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Public and Self-Defense or Manslaughter? The Daniel Penny Case.
Unless you’ve experienced an erratic, violent individual on a moving subway train or bus, you can’t possibly imagine the fear.
We still don’t know the outcome of the Daniel Penny case, currently under deliberation and deadlocked.
In case you didn’t hear about this story, Penny is a former Marine and college student in New York City who confronted an erratic, threatening mentally ill, subway rider, placing him in a chokehold. The rider, a 30 year old homeless man named Jordan Neely died.
New York controversially charged Penny with second-degree manslaughter. Early on, the case took a politically charged tone, with numerous national politicians shamelessly stepping in to virtue signal their support for Penny in order to boost their own political profiles.
The case comes down not to the legality of Penny’s right to confront Neely, but the legality of the length of time he held Neely in the chokehold, and whether or not that constitutes second-degree manslaughter.
And while the liberal side of me feels awful that a mentally ill homeless man lost his life, I also have trouble believing that criminal charges were ever appropriate for Penny. I base this feeling on my own personal experiences living in a major city and relying on public…
