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Daniel Penny, Subway Hero, Good Samaritan, and Former Marine: Semper Fi!
We all have blind spots about things we either like or dislike to an irrational level. One of mine is my exuberant, near-fanatical love of the Blue Angels, only partially sated by my newfound ability to go to their practice sessions every week and see the show over and over again!
But I have another lifetime blind spot and it involves my love of the United States Marine Corps— The Proud, The Few, The Marines! At the risk of offending the delicate little sensitivities of the woke snowflake liberals who hate men – especially the toxic variety, whatever that means – I have always regarded the Marines as the last real men in American society. Semper Fi!
Why go through this litany of my biases and prejudices in favor of two of the finest, most respected units of our military services? The reason is that in thinking about, and writing about, the very fine young ex-Marine who probably saved lives in that subway car in New York City, it is well nigh impossible for me to even pretend to be objective. After reviewing a large number of “news” accounts—apologies for the quotes but it is a recognition of the depths to which the journalism “profession” has fallen— of what we know of the incident thus far and initially planning to write a piece synthesizing all the accounts, I decided to take an approach one only finds rarely in the mainstream media. I will try to do something here quite radical for our times, maybe unthinkable: I view this from the standpoint of the former Marine who honorably served his country, Daniel Penny, and the lives he very probably saved on May 1 in that subway car.
Jordan Neely! Maybe the next George Floyd!
Millions of words have been written about this mentally disturbed, clearly dangerous (four felony assault arrests and one guilty plea to an assault charge resulting in one year in prison) menace to society and about his performances in Times Square as a Michael Jackson impersonator; about his relatives demanding that Mr. Penny be sent to prison for life for “murder”; about lunatics like AOC accusing him of “murder”; about NYC Mayor Adams shamelessly inflaming an already incendiary situation by pronouncing “one of our own has been taken from us” (what would Martin Luther King, Jr. think of that kind of racist statement?); about out-of-control fools blocking trains by standing on the tracks, etc., etc., etc.
What have you heard about Daniel Penny? If you get your news from the mainstream media (and if you do, what is wrong with you?) you know he was in the Marines, he was 24 and he “murdered” Jordan Neely. No doubt about it! Period. Full stop.
As reported on the morning of May 12 by about one million outlets, he has been charged by one of George Soros’ most rabid acolytes, Alvin Bragg, of second-degree manslaughter after what was surely a fair and exhaustive investigation lasting several days and having absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the fast approaching “riot season” (what we used to call “summer”).
Introducing Daniel Penny, Sgt., USMC, Two Deployments, College Student in NYC
My aim here is to introduce Daniel Penny, the person, not the “murderer,” based on information discoverable online from a few conservative outlets. He served his country as a rifleman for four years in the Corps, 2017-2021, reaching the rank of Sergeant. He was based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. It is not clear what training he had in the application of chokeholds, if any, as he was forced to do to protect himself and others from what he perceived, in the few seconds he had to react, to be a potentially dangerous situation posed by the ranting and raving of Neely.
He served as an infantry squad leader and instructor in water survival. He was regarded as a “pillar of the community” and was one week shy of graduation from college at the time of the incident.
Here are highlights from the statement released by his attorneys prior to his arrest:
“When Mr. Penny, a decorated Marine veteran, stepped in to protect himself and his fellow New Yorkers, his well-being was not assured,” lawyers Steven Raiser and Thomas Kenniff said in a statement.
“He risked his own life and safety, for the good of his fellow passengers. The unfortunate result was the unintended and unforeseen death of Mr. Neely.”
Rush to Judgment by a George Soros Lackey?
Of course, it is. I was never a criminal prosecutor, but here are the opinions of two who spent many years in New York City:
It had been widely expected that Bragg would present the case to a grand jury for an indictment, rather than file a felony complaint, in order to sidestep a potential political minefield.
“It is stunning that they would make an arrest before presenting this to a grand jury,” defense attorney and former Manhattan prosecutor Mark Bederow said Thursday following news of the charges. “Bragg made a political call: he now owns this.”
