Organizations funded by liberal billionaires have provided significant funding to a communist-affiliated activist group promoting protests over the recent death of New York City homeless man Jordan Neely.
The Daily Caller reported that Neely died May 1 after being restrained by former Marine Daniel Penny on a New York City subway train. His death has sparked protests and calls for Penny to serve prison time.
One group involved in these protests is Voices of Community Activists and Leaders (VOCAL) New York, which has received significant funding from organizations backed by liberal billionaires such as George Soros and Mark Zuckerberg. VOCAL New York has been vocal in its condemnation of Neely’s death and has even referred to it as a “lynching,” The DC added.
At vigil for #JordanNeely, @BxOrganizer speaks about the complicity of politicians, media, & profit in the murder of Jordan. A capitalist & racist system that leaves people homeless, hungry, without healthcare, a fascist police force that condones lynching.#JusticeForJordanNeely pic.twitter.com/rdU2e3xRPr
— Justine Medina (@jnmedina8989) May 3, 2023
VOCAL New York received just over $982,000 in contributions from the Soros-chaired Open Society Foundations from 2017 to 2021. The funding included $100,000 specifically for Vocal New York’s Housing Justice for All project, which collaborated with the Communist Party USA’s New York Young Communist League to oppose evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, the outlet’s report continued.
The New York Young Communist League has promoted protests over Neely’s death. The group has called itself “an active partner of the Housing Justice for All coalition.” Housing Justice for All Campaign Coordinator CEA Weaver tweeted in 2017 that voters should “elect more communists.”
The Zuckerberg-funded FWD.us Education Fund donated $100,000 to VOCAL New York in 2019. Additionally, the environmental organization Windward Fund, managed by Arabella Advisors, granted the organization $15,000 in 2020 for “environmental programs.”
The outlet adds:
VOCAL New York Housing Campaigns Director Adolfo Abreu said during the protest that leaders like New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York Mayor Eric Adams were complicit in Neely’s fate, arguing that around $62 million in police overtime pay and funding for a newly approved roughly $455 million state loan for the Belmont horse racing facility could have been devoted to housing homeless people like Neely. VOCAL New York Homeless Union leader Milton Perez criticized rhetoric “blaming homeless people or people with mental health [disorders] for everything,” according to the New York-based outlet City Limits.
“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,” VOCAL New York Organizing Director Jawanza Williams said of Penny and Neely in a Friday interview with Spectrum News 1 New York.
Williams also shared a tweet posted by the Queens Democratic Socialists of America, drawing attention to a protest on behalf of Neely.
Another world is possible. We will heal through community, organizing our neighbors, and fighting back against a sick system that commodifies our basic human needs. We will not rest until housing is a human right.
Rest in Power Jordan Neely.#JordanNeely #JusticeForJordanNeely pic.twitter.com/q8jZkDeFaD
— Queens DSA 🌹🏳️🌈 (@QueensDSA) May 6, 2023
“We will heal through community, organizing our neighbors, and fighting back against a sick system that commodifies our basic human needs,” the tweet said. “We will not rest until housing is a human right. Rest in Power Jordan Neely.”
