(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Voices of Community Activists and Leaders New York, the activist group promoting protests over the death of Jordan Neely, received massive amounts of funding from leftist billionaires via several puppet organizations, the Daily Caller reported.
Neely, a homeless New York City subway performer with a past history of violent assault, appeared to be suffering from a mental breakdown as he held hostage a group of straphangers on May 1. He died after retired Marine Daniel Penny attempted to use a chokehold to restrain him.
Far-left activist groups quickly pounced into action, demanding justice against the good Samaritan who had prevented harm from befalling innocent passengers.
VOCAL, which previously received large donations from both George Soros and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, organized a protest in the subway station and released a statement declaring that Neely was “lynched.”
Neely’s death was “a direct result of the sustained political, systemic abandonment of people experiencing homelessness & mental health complexities, fueled by press coverage that clearly influences policies & emboldens vigilantes,” it claimed.
STATEMENT: #JordanNeely's murder is "a direct result of the sustained political, systemic abandonment of people experiencing homelessness & mental health complexities, fueled by press coverage that clearly influences policies & emboldens vigilantes."
https://t.co/NqxTshulR3 pic.twitter.com/GwwWOpGsoO
— VOCAL-NY (@VOCALNewYork) May 3, 2023
The Open Society Foundation, chaired and largely funded by Soros, donated nearly $1 million over the course of four years.
Of that sum, nearly $100,000 was earmarked for VOCAL NY’s Housing Justice for All project. The group partnered with the Communist Party USA and the New York Young Communist League for the endeavor; all three groups advocated against evictions throughout the pandemic.
The FWD.us Education Fund, founded and bankrolled by Zuckerberg, donated another $100,000 to VOCAL NY in 2019.
The group also received $15,000 in 2020 from Democrat-linked Arabella Advisors for purported “environmental programs.”
VOCAL went after local government officials after Neely’s death, arguing that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and NYC Mayor Eric Adams, both Democrats, designated too much money to things like police overtime pay, when that money could have gone to house homeless people such as Neely.
Homeless Union Leader Milton Perez accused the officials of “blaming homeless people or people with mental health [disorders] for everything.”
Protestors also called for the Penny’s arrest and sentencing, despite the lack of evidence that he intentionally killed Neely.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez, D-N.Y., accused Penny of “murder,” drawing a surprise rebuke from Adams.
However, VOCAL’s New York organizing director, Jawanza Williams, suggested that arresting Penny was the bare-minimum and would hardly placate the newly mobilized activists, Spectrum News reported.
“Just arresting this person, though I think accountability is absolutely necessary, it will not solve the critical structural failings that lead to the 70,000+ people experiencing homelessness every single night in our city, and it will not have saved this person’s life,” she said.