Michael Discioarro, also a defense attorney and a former Bronx prosecutor, said the decision to charge Penny on a complaint “quiets the critics — for now.”
And the brilliant writer and author Steven Hayward of Powerline had this to say:
The following question ought to be put publicly: If the person who died as the result of Daniel Penny’s brave act of self-defense had been white or Asian, would Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg have indicted Penny? Everyone knows the answer to this.
Was Daniel Penny’s Conduct Justified?
Short answer, although rare in this riot-prone atmosphere: We don’t know and won’t know until all the facts, those increasingly rare commodities nowadays, are more fully revealed.
In an attempt to arrive at a reasoned, logical answer to this question, it is necessary to cut through the noise of the “prevailing narrative,” which has Penny already in prison for the rest of his life and relying on calmer pieces like that titled, appropriately, And What Would You Have Done? Starting with an account of a typically arrogant New York Times writer who possessed a remarkable store of knowledge of the incident for someone who was not there that afternoon, he notes that this author feels that while Neely was “acting erratic and hostile,” he was “not poised to attack anyone.” The villain in this entire scenario, according to the New York Times, aside from Penny, of course, is a “vicious campaign of demonization and hostility toward the homeless.”
… From that premise, he concludes that the prudent and decent course for passengers on Neely’s car was . . . to do nothing. In “an instance of discomfort and fear but in the absence of imminent danger,” we can “show restraint and forbearance.”
Rahnuma Tarannum, a 25-year-old data analyst who lives in Brooklyn, dissents. She told the Times that her feeling of vulnerability on the subway has led her to carry pepper spray when she travels. Quoted in a story about reactions to Neely’s death, Tarannum said, “Because police are not doing their job, that’s why the citizens of New York are taking the law into their own hands. Somebody has to do something.”
Though not responding to Bouie’s column, Tarannum was making two points that cut against his argument. First, she indicates that her apprehensions about traveling on the subway are based on experience and observation. She would, presumably, reject reassurances that things aren’t really that bad, that her concerns are the overwrought consequence of discourse about the homeless and subway violence that, instead of being serious, is “sensationalist, raving, [and] pornographic,” in the words of journalist John Ganz.
He then gets to the real issue and the heart of the problem faced by Penny and his fellow citizens in New York City and other crime-infested cities which defund the police and let mentally disturbed homeless persons run amok among the populace:
It’s crucial then, for homeless New Yorkers and New Yorkers in general to differentiate homeless people who pose a danger from ones who do not. Given the difficulty of making this assessment correctly, and the grave dangers that can result from getting it wrong, Bouie’s assurances—after the fact and removed from the scene—that Jordan Neely was “not poised to attack anyone” and therefore constituted no “imminent danger,” come off as epistemologically arrogant. In a world where homeless people on the subway who act erratic and hostile while screaming about how they are ready to die were always scrupulous about giving clear, ample warning before they commit a violent act, Bouie’s conclusions might deserve respect.
But the New York subway system has no tracks or stations in that world. It operates, rather, in a world where last year a homeless man named Martial Simon shoved a 40-year-old consultant, Michelle Go, off a Times Square subway platform into the path of an oncoming train, killing her instantly. There was no motive; the assailant and victim did not know each other. It would be hard to say, based on witness accounts, that Simon was poised to attack anyone or represented an imminent danger. One woman said that she had drawn away from Simon, fearful that he might push her. But apparently, she neither screamed nor called for the police. We can surmise that even if Simon’s demeanor struck some people on that subway platform as “off” or threatening, they responded as Bouie would have approved, with restraint and forbearance.
Any determination of the propriety of Penny’s actions will depend largely upon the testimony of his fellow riders at the time of the incident. One such eyewitness recently related how she “made sure that I said ‘Thank you’ to him.” She also related a vivid description of Neely’s rantings which put the lie to all the liberal speculation about how Neely was not really threatening anyone:
The subway rider said Neely, who had a history of mental illness, was threatening passengers after he hopped on an F train in Manhattan.
