Last year, after Mayor Eric Adams stepped up sweeps of homeless encampments in New York, Johnny Grima became one of the most visible homeless activists in the city. Grima was a resident of Anarchy Row, a holdout encampment on Ninth Street, off Tompkins Square Park, and he was a voluble and eloquent presence at many of the street demonstrations and protests that broke out in response to the sweeps. Grima, who is in his late thirties, describes himself as “second-generation” homeless. He spent much of the pandemic on the streets of New York. “I want apartments for all my homeless people!” he chanted over and over again during a sweep of Anarchy Row last April. He refused to leave his tent even as police officers collapsed it on top of him. A few months later, Grima succeeded in navigating the city’s notoriously labyrinthine and dysfunctional shelter system, and secured an apartment in a supportive-housing facility, where he has lived since.
On Monday, Grima and a friend, James Kings, happened to be riding on the same subway train in which Jordan Neely, a homeless man and street performer, was killed by an ex-marine named Daniel Penny. (Penny has not been charged with any crime and could not be reached for comment. His lawyers released a statement saying that Penny acted in self-defense and “never intended to harm Mr. Neely and could not have foreseen his untimely death.”) In a partial video of the incident that has been posted online, Grima can be heard and seen moments after Neely, pinned down by Penny and two other men, stopped moving. “Don’t put him on his back though, man. He might choke on his own spit,” Grima said. “Put him on his side.” Grima, who has described his own life at times as a “nightmare,” is distraught by what he witnessed on Monday. On Wednesday, he helped organize a vigil for Neely in the same subway station where he died. When I called Grima on Friday, he was getting in and out of subways, travelling around the city. His voice broke several times as he recounted what he’d seen. His account has been condensed and edited.
“Me and my friend James were on our way home—my home, a supportive-living apartment. We got on an uptown F at Second Avenue. We needed to change to the D at, preferably, Broadway-Lafayette. That’s the next station.
“At first, we didn’t notice that the train stopped, because we were deep in conversation. We were talking about something, not paying attention to where we were at. Then we heard an announcement—the conductor saying for N.Y.P.D. to come to one of the cars. I looked up at that point and noticed that we were at Broadway-Lafayette. I said, ‘Oh, we got to transfer anyway. Let’s get off and go check out what’s going on over there.’
“We were maybe four or five cars down. We went up to where it’s happening. There was a whole bunch of people crowding around the train car, some people filming. I had to squeeze through to take a look—a pretty intimidating scene. I looked. I didn’t know anybody at the time. I didn’t know anything about any of these people. I didn’t know that Jordan Neely was homeless. I didn’t know that Daniel Penny was an ex-marine.
“I saw Penny holding Neely by the neck, and another guy holding on to Neely, as if he was still resisting. Neely was staring off. But, honestly, at the moment, I didn’t know how long they had had him. The way they were holding him, it was as if they had just had the craziest fight or something. They’re holding on to him for dear life. Somebody was filming it, and this person finally said, ‘You gotta let him go.’ They finally let him go, and he just fell limp.
“There were maybe twenty-some people outside the train car. I was looking in the window, and I was, like, ‘Something is fucking wrong.’ Because I was looking at him, and he was staring off into space. His eyes were dead. He wasn’t not moving. But the thing is, these guys that choked him the fuck out were saying that he was still breathing, that he still had a pulse. They were acting in such a way that no one else could come next to him. I told them to put him on his side. I didn’t believe that he was dead. I’d never seen a dead body before. I didn’t want him choking on his own spit or vomit. I had my water bottle in my hand. I wanted to try to check him out. But I was intimidated by these people. I didn’t know anybody. I wasn’t not trying to get stabbed. I tried to move in. I poured a little water on his forehead. And Daniel Penny came over and told me to stop. He shuffled me off.
“Just as my train was arriving, the police showed up. I told them to do CPR on him. Then I left. But, like I said, I didn’t think he was dead, because they were saying he was breathing. It’s upsetting as fuck. It’s ruining my life right now. We got to bang out right now, bang out the truth. It’s shameful. There’s no getting around it. I won’t feel better until they fucking arrest this guy for murdering him. And I’m not about all that police shit and people going to prison. The only reason they’re letting him off is the race of the people involved. If that was a white woman he choked to death, he’d be in a cell right now. So what does that mean? That a Black man’s life is worth less than a white woman’s life. That’s what that means. That’s why I went to the police over this fucking shit. And I would never do that.
“This is a racist, disgusting attack on a beloved Black homeless street performer. And, even if he wasn’t a beloved street performer, we’d love him anyway. He didn’t deserve that. No one deserves that. They’re treating him like he’s less than everybody else—because he’s Black, and he’s homeless, and he had mental-health issues. I feel so fucking bad about what happened. Just this morning, I’d seen a homeless guy with mental-health issues in a corner of a train. I offered him a couple cigarettes. I told him, ‘Look, man, you got to be careful. A homeless guy just got murdered on the train.’ He said, ‘Yeah, I know.’ I told him, ‘People love you, man. Stay safe.’ I feel scared for homeless people who are out there right now. Because people are murdering them.” 
An Eyewitness to Jordan Neely’s Death
Source: News Flash Trending
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