The white student who killed a black homeless man on the subway last year is either a killer or Good Samaritan, depending on who you ask. Finally, a jury will decide.
Facts matter, and this piece presents them. The rush to judgement by the 'woke' crowd was, and is, predictable. Penny is being pilloried not for what he did, but for who he is, as if race/color is the only thing that matters. No.
It's unlikely I'll be back. I remember leaving a similar site after Floyd's death. It wasn't the riots that were the reason, it was the sight of American white men kneeling before raging freaks. It seems to have gotten worse now. I feel sick.
Anyone acting like Neely ought to have their neck snapped. Anyone who says otherwise has never encountered this criminal insanity. I have zero compassion or tolerance for the criminally insane terrorizing our public spaces, nor for their delusional enablers.
I made this comment in the sister article about Penny and Neely. In sum, I wonder what conversation we would be having if both Neely and Penny were black, or both white. The telescope of identity using only an unchecked "race" lens is dangerous and threatens all of us, whatever race, color, religion, persuasion we are. Life is far more nuanced and complicated than black and white. Perhaps that is why either our Maker or evolution (whichever you choose to ascribe to, gave humans the ability to see a full spectrum of colors.
I read this primarily because Olivia wrote it. She seems like the youngest reporter on staff, but she has become my favorite, because her reporting is so clearly nonpartisan and she even manages to excise the linguistic and social heuristics she was steeped in. I disagree with comments that critique how she writes about skin color. It is clear that is part of the story and part of what Olivia is writing about: many people in the nation judge stories, peoples, events by skin color. The article presents all known relevant facts, is fair to Neely and Penny and allows the reader to think about the implications. This is what journalism should look and feel like. It is just so damn rare.
It is a good piece of writing, and it is thought provoking. But any one fact is just that, one fact. This case is not, and should not be based on one fact, race. Those who are calling for Penny's head because Neely was black are looking at only one fact. Would we be here is they had both been black or both been white? I don't know. Race is but one fact here, not necessarily the only fact. Rather than accusations and assumptions by those who were not there, I suggest we let the system do its job. It is highly unlikely that the jury will be all black or all white.
"The white student who killed a black homeless man ...." The sentence could also be written with out reference to color. Skin color and race do not appear to have any relevant factual bearing in this case and only matter to racists and those intent on keeping society divided along racial lines. Meanwhile the news about five Memphis police officers (each black) beating a man (black) who ultimately died as a direct result of the assault barely made the news because.......the assaulters and the victim are black. I hate ad hominem broadsides but this all reminds me of someone (white, male, liberal) I volunteer with who occasionally will tell an anecdote as part of our daily conversion. Often times he'll mention the race of a person (always black) and yet the race never has relevance. WTF?
In the lead-in: "depending on who you ask." -- This would typically be 'whom' since an action is performed upon the object of the predicate phrase (I think). But I've also heard that who and whom are becoming interchangeable. As grammar evolves too, could this be another changing of the tide?
Language does shift over time, and grammatical case losing favor to word order is one of the most noticeable changes when you compare High Latin with Vulgar Latin and its descendent Romance languages (something similar can be found in Ancient Greek as it progresses through Koine into the modern version): Word order was relatively unimportant in those ancient languages because the differences between the nominative, accusative, etc. were often apparent in spelling and pronunciation; over time, it became more common to recognize the difference between subject and object by where they fell in relation to each other. I’m not certain why this happened but I imagine, as their respective empires and cultural influence spread into foreign areas, it was simply easier to learn a SOV structure than a different variation for each case of every noun. The spread of literacy likely played a role, too, as meter and rhyme were less necessary for memory.
“Whom” has already largely disappeared from everyday English, to the point where correcting its misuse comes off as pedantic and applying it properly can be perceived as pretentious.
I was struck with a tweet I saw this past weekend of a liberal woman complaining how there was a dangerous situation and no man stepped forward to protect them. Many of the replies were pictures of Penny. I used to enjoy New York, but I avoid it now. The government there seems to want chaos and danger and punishes anyone who tries to help. I think New Yorkers are insane for putting up with it.
Less than real investigative reporting. Where are the interviews with the subway passengers present during the incident? What about the other two men involved in restraining Mr. Neely? Or the victims of his previous attacks? Or those previously involved in his release and abandonment by the “system?” Lazy and convenient to frame the story as a race issue. More challenging to understand the complicated web of fear/wariness/frustration/anger of the general public in the face of unrestrained and uncared for violently mentally ill. There is a limit the public can tolerate of the abuse of their compassion for mental illness. What should the populace be expected to endure in the name of tolerance? Unlimited threats and acts of violence? Why is the disorder and chaos of a psychotic person the measure of civilization?