“He said, ‘I don’t care. I’ll take a bullet, I’ll go to jail’ because he would kill people on the train,” the woman said of Neely. “He said, ‘I would kill a motherf—er. I don’t care. I’ll take a bullet. I’ll go to jail.’”
The retiree said Penny did not initially engage with Neely during the wild rant until things got out of hand and he felt the urge to step in.
“This gentleman, Mr. Penny, did not stand up,” the rider said. “Did not engage with the gentleman. He said not a word. It was all Mr. Neely that was … threatening the passengers. If he did not get what he wants.”
I can only speak for myself, but if I am in a very small enclosed space like a subway car and a person not more than a few feet from me starts screaming things like “I would kill an [expletive],” I would feel very threatened and would welcome the presence of a young, strong, fast-thinking former Marine to put as quick a stop as possible to this clearly menacing danger to everyone in the car.
Jordan Neely Was a Walking Time Bomb Ignored by the NYC System.
The loss of any life is a tragedy and the way Neely lived much of his life before May 1 was also, in the true sense of the word, a very real human tragedy. Here are a few highlights from that sad journey:
- Arrested 42 times, many of which involved incidents on the subway.
- Four felony arrests for punching people in the face, two of which occurred on the subway, details below.
- Pleaded guilty to felony assault; spent one year in prison.
- Was on NYC’s “Top 50” list of Homeless Services people living on the street who were most in need of help.
- Regularly lashed out at strangers on the subway and on the street.
Here is a good summary of the details of his criminal history:
From January 2020 to August 2021, he was arrested for public lewdness after pulling down his pants and exposing himself to a female stranger, misdemeanor assault for hitting a woman in the face, and criminal contempt for violating a restraining order. All three cases were dismissed as part of his Feb. 9 plea deal.
In June 2019, Neely attacked Filemon Castillo Baltazar, 68, on the platform of the W. 4th St. Station in Greenwich Village, according to the court papers.
“Out of nowhere, he punched me in the face,” the victim told the New York Daily News. He said he’d seen Neely before looking for food in the trash bins.
One month prior, he hit a man so hard in the face that he broke his nose on the platform of the Broadway-Lafayette station – the same subway stop where he died four years later.
For both 2019 cases, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and was sentenced to six months in jail.
Outreach workers were so familiar with Neely that he was on the city’s “Top 50” list – an internal roster kept by the Department of Homeless Services of people living on the street who were most in need of help, the New York Post reported. He had cycled in and out of hospitals and jails for years.
The argument will be made that no one in that subway car, including Mr. Penny, knew any of this background so they should have been more “tolerant,” which I assume means they should have just sat there with garbage being thrown at them, hoping he wouldn’t kill them. That argument was persuasively countered, in my opinion, in the article cited above discussing the murder by a crazed vagrant of Ms. Go:
It is also true, however, that the people sharing that midtown subway platform with Martial Simon had no way of knowing that he had served two prison terms for robbing taxi drivers at gunpoint. Or that a drug possession case against him had been dismissed in 2019 due to his mental state. Or that he had been homeless for nearly 20 years before he killed Michelle Go. Or that he had been hospitalized at least 20 times. Or that he had told a psychiatrist in 2017 that it was “just a matter of time” before he pushed a woman onto some train tracks. Lacking such knowledge, the people on that subway platform were equally obligated to give Simon the benefit of the doubt.
***
“There is nothing [Jordan Neely] did” on that subway car “to deserve death,” Bouie declares. But denunciation is not the only risk of assessing and choosing incorrectly. Michelle Go did nothing on that subway platform to deserve death, either.
NYC: A Lawless Bedlam Run by a Lawless Government.
