A Manhattan judge has set Daniel Penny’s trial date for Oct. 8, the next step in an unjust, Kafkaesque ordeal that should have never begun.
It’s a travesty that the charges of second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide against the 25-year-old Marine veteran weren’t dismissed (and that they were brought in the first place), a point made that much more obvious by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office declining to press charges last week, after Younece Obuad shot DaJuan Robinson in self-defense on the A train.
Penny was acting in defense, too — of himself and other riders — when he put Jordan Neely in a chokehold on a Manhattan F Train on May 1, 2023, after the 30-year-old homeless man had been ranting in an “insanely threatening” way to the point where other passengers were hiding and praying, according to court docs.
And last June, a month after Penny’s arrest, a grand jury refused to indict Jordan Williams for stabbing a man who attacked him on the J train.
These tragedies all have similar themes and outcomes, so why is Penny still in legal hell, at risk of a 19-year prison sentence, when Obuad and Williams both went free?
Because Penny’s story instantly went viral on social media, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg wanted to send a message with a high-profile case: Don’t get involved when someone is acting out in public, potentially putting you and others in danger — or else.
Bragg showed the same disdain for self-defense in 2022, charging bodega worker Jose Alba with second-degree murder after he stabbed a career criminal who attacked him over a bag of chips. (The DA relented, dropping the charges, only after a huge public outcry.)
Bragg not only won’t keep you safe, he doesn’t want you keeping yourself or others safe, either.
Trapped in a subway car with a menacing madman (as is growing all too common)? In Manhattan, your choice is to risk either 1) serious harm, or 2) hard prison time.
And Bragg’s fellow progressives won’t even make it easier for the authorities to get the dangerously mentally ill into mandatory treatment: The whole prog movement is devoted to protecting every threat to public order and a decent quality of life.
New Yorkers need to stop electing “public servants” who have nothing but contempt for the actual public.