Jordan Neely's father played a role in his death. Don't ignore America's fatherhood crisis
I work with kids who are absentee fathers every day. I counsel them on how God has blessed them with children and how it is their sacred responsibility to be there and raise the child.
It's fair to say that New York City resident Jordan Neely was born unlucky. Neely was living on the streets when he died. As Fox News has reported, he "had with a lengthy criminal history and shouted death threats in a subway car before he was subdued and choked out."
When he was just 14 years old, Neely's mother was murdered by her abusive boyfriend. The murderer left her body in a suitcase on the side of New York City's Henry Hudson Parkway. Young Neely had to testify in court on his mother’s behalf. Imagine how that traumatizes the young mind. Then he was immediately placed into foster care as an orphan.
One is lucky to find love or human compassion within the foster care system and it is likely that Neely did not. Despite possessing enough talent to impersonate Michael Jackson on subway platforms throughout New York City, Neely struggled with homelessness, drug abuse, and mental health issues, including depression and schizophrenia. He was also arrested 42 times for petty larceny, jumping subway turnstiles, and three assaults on women.
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When he finally met his fate in a New York City subway car and Marine veteran Daniel Penny was charged with his death, New York City leaders from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., to Lt Gov. Antonia Delgado showed up at the funeral. Activist and MSNBC host Al Sharpton delivered the eulogy where he predictably blamed systemic racism for Neely’s death. At that time, I said, where were all of you when he was alive?
Then I recently learned that Jordan’s father, Andre Zachary, filed a lawsuit against Daniel Penny that "demands judgment awarding damages in a sum which exceeds the jurisdictional limits of all lower Courts which would otherwise have jurisdiction."
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Now, I was incensed. Where the heck was Zachary all these years? What did he do for his son who had to witness an abusive relationship? Where was he when his son was shipped off to the foster care system? Where was he all those years his son was in the system — did he visit even once? Where was he when his son got out? Where the heck was he when his son was dealing with his demons all by himself and drifting in and out of homelessness?
And now he shows up when his son is cold and buried? To be clear, he didn’t show up for Jordan. He showed up for himself. Andre Zachary was never a father in any meaningful way and does not deserve that precious title.
This angers me in ways that most people wouldn’t understand. I minister and work on the South Side of Chicago and I understand more than most how detrimental the absentee father has been to our community. I work with them every day. I counsel them on how God has blessed them with children and how it is their sacred responsibility to be there and raise the child. I provide these young men with pathways to opportunities. I’ve seen them leave paths of destruction to become forklift operators and construction workers. Some have even returned to college while working a full-time job.
These men are good men. They were lost but the possibility of redemption was within them and they simply needed a nudge in the right direction.
They are nothing like the lost soul that Andre Zachary still is. While I would never turn my back fully on any man, that man has never shown one ounce of fatherhood. I know there are those who will try to use race to excuse him because he is Black. But that is immoral. Almost every absentee father I deal with is Black. If I allowed that to be an excuse, then where would we be as a society?
That is why I stand here and hold Andre Zachary fully accountable for his actions. He played a role in his son’s death. That is what he needs to acknowledge if he wants to make it right with a far higher power than money: God. If he chooses this unholy pursuit of money, then we must make an example out of him.
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