The sub-title of an excellent piece on the societal collapse which is New York City depicts in a few words what has happened to the city to which Mayor Guilani brought civil order: A city that permits the seriously mentally ill to roam free is begging for tragic outcomes. After discussing the famous 1984 case of Bernard Goetz, routinely characterized as a “vigilante” by the media, the author continues:
The breakdown of law and order, and the revolving door of progressive policies that put criminals, the insane, and the drug-addled back on the street, has cost New Yorkers their quiet confidence that they can go about their business in peace. Contra the chorus of scolding liberals online, many of whom turn out to be living in wealthy enclaves anyway, ordinary people are not content to be screamed at, threatened, spat on, and generally alarmed by often-criminal lunatics just one voice in their heads away from a stabbing spree. If the state refuses to maintain the law, and decent citizens have to accept fearing for their lives as the price of a commute, the steady flow of people and businesses away from states like New York aren’t the only consequence.
Jordan Neely never should have been in that subway car. He had more than 40 prior arrests and an active arrest warrant for felony assault. His death is not the fault of the brave young man who acted in his own defense and in the defense of everyone else around him, but on politicians and district attorneys who would rather chase plaudits from activist groups than maintain the most basic semblance of law and order. It is on those who give speeches about compassion but leave addicts and the insane on the streets to be a menace to themselves and others.
It is of course possible that Neely’s violent ravings could have resolved peacefully if everyone had sat there, terrified, trying to avoid eye contact until he wandered away. Or maybe not. A just society doesn’t ask law-abiding citizens to bet their lives on that dicey judgment call. And it makes sure that a man like Jordan Neely is in jail or in a facility that deals with his violent and insane behavior humanely.
Another article referred to Penny accurately- he was a good Samaritan:
Experts, though, say3 that the good Samaritan — and he is a good Samaritan — faces a “tough legal road” and will likely be arrested and charged with second-degree manslaughter or criminal negligent homicide.
What would we do without “experts”?
Neither of those charges carries a mandatory jail sentence. But still. When are we as a society going to return the benefit of the doubt to everyday Americans when they rightly fear for their safety and take action to defend themselves?
According to witnesses, Neely hadn’t physically attacked anyone when the good Samaritan took action to neutralize him. But who’s to say he wouldn’t have? Who’s to say that Neely, who had a history of violent behavior, wasn’t going to get physical? Who’s to say he wasn’t about to pull a knife or a gun, as other mentally ill assailants have done in similar situations5 on New York City subway cars?
Indeed, how much abuse are innocent subway passengers — or shoppers or diners or fans or moviegoers or pedestrians — required to take before putting a stop to it?
The same article contains a telling quote from a retired NYC Police Department Lieutenant about the failure of, or, more accurately, the total absence of, proper policing:
As Fox News reports3: “Retired NYPD Lt. John Macari blamed the tragedy on ineffective political leadership and a sense of growing lawlessness in New York City. ‘The kid who had the guy in the chokehold, he’s on the ground scared for his life. He’s not trained. He doesn’t know the consequence of what’s going to happen. Where are the police?’ said Macari.”
He, too, is right. Where are the cops on the New York City subways? And what is criminal justice for if not to protect the citizenry from the likes of Jordan Neely? And who are we to judge such a fluid and dangerous situation? And who is AOC to do so? And who is New York City’s Trump-obsessed soft-on-crime district attorney, Alvin Bragg, to do so?
27 Killed on NYC Subways Since 2020. Where Are Their Protests?
Here’s a tiny example of the dangers New Yorkers potentially face when doing what is so necessary for so many — the mere act of getting on the subway to get to work:
It’s good that New York’s progressive elected officials and transit advocates are outraged by Jordan Neely’s killing on a Manhattan subway train Monday.
Neely’s life mattered — and so did the lives of the 27 other people violently killed on the subway since March 2020.
Where was the progressive outrage then?
It might have prevented the latest death.
Where were AOC and Caban when homeless soccer player Akeem Loney, 32, was murdered by a stranger as he slept on the subway, in November 2021?
Where were they when Claudine Roberts, 44, also sleeping on the subway, was fatally knifed by a stranger earlier that year?
