News that a mentally ill man had been killed last week on a New York City subway and the conversation that followed almost immediately became a synecdoche for the wider social debate about rising crime, public disorder, racial divides, and attitudes towards the homeless population. But whether they realize it or not, those on opposite ends of that discussion seem to agree on a core point: It was, in some sense, the fault of "the system" that Jordan Neely was choked to death on the F train.
"Had he been in treatment, Jordan Neely's death in a subway car may have been prevented," wrote Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Stephen Eide in City Journal. The City Journal has devoted a great deal of energy to arguing that recent upticks in urban disorder suggest a need for a more punitive or carceral approach. On this account, if Neely hadn't been out and about—because he either was in jail or perhaps involuntarily in a mental health institution—he wouldn't have died.
