On Friday, the judge in the subway chokehold case against Daniel Penny dismissed the manslaughter charge after the jurors failed to reach a consensus. Yesterday, the jury found Penny not guilty on the second and final charge of negligent homicide. Penny is now a free man.
Last spring, Penny — a former Marine — was riding the New York City subway when a 30-year-old homeless man, Jordan Neely, became extremely aggressive with passengers and began threatening to kill people. Penny stepped in and put Neely in a chokehold to subdue him — Neely was inadvertently killed.
A wave of sympathetic left-wing media outlets quickly targeted Penny, who is white, for killing Neely, a black man, attempting to draw parallels to the George Floyd case. Much of the press, including New York Magazine, extensively covered Neely’s subway dancing career. They highlighted Neely’s performances as a Michael Jackson impersonator while downplaying the fact that he was extremely mentally ill, reportedly hospitalized dozens of times for claiming to hear the voice of the devil and the deceased rapper Tupac.
Conservatives near-universally rejoiced at the not-guilty verdict. Journalist Chris Rufo declared that it signified the end of the “BLM era.” Commentator Ben Shapiro is among those who argued that the case should never have gone to trial, and Penny's innocence was evident from the outset.
Democrats also voiced support for the trial’s outcome, like NYC council member Robert Holden (D-Queens), who remarked that Daniel Penny “bravely stepped up to protect fellow New Yorkers during a moment of danger.”
Not all left-wingers felt the same way, however. Rev. Al Sharpton proclaimed that “Jordan Neely’s life was brutally taken away because of unnecessary vigilantism.” Sharpton, joined by other left-wingers like Medhi Hassan, viewed the incident as an example of systemic racism, where a white vigilante can murder black men without repercussion.
Protests broke out after the verdict was announced, including one violent clash outside the courthouse. While some on the left are calling for a racial reckoning in response to Penny's acquittal, one thing remains clear: no evidence has shown that Penny intended to kill Neely. In fact, he may have saved some of the lives of his fellow subway passengers from a menacing, mentally ill homeless man.
