Most Americans saw through the hypocrisy of New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s manslaughter case against Marine veteran Daniel Penny from the get-go. If not for the protests of far-left radicals, it’s unlikely that charges would have been filed at all.
The facts of the case were straightforward: In May 2023, Jordan Neely, 30, a deranged homeless man, high on K2—a synthetic form of marijuana—boarded a subway car and began threatening passengers. He issued death threats, hurled trash, and menaced several individuals directly.
Amidst the chaos, a strong, well-trained 24-year-old Marine who was seated among them acted swiftly to protect those around him. He subdued Neely by placing him in a chokehold. Unfortunately, Neely later died.
But for the fact that Penny is white and Neely was black, that would have been that.
The public was shocked two weeks later when Bragg’s office charged Penny with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. Following the incident, passengers had expressed gratitude for Penny’s decisive action in neutralizing what they perceived as a grave threat.
It was a case that never should have been brought and on Monday, a Manhattan jury voted to acquit Penny. For many Americans, the verdict symbolized a triumph of justice, restoring faith in the legal system.
The verdict serves as a clear indication that America has entered a post-2020 era. The unfounded hysteria over alleged systemic racism, amplified by legacy media following George Floyd’s death in May 2020, has run its course. And (some) sanity has returned to the national discourse.
On the political Left, however, Penny’s acquittal sparked outrage. Predictably, they managed to ignore the threat Neely had posed to other passengers on that fateful day, and focused solely on the color of Neely’s and Penny’s skin.
All of the usual suspects took to social media to echo this sentiment. Mehdi Hasan, a former MSNBC host, posted on BlueSky, “Imagine, just imagine, if Jordan Neely had been white and Daniel Penny was black. Imagine what some of the folks defending Penny today would be saying. Just imagine.”
With all due respect to Hasan, if Jordan Neely had been white and Daniel Penny was black, I imagine the case against Penny would never have seen the light of day. And I’m pretty sure Hasan knows that.
Next, NYC Council member for Queens, New York, Tiffany Cabán characterized the incident as a lynching. She wrote, “Everything that led up to and followed the lynching of Jordan Neely on a New York City subway train by Daniel Penny could have and should have been prevented.”
Next Cabán posted, “Jordan Neely deserved better than the violence of being denied access to stable housing and health care, and then dehumanized for it. Jordan Neely deserved better than the systems that allow for, and justify, extrajudicial white supremacist violence against Black people.”
Cabán actually makes some sense in the first sentence. The city’s government does share some responsibility for Neely’s predicament. Officials had Neely on their radar. At the time, Neely was reportedly on the city’s “Top 50” list—a designation by a task force monitoring individuals deemed of significant concern, as noted by The New York Times.
But she disappoints in the next sentence. Cabán wrongly blames the “systems that allow for, and justify, extrajudicial white supremacist violence against Black people” for Neely’s death.
In the following post, a Neely family member told a crowd outside the courthouse, “Today, white supremacy got another victory. Today, the KKK, the klansmen, the evil in America got another victory.”
He added, “Those among you who say that Daniel Penny is innocent have racism and bias in your heart.”
He doesn’t quite grasp that the accusations of white supremacy that worked so well in 2020 will no longer fly in 2024.
A family member of Jordan Neely goes off after the judge dismissing the manslaughter charge against Daniel Penny after a jury deadlock.
“Today, white supremacy got another victory. Today, the KKK, the klansmen, the evil in America got another victory.”
Bingo. pic.twitter.com/suA2ZKEnIm
— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) December 6, 2024
New York Black Lives Matter co-founder Hawk Newsome was even more incendiary. He told the crowd, “We need some Black vigilantes.”
“People want to jump up and choke us and kill us for being loud? How about we do the same when they attempt to oppress us?” he railed.
BLM leader Hawk Newsome calls for violence against white people following the acquittal of Daniel Perry.
“People want to jump up and choke us and kill us for being loud? How about we do the same when they attemp to oppress us”. pic.twitter.com/dSxWLUD81l
— American Debunk (@AmericanDebunk) December 10, 2024
Perhaps the most egregious reaction to the verdict came from Jordan Neely’s father, Andre Zachary. His indignation, following years of absence from his son’s life, rang hollow to many observers. Zachary, who was absent during Neely’s upbringing and struggles with homelessness, drug addiction, and mental illness, has now surfaced to file a lawsuit against Daniel Penny, seeking damages “in a sum which exceeds the jurisdictional limits of all lower courts.”
In a Tuesday op-ed, Pastor Corey Brooks, a Fox News contributor who is known as the “Rooftop Pastor,” expressed outrage over Zachary’s lawsuit. Brooks argued that Zachary’s neglect contributed significantly to Neely’s tragic life trajectory, stating, “Neely’s father played a role in his death.”
Brooks shed some light on Neely’s heartbreaking childhood. At 14, he endured the murder of his mother by her abusive boyfriend, who left her body in a suitcase along Henry Hudson Parkway. Neely was forced to testify in court, an experience that left deep scars. Orphaned and placed into foster care, Neely struggled with depression, schizophrenia, drug addiction, and homelessness in adulthood. His rap sheet included 42 arrests for offenses ranging from petty theft to assault.
Brooks directed his frustration at those who turned Neely’s death into a rallying cry for their agendas, including public figures like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Lt. Gov. Antonia Delgado, who prominently attended Neely’s funeral. Activist and MSNBC host Al Sharpton delivered a eulogy blaming systemic racism for Neely’s death.
In his op-ed, Brooks posed a pointed question to these figures and others expressing outrage over Neely’s fate: “Where were all of you when he was alive?”
Where indeed?
A previous version of this article appeared in the Washington Examiner.
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