A Penny for Your Thoughts
With great good fortune, in a city heavily and punitively dominated by liberal Democrat politics, a New York City jury declared Marine Corps veteran Daniel Penny to be innocent of two very serious charges leading to the death of a totally out of control Jordan Neely (i.e., second-degree manslaughter & criminally negligent homicide). Given the highly charged political environment and a case with White-Black racial overtones, the jury’s finding of innocent was surely a modern-day version of the “Miracle on 34th Street,” or wherever that NYC courthouse is located. Marine veteran Penny was found not guilty of serious charges that non-politically dictated common sense would conclude should never have been brought against him in the first place.
Just imagine how you would attempt to go on with your life with those two serious, potentially life-altering charges/indictments hanging over your head and your daily activities (i.e., college architectural student) for more than a year (May, 2023). Wondering all along if or when you would be free to go on with your life. Or would you be spending much of your 26-year-old+ life in prison for a crime that sensible people would know was a unintended result of your passenger-saving heroic efforts, faced with a progressively-dominated justice (injustice?) system. With likely behind-the-curtain influential powers determining your prosecution-dictated fate (i.e., possible maximum 15-years imprisonment).
Along with the many other assumedly non-confrontational riders in that NYC subway car that fateful 2023 day, Daniel Penny suddenly found himself witnessing the threatening outbursts from fellow passenger Jordan Neely, an assumed drug-addicted, mentally ill, wildly-gesticulating homeless man, later determined to have had 42 previous arrests (and jail time) for a litany of offences, and who then, on that subway car, on that day, had among other threats shouted that “I want to hurt people…someone is going to die today….I want to go (back) to prison.” At some point during the ride, faced with these verbal threats from an obviously deranged individual bent on possible serious harm to passengers, Daniel Penny took Neely down to the floor of the train car with a choke hold (learned during his Marine training), leaving himself (Penny) vulnerable as he applied the hold while lying on the floor on his back. Thankfully one or two other male passengers jumped in to assist with restraining Neely. At the next subway stop, police arrived while Neely was still breathing, but he apparently passed away not long after (cause of death declared by the Medical Examiner to have been asphyxiation). Following subsequent questioning by police, charges were filed, and Daniel Penny’s life was potentially changed forever. The NYC district attorney included the two very serious charges with hopes, it’s speculated, that Mr. Penny would be found guilty on at least one of them! How’s that for a level playing field system of fair-for-all justice! Thank heavens, literally, that Daniel Penny was convicted of neither charge.
And with it came his important and publicly-lasting transformation from death-causing ‘villain’ to citizen-protecting hero! From the damaging image in the minds of Americans of having caused the death of a severely disturbed Black man, who was threatening to do immanent harm to others, to a White Marine Corps veteran who, in an instant, put the safety of his fellow multi-race passengers well ahead of his own in order to subdue an out-of-control known criminal vagrant. But sadly, we must realize, wrote Thomas W. Smith, that “despite the acquittal, future potential Daniel Penny’s are now on notice that they risk a homicide indictment if they guard their fellows from harm. The best solution to America’s self-willed urban chaos is to throw out our current authority and start over from fundamental principles of law and order.”
Following a trail that many felt should never have been held, while interviewed later by Judge Jeanine Pirro on national television, after the jury’s thankful declaration of his innocence, Daniel Penny stated that “he would endure a million court appearances and the hatred and name-calling that comes with them if it would prevent harm to one person. The guilt I would have felt if someone did get hurt, if he (Jordan Neely) did do what he was threatening to do, I would never have been able to live with myself.”
Jordan Neely’s father has subsequently filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Daniel Penny, meaning that he is not yet completely out from under the yoke of the NYC legal system. The suit has been called by one news source as an act of “naked opportunism.” Meanwhile, the head of the New York chapter of Black Lives Matter stated that the acquittal means that “white supremacy got another victory!”
However now, in a completely opposite orbit, United States Congressman Eli Crane (R-Ariz) has indicated that he intends to introduce a Congressional resolution awarding Daniel Penny the Congressional Gold Medal, indicating that Penny’s actions “exemplify what is means to stand against the grain, to do the right thing in a world that rewards moral cowardice.” And Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as now invited Mr. Penny to relocate to Florida “to get his life back” following his well-deserved acquittal.
Daniel Penny, a courageous young citizen who chose to serve his country as a Marine, now, in addition, stands as a shining example of one who has placed the safety of others above his own, while traveling innocently with many other New Yorkers that day on an otherwise normal, assumed to be uneventful, subway ride. Daniel Penny has proven himself to be a selfless, heroic, service above self, great American. As William McGurn wrote in his recent Wall Street Journal column: “Fathers hope there will be a Daniel Penny on the train every time their daughters ride the subway.”
(Fact Sources: Breitbart.com, 12-10-24; Jewish World Review, 12-12-24; legalinsurrection.com, 12-9-24; dailysignal.com, 12-11-24; city-journal.org, 12-9-24; dailysignal.com, 12-11-24; frontpagemag.com, 12-10-24; The Wall Street Journal, 12-10-24; breitbart.com, 12-10-24.)