You have someone [Penny] on that subway who was responding, doing what we should have done as a city.
— Eric Adams, Mayor of New York City
Millions of people in the United States are de facto deputies who can be asked at a moment’s notice to carry out what is considered the most important job in the nation, keeping Black people under physical control. The most recent case brought to public attention was that of Daniel Penny, a white man who put an emotionally disturbed Black man, Jordan Neely, in a chokehold on a New York City subway. Neely died after the assault and Penny was recently acquitted of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
What followed was a predictable and righteous reaction of outrage at the obvious racist injustice. Black people are riveted whenever white racist killers go on trial. Those persons may be police like Derek Chauvin, who killed George Floyd on camera. They may be vigilantes like the men who killed Ahmed Aubery. In those two cases there were guilty verdicts and prison time. Black people and anyone who cared about justice applauded the outcomes but what was missing was an explanation of the white supremacist nature of the United States and the inevitability of absolution in most of these cases, as there was for Penny.
Penny was called a “hero” by the public, pundits, and politicians. His defense fund now totals more than $3.3 million, with donations being made on a daily basis, even after he was acquitted of all charges. So exalted is his celebrity status that former president and now president-elect Donald Trump and his soon to be vice president, J.D. Vance invited Penny to be their guest at the Army-Navy football game.
What is missing from the discussion and media attention is honesty about the nature of law enforcement in this country. The United States is the world’s largest jailer, with two million people behind bars. No other country has as many people or as large a percentage of their population incarcerated. Some 37% of all those imprisoned are Black people, who make up only 14% of the entire population. This imbalance is quite purposeful and explains the love of violence and punishment that afflict the United States.
Any effort towards justice and compassion is immediately met with scorn and political attack. The slightest, most minor changes to policing and imprisonment are vehemently opposed, and anti-Black racism is the explanation for the draconian mindset that prevails in this country.
Even small efforts at reform are met with fierce opposition. In New York a very modest program to end cash bail for minor offenses was undone by democrats who control that state. Eric Adams was among those making the case for more people to end up in jail awaiting trial just because they didn’t have money.
Bail reform has succeeded by every measure, with crime rates down, and those who would have been held in jail not being rearrested. Facts don’t count when white people are whipped into a crime panic frenzy, just as Penny choking Neely’s neck was found not to be the cause of death.
New York is not alone in this regard. Around the country more progressive prosecutors are defeated in election campaigns. In California a proposition that would have done away with forced labor in prisons was defeated at the polls. Those same voters approved another proposition which elevated some minor crimes from the category of misdemeanors to felonies, reversing a proposition to decriminalize which they passed ten years earlier.
Eric Adams, New York City’s Black mayor routinely elevates the concerns of his white constituents. He read the room when he defended Penny as having done what the city should have done. His comment gave the appearance that he has no role in allocating funds for social services and can’t make the case for mental health care or housing. Of course he has the power to do these things, but Adams has made a career out of being the white people’s Black man and he knows when to repeat their favorite coded language in order to keep them happy.
The settler mentality is ever present, and subjugated groups present a danger in the minds of the modern day pioneers who are afraid of seemingly everything. From enslavement, to the chain gang, to mass incarceration, Black people are viewed as being inherently dangerous, which in the minds of many white people means they must be policed and punished at every opportunity. There are Black people willing to help their effort.
The infamous stop and frisk policies which were used so heavily by mayor Michael Bloomberg not only never ended, but have gotten worse during Eric Adams’ tenure. In 2013 a federal monitor found that NYPD stop and frisks violated the Fourth Amendment, protecting against unreasonable searches, and the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees equal protection under the law. After some years of decline now Adams has brought back the bad old days, with 59% of stops being carried out against Black people.
In 2020, there were a little more than 9,544 stops, according to the monitor. That number decreased by around 600 in 2021, the year before Adams took office.
In 2022, the number of reported stops rose to 15,102. The number of stops again rose in 2023, when nearly 17,000 stops were reported.
Eric Adams often gives the appearance of not being the sharpest knife in the drawer but he certainly knows how to win an election. Whipping up a crime panic is a sure path to political success. All the better if the person stoking the fear is himself a Black man who dilutes any action against racist policies.
Not only did Donald Trump invite Penny for a hang out, but he has also defended Eric Adams, who is now under federal indictment on bribery charges. Trump says that Adams has been “treated pretty unfairly” and adds that he would consider pardoning him if he is found guilty. Now Adams is hoping to get a ticket to Trump’s inauguration.
Such is the life of a Black man who plays his cards right. He wins the mayoralty by placating racist fears, uses the power of his office against Black people, and cozies up to a president-elect who honors a racist killer. If history gives us any indication, Adams may end up being mayor again.