in me, and I hope when I actually witness crap like this, that I find it.
Deep thanks and best wishes, Adam.
Betty
No matter who Jordan Neely was, his death was a needless tragedy and crime, but seeing the video of his act as a Michael Jackson impersonator makes it feel even worse.
Kristine
Thank you for this very educational post, Adam. I’m so sorry you’re having a rough time, and glad to hear you have good friends for support.
Paul in KY
Adam, best wishes to you. Would love to hear some of your stories from your time as a bouncer in a Scottish bar! I bet you have some doozies.
Another Scott
@Paul in KY: I wonder if he’ll tell the axe story again. (I just looked, but couldn’t find it.)
!!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Paul in KY
@Another Scott: I sure hope so, Scott!
Another Scott
Meanwhile, …
TheOnion.com – Eric Adams Killed By Vigilante After Acting Erratic As Mayor…
Cheers,
Scott.