Oh, yes — Caban, even as four people were killed within a month last fall on the subway, including a union steamfitter and a Citi Field worker separately on their way home from work, was dismissing concerns about subway violence, calling it “a one-in-a-million event.”
In some recent cases, perpetrators have claimed self-defense, perhaps spuriously.
Just in April, an attacker killed 18-year-old Isaiah Collazo aboard a Brooklyn train after Collazo’s friend pulled the emergency brake, sparking a dispute; the attacker’s Legal Aid lawyer claims the dispute escalated to the point where he had to defend himself.
Similarly, last fall, the man who allegedly pushed Heriberto Quintana to his death under a Jackson Heights train claimed the move, during a fight, was “defensive.”
I searched for photos of crowds with Soros-funded signs reading “Justice for Heriberto Quintana” rioting outside the offices of DA Alvin Bragg. No luck. Same for signs pleading for “Justice for Claudine Roberts.” No luck.
Is Jordan Neely Becoming George Floyd 2.0?
The answer seems crystal clear to me, and this author agrees:
… With Neely being anointed as the new George Floyd, the questions of whether Penny was right to restrain Neely or if he used inappropriate force to do so are merely sidebars to a broader narrative about American racism.
Floyd’s death became a metaphor for a myth about systemic police racism. Floyd’s actions the night of his death, his criminal record, and the fact that his body was full of what might have been a lethal dose of fentanyl were dismissed as irrelevant. The only thing that mattered was that he was a black man and that the cop who had, in an act of undoubted callous brutality, snuffed out his life was white. In the name of a belief, however mistaken, that Floyd’s death was just one of countless incidents in which blacks were being slaughtered with impunity, millions took to the streets in “mostly peaceful” riots that shook the nation.
More than that, it set off a moral panic in virtually every sector of American life that elevated the woke catechism of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) to a new secular religion — since accepted by the Biden administration as mandatory for every government agency and department — that treats color-blind policies and even the goal of equal opportunity as forms of racism that must be eradicated.
Here are a few indicators of the coming “Summer of Love” riots; look closely and you will see that the kind donor of what must have been massive printing costs was “New York City Party for Socialism and Liberation” (Twitter handle @nycpsl in the event you want to sign up!) in the slight event you had any doubt as to where we are headed:
No Country For Brave Men
This is the title of what I consider to be the best yet on this whole sordid affair and it carries a most distressing question for our time in view of the signals being sent to would-be brave good Samaritans like Daniel Penny. The article was written by Peachy Keenan and published in The Federalist a few days after the incident. It can be found here.
What follows are a few selected passages designed to give the flavor of the entire essay, but I urge all to read it in its entirety as it puts the whole troubling issue of where American manhood (can I still say that?) in the clearest possible focus:
This is not the first time a courageous man minding his own business has put himself in danger to protect others. It’s happened many times, in fact. Toxic masculinity has saved more lives than penicillin.
But in this case, the erratic lunatic was black, the courageous restrainer was not just white but blond and handsome, and worst of all: the lunatic shuffled off this mortal coil when he arrived at the hospital.
Inevitably, the left’s muscle memory of how politically lucrative George Floyd’s 2020 death was for them kicked in. The Floyd Playbook could be run!
…Since literally the morning the first European settlers set foot in the new country, the ethos drilled into American men is to be strong, be brave, and be prepared to protect and defend your family, your homestead, and your fellow man. This is what men are for, after all. This is why God made them stronger than women. Those biceps are not just for deadlifting. Their main purpose is twofold: wielding a spear for the hunt, and wielding your fists or a sword for defense.
After relating how she is now urging her sons to become cowards and to simply either walk away or not get involved like most people do these days, she notes:
This week’s watershed event on the New York City F train illustrates the blackpilling utility of my new rules. “Son, you see that damsel in distress over there getting her teeth kicked out by that filthy homeless man? You just sit tight and get off at the next stop and tell the nearest social worker. It’s not your problem.”
“We are all cuckolds now,” she sums up.
