From Bernhard Goetz to Daniel Perry; Does Black Life Matter?

By Jeffery Kazembe Batts
IG: @kazbatts

Following George Zinnermans killing of Trayvon Martin on February 26, 2012, Black Lives Matter began to take center stage as a slogan, an organization, and a justice movement. Under the slogan, some of the largest protests in the history of the United States have taken place as unnecessary, and racial killings of Black people have persisted, including Eric Gardner, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor Taylor, Freddie Gray, Ahmaud Arbery and almost countless more.

Many of these killings are by paid law enforcement officers, and some are by self-appointed vigilantes. With the videotaped killing of entertainer Jordon Neely on a NYC subway train and the subsequent acquittal of Daniel Perry, who choked him for minutes, African people must ponder the reality of whether “BLACK LIVES MATTERS” to most non-Black people in the United States. Black people, are we still up to the task of demanding an affirmative answer that reflects our humanity?

Almost forty years ago, 37-year-old Bernhardt Goetz shot teenagers Barry Allen, Troy Canty, Darrell Cabey, and James Ramseur on an NYC subway car. Goetz claimed he feared for his life because Troy Canty asked him for $5 and looked at him menacingly.

Troy Canty and his friends never touched Goetz who opened fire with an illegal 38-caliber revolver injuring all four young men. Known for making racist statements at community meetings according to his neighbor Myra Friedman before the shooting, Goetz fled the subway and the city and drove to the mostly white enclave of Bennington, Vermont before turning himself in nine days later in Concord, N.H.

Goetz spent a few days in custody and paid $50,000 to bail himself out. NYC was tense leading up to the trial. Protests were huge in the streets, and especially outside the Manhattan courthouse. Activists and a strong Black media kept the incident in the forefront of people’s consciousness until the trial date finally arrived. At trial, a jury of ten whites and two Black people acquitted Bernhard Goetz of attempted murder, assault, and reckless endangerment. He was only convicted of illegal gun possession.

According to the jury, he was justified in shooting the unarmed teenagers because he feared young Black men. Black lives do not matter if a white man claims he is in fear. Before the trial when police interviewed and videotaped him Goetz bragged “My intention was to murder them, to hurt them, to make them suffer as much as possible. “If I had more bullets, I would have shot them all again and again. My problem was I ran out of bullets.”

Two weeks ago, a trial jury in Manhattan, similar to the 2014 grand jury in Staten Island that decided not to indict Daniel Pantaleo in the choking death of Eric Gardner, ignored
the videotaped evidence and acquitted Daniel Perry for choking Jordon Neely to death. When two trained white men named Daniel with last names starting with ”P”, one an NYC police officer and the other a former marine, can commit undeniable aggression that leads to the deaths of two Black men who were very much alive before they were assaulted, then it seems that silent majorities are making it plain that BLACK LIVES don’t MATTER!

Jordon Neely, an accomplished dancer and Michael Jackson imitator was having a mental health crisis. He yelled loudly that he was hungry and didn’t care what happened. Like the Goetz victims, he did not touch anyone.

Unprovoked Daniel Perry crept up from behind him, put him in a chokehold, and pulled him to the subway floor. He then proceeded to choke him for minutes. Even after Jordon’s body went limp and some passengers begged him to release the chokehold. Mr. Neely died. The choker remained on the scene until the police arrived and was casually escorted to the NYPD 5th precinct. Inside the precinct, unhandcuffed, Perry described what he did. The cops listened to his story and released him in a few hours.

There were no Black men on the jury which consisted of many white people with two people who might be considered “people of color.” Daniel Perry was acquitted of criminally negligent homicide after the more serious charge of manslaughter was thrown out by the judge when the jury was deadlocked. “Haitians are eating cats & dogs” falsely claiming Vice-President-elect Vance invited Perry to celebrate alongside him and incoming President Trump at the Army-Navy college football game. At the time of Jordon Neely’s death anger was widespread throughout the Black community and other open-minded people.

Over time fake news convinced some that somehow Perry had the right to take unprovoked action and restrain a man just because he was yelling. By the time the trial took place the ferociousness and needed anger from the community seemed muted! Yes, there were protests outside the courthouse and presence in the courtroom by activists and organizations like the December 12th Movement, and the National Action Network, who have mobilized against anti-Black hatred for decades. It was not like forty years ago during Goetz, Eleanor Bumphurs, Michael Stewart or even ten years ago during the Trayvonn Martin, Eric Gardner, or more recently George Floyd.

Black people helped to elect a Black president and a Black vice president. Juneteenth, a national holiday that acknowledges slavery as a crime against Black humanity is more widely celebrated. Millions are preparing to celebrate Kwanzaa. But with George Zinnerman, Daniel Pantaleo, Bernhardt Goetz, Daniel Perry, and many more getting away with actions that directly lead to the loss of Black life, does Black Life really Matter in the United States? From the founding has it ever?