Daniel Penny Was the Classic Example of What The American Man Once Stood For. His Charges Are a Disgrace to the Rule of Law.
If there is a scintilla of hope left for the American system of justice, Daniel Penny’s charges should be dismissed at the first preliminary hearing. Some astute observers have predicted this will happen as the charges are so ludicrous. Given the current reign of sheer madness surrounding this case specifically and the political scene in NYC and other Democrat-run cities generally, it is impossible for me to be so optimistic. I do know, however, that with signals like this one, the days of the heroic American man coming to the rescue of innocent bystanders, which is exactly what Mr. Penny did, will slowly but surely come to an end. Heroism out — pusallanimity in? Probably.
Like Mr. Penny’s fellow passenger in that subway car that day, I am praying for him and for his future. And I would say to Daniel Penny the one phrase which would mean the most to him, as it would to any Marine:
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I hope Mr. Pemmy goes free. He deserves a medal. Hey, notice how these signs are all made from the same source? This says organized protest (they even cite the org):
The story here ought to be that ordinary citizens of New York have the right to travel the subway untrammeled and unbothered by the mentally ill and the criminal. As a person with direct family experience of both sorts of botheration–in the same person–I know they can intermingle. That is sad, but makes the premise of this comment no less true. As does my contention that the failure is on the swamp, the blob, the state, when it comes to dealing rationally, usefully, or even heroically, with truly unfortunate folks like Jordan Neely. And with my stepson Sam.
Daniel Penny (and perhaps one or two others) appear to have done their best to facilitate a worthy outcome, so that the regular citizens of New York could go about their business without undue fear of bullying or interference from a person who was obviously threatening and out-of-round.
Unlike the author of the OP, I won’t cop to a lifetime blind spot about my love for the United States Marine Corps. After all, I regularly say–here and elsewhere–that I include the adjective “United States” in order to distinguish this particular branch of a foreign service from the real, original, British one, founded 1664. (Cue duck and cover–if you’re not chuckling with me here, you’re somehow missing the plot. Get over yourself, please.)
Because (as I’ve also said before here and elsewhere) I was brought up, first by my father (British Army, WWII), then by my husband (USMC Reserves, 1958-1965 or thereabouts), then by a few others, reservists, those still on active duty Stateside, and those who were combat veterans, to love and respect those who served in that capacity and in that Corps, however the chips fell.
And so I do.
Semper Fi.
And Oorah.
This travesty is the result of the idiotic turning of individuals into symbols: Neely became a symbol, the Black Man Oppressed and Killed by White Supremacy, instead of what he was, a mentally ill man with a history of violent behavior. Penny was also reduced to a symbol, White Oppressor, Killer of Poor Blacks, instead of what he is, a man who attempted to stop a violent, mentally ill man from hurting innocent subway riders.
I’ve always been appalled at videos that show acts of thuggery in public places with bystanders doing absolutely nothing to intervene. At least in New York, I can see why intervening is problematic.
With all those mindless robots standing there having been paid $50 by Soros or Zuckerberg for doing what they do best and what is about the only thing they know how to do — just stand there! The Summer of Love riots are ginning up, of that you can be sure.
Quit a piece of work Jim. Loved working with the the Marine Detachment on the carrier. They actually taught me how to shoot a .45. The XO of the Detachment in ’73, Jim Conway, later became the Commandant of the Marine Corps after doing such a great job in turning the Iraq war around in 2007. And he actually remembered me when I congratulated him by email on making Commandant. We had a brief meeting on some UCMJ stuff since the carrier CO let the Marines do their own disciplinary hearings. Of which there were very few.
I don’t understand the common practice of dismissing the misconduct of people as “mental illness.” I’m becoming more inclined to view this as making excuses, including among the supposed mental health professionals. I’m becoming increasingly convinced that the bulk of psychiatry and psychology is junk science.
What we have is a violent black criminal threatening people, and a white bystander killing him.
The sympathy for violent black criminals is bizarre to me. The same sympathy would be bizarre if directed toward violent white criminals, though I see far less of this.
I don’t know all of the facts of this particular case. Based on what little I’ve read and seen, it seems to me that in a functional society, the prosecutor would have declined to press charges in these circumstances.
I do think that the prosecution of white guys like Mr. Penny is a symptom of what I call Black Privilege. I think that this is real and widespread — the preferential treatment of black people, and corresponding mistreatment of white people, based on race.
The explanation, by the way, is obvious. Every non-white ethnic group in America organizes and lobbies to support it’s interest (and the Jews do, too, though they are white). In the dominant post-WWII ideology, on both the political right and left, the one group that must never do so is white people. It is a twisted ideology, I think, promoted by minority groups through vicious and slanderous accusations against anyone who gets out of line — and by their white “allies.”
So many professional grifters profiting from the racial unrest they stimulate. Old time grifters like Sharpton are left in the dust of time.
Your unfailing instinct, as–you appear to think–the only adult in the room, always to ascribe the thoughts of those who disagree with you to some sort of “bizarre” (your word x2) emotional response–in this case, “sympathy” so that you can dismiss them out-of-hand, is noted.
Those on this thread may respond as they see fit, but I say to you:
Don’t tell me how I feel or even what I think. “Sympathy” doesn’t even begin to cover it.
Dismissing others’ recognition of fact as nonsensical emotionalism to support your own narrow set of prejudices is a pretty cheap trick which diminishes the good that you might do, and obscures the fact that many here might agree with you more were you to stop such obvious rhetorical ploys.
Update: outpouring of support for this hero!
‘We’ve got your back’: Supporters flood crowdfunding effort for ex-Marine Daniel Penny, 24, including GOP 2024 hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy who has donated $10,000, as funds soar to $2M after ex-Marine was charged over Jordan Neely’s death
By ROHAN GUPTA
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12084699/Supporters-flood-crowd-funding-effort-Daniel-Penny-24-donations-soar-2million.html
Anyone have an idea why the foreground is out of focus? I’m not an expert on photographic composition, but are we supposed to focus on the building in the center background? Or is an attempt to obscure the organization behind the protest? If the later, it didn’t work. Or perhaps it does for the superficially curious.
I can only make out part of the org’s name. If you can make out the full name, would you please spell it out for me? (When you have a moment.)
From the post:
Thank you!
A man died. The video looks bad. I was once terrorised and in fear of my life on a New York subway. I managed to escape the situation I wouldn’t have wanted the perpetrators to die.
I don’t think it is outrageous that Mr Penney has been charged. Hopefully he will mount a successful defence. But life – no matter how miserable – is precious, and when it is taken, the taking should be justified.
Well, Sharpton and his friends stimulated plenty too. But as with the Dimocrat election cheating machine, the manufactured-racism industry is oiled up and supercharged now.
But that process doesn’t have to require the bankrupting and perhaps worse of someone acting in defense of himself and others.
Somewhere in the ’80s an elderly AZ state senator said that he was against abortion except in cases of incest or where a white woman is raped by a black man.
He was quickly- and rightly – told to STFU by pretty much everyone.
The idea that my people can do wrong to my people but your people can’t is racist no matter how you dress it up, no matter how much melanin is involved on either side of the equation.
The one thing that the prosecutor said that was right was that Neely didn’t deserve to die.
He didn’t deserve to die. But he died as a result of his actions and that is the risk anyone takes when they threaten other people.
You are a lone voice in a sea of voices taking the opposite view.
Maybe in this one case, the perp would have only continued to act threatening and announce various threats. Because of Penney intervening, there will never be a way of knowing if he saved people from being injured or worse or if he over reacted.
Of course his intervention was not his assigned job.
So consider: Vigilantism rises when law enforcement and its oversight people are not doing their jobs.
The public in our big cities have watched too many videos of little old ladies on their walkers being body slammed out into the street by black men built like NFL linebackers.
Other perps choose to body slam commuters into the paths of express subway trains.
White kids are beaten up, if they happen to be out and about while moving round on streets or playgrounds alone. The individual white kid will be badly beaten up by 3 to 6 much older black kids.
This way of life results in an entire city of normal people who are deeply afraid. It is also true that they are angry and resentful that the same streets and parks which Giuliani had made so much safer are no longer patrolled. So the criminal and mentally ill people have taken over.
This festering resentment and anger now results in people quite glad to see Penney as a defender. To their way of thinking, someone finally stepped up to stop what might have been another scene of carnage.
If the current mayor of NYC, as well as his predecessor, had been doing his job, none of the key elements in this awful scenario would be coming about.
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I understand all that and I did express the hope that Mr Penney will be acquitted. I just think that if you are a Christian/ conservative who believes that every life has value, the violent taking of that life has to be tested and justified. Hopefully the other passengers in the carriage will help this case pass that test.
My statements were not meant as a criticism of your stance but more of a way to express how frustrating life in big cities has become. Giuliani showed us NYC does not have to be Gotham. But his lesson has been obliterated by the liberals.
Having been a lone voice quite often, I am always appreciate of finding someone else unafraid to go against the presumed current of Truth.
Well, not the only adult in the room. There ain’t many, though.
Based on your response, I take it that you do feel something quite a bit more than sympathy for violent black criminals. Why?
I do think that your view is common, which I find strange. Maybe it has to do with the feminization of society. There can be a tendency in a mother to see her own child as an innocent victim, even if the child is misbehaving, and to be quite vehement in the protection of that child. The sort of sympathy that I see for violent criminals seems to arise from this type of thinking.
Intervention is everyone’s assigned job.
I was definitely chuckling with you and send kudos for such a witty statement! And, I would be remiss if I did not express my deep appreciation to your family for its service–Semper Fi and Oorah, indeed!
With respect, I strongly disagree with this statement. It is most emphatically not, and should not ever be, the role of a private citizen to put himself or herself in harm’s way to stop a crazed lunatic like the one in this scenario from actually doing what he said he was thinking about doing—“I would kill a motherf…er”. This is what you and I and all other law abiding citizens pay through the nose in taxes (as our name is not Biden) for in funding law enforcement agencies such as the New York Police Department. As the post quotes a retired NYPD Lt. as saying–“Where were the police?” It is the duty of those we pay in law enforcement to, not to get snide about it, to enforce the law, not private citizens who according to the liberal argument of “tolerance” are just supposed to sit there and pray they do not get shot, or cut, while having garbage thrown on them like creatures in a zoo. As the lady was quoted in the post, they were lucky to have Mr. Penny there and judging by the outpouring of support for him, it seems that she is not the only one thanking him and praying for him.
Indeed we do pay for it. But it isn’t always delivered in a timely manner. Or at all.
When a person is in a tin tube, either in the sky or underground, our government is largely unavailable and our fellow citizens have no possibility of escape.
We are called to be Good Samaritans in a world where Indifferent Samaritans or Not-My-Job Samaritans are are all too common. We have laws that protect non-medical people who attempt to save the lives of others when there is nothing better available and it is probably time we extended the same courtesy to Penny.
Because New Yorkers are already World-Class Not Get Involved Samaritans, they need all the help they can get.
The Lives You Save May Include Your Own.
Both you and Jim George make valid points.
But judging from the consequences meted out to Penney, I assume that going forward, NYC residents will be far less interested in entering the fray.
(Plus did Penney get bail, or not?)
He’s probably the only one in NY who does have to post bail.
My husband served in the Navy for a long time. When he got out, he went to work for a company that had him working with Marines on a Navy base. Then Iraq invaded Kuwait. My husband came home from work a few days later and told me that those Marines were heading off to Saudi Arabia–in two days–and he was going with them. (!!) I said, “Wait…you’re a civilian now! What if there is a war? You can’t have a gun!” He replied, “Oh, I have something waaay better: I have 50 Marines–with guns.” My fears were assuaged.