The very gist of this article - that the Daniel Penney case is a Rorschach test - is absurd. It's not simply about "depending on who you ask." The salient facts of this case are not in doubt, and they show convincingly that this was self-defense. The both-sides-ism of this article is deeply disappointing.
The comments here give me hope for America to return to sanity. Academia has tragically indoctrinated way too many people into believing without skepticism claims of systemic racism, yet not one of them seems capable of pointing to a single policy in place that promotes whites over all other races.
I see the same strife and dishonesty when it comes to academics: blacks and whites are constantly compared to one another with the suggestion that the disparity is racist. Yet no one studies the best performing ethnicities or questions why females are significantly outperforming males in academics (which is not to take away from female success but rather to analyze the question of male failure). The dialogue only goes in one simple conflict-driven direction.
I live in Portland, Oregon. Enough said? Well let me go on anyway… mentally ill men and public transportation go together like mentally ill men and women’s shelter- you rarely encounter one without the other. And in both cases, the mentally ill are given the right to violate all social norms, to endanger, intimidate, and to do so without consequence. Well not everyone understands the new rules that govern our society. What Daniel Penny is up against is the liberal apparatus that wants to teach us- the normies- where we stand, how long we hold our breath, how much we take, and to whom we must now bow. Good luck, Dan, you’re gonna need it.
Ride the subways in New York long enough and you have your stories. I have plenty which I won’t bore you with. I will bore you with a story my daughter told me when she came home after her first solo trip on the subway in the summer of 2024. She was nervous, so on the platform she stood next to a pleasant looking family; a father his wife and their two toddlers. The dad was hovering over his kids to shield them from what could happen and what was happening. What was happening, was just typical MTA controlled chaos. What could happen, did happen. It came like a lightning bolt. The father could have been a black belt in Karate, a heavy weight boxer, a navy seal, it would not have mattered. A large man slid up to the father and broke his jaw with one huge unprovoked punch to the face. How did my daughter know it was a broken jaw? She heard the bones break and she saw the man crumble to the subway platform. OK, now my daughter has her subway story.
Perhaps the father should have been scanning a bigger circle so he would have had some warning of the approaching attack. This would have given him time to move his family out of harms way or block the punch or hit first in which case he might be on trial. A direct punch to the head can be lethal. The attacker in this case just hit and moved along and evaporated into the chaos on the NYC subway system to most likely attack someone else.
Daniel Penny was probably the person on the subway car who was least in danger from the violent behavior with which Jordan Neely was threatening the passengers on May 1st, 2023. After all Daniel Penny was a trained Marine with the rank of Sergeant. Mr. Penny could have retreated to a far corner of the subway car and prepared himself to fight off an attack. That would have been self-defense. He could have waited for Jordan Neely to attack someone and he could have even waited after that. Rather Daniel Penny acted in the defense of everyone on the subway car who was not a trained soldier. The case of the truly unfortunate and tragic death of Jordan Neely is not about self-defense it is about community defense.
Why would Daniel Penny take the initiative to subdue a man who was threatening the passengers with immediate real and dangerous physical harm. I would answer with a question which is; “how can people be surprised that Mr. Penny stepped in to protect his community of fellow riders?” From what I have learned from speaking with and reading the stories of Marines, Semper Fi is deeply and permanently ingrained in their souls. Semper Fi is not a slogan or a bumper sticker or a tee-shirt; it is a way of life for Marines. I would guess that in that time in the tunnel in the closed space of the subway car, Daniel Penny was acting like a Marine by not abandoning his fellow passengers to their fates, to dumb luck, to the hope that Jordan Neely would not smash someone in the side of the head so hard that they would suffer catastrophic injuries.
New York should have protected Jordan Neely from himself and the people of New York from Jordan Neely. New York failed on both accounts. It is unjust to make Daniel Penny pay for these failures.
Facts matter, and this piece presents them. The rush to judgement by the 'woke' crowd was, and is, predictable. Penny is being pilloried not for what he did, but for who he is, as if race/color is the only thing that matters. No.
six minutes?
how long was it for george floyd?
Glad to say goodbye to everyone. All the best!
It's unlikely I'll be back. I remember leaving a similar site after Floyd's death. It wasn't the riots that were the reason, it was the sight of American white men kneeling before raging freaks. It seems to have gotten worse now. I feel sick.
Goodbye and good riddance.
Anyone acting like Neely ought to have their neck snapped. Anyone who says otherwise has never encountered this criminal insanity. I have zero compassion or tolerance for the criminally insane terrorizing our public spaces, nor for their delusional enablers.
I made this comment in the sister article about Penny and Neely. In sum, I wonder what conversation we would be having if both Neely and Penny were black, or both white. The telescope of identity using only an unchecked "race" lens is dangerous and threatens all of us, whatever race, color, religion, persuasion we are. Life is far more nuanced and complicated than black and white. Perhaps that is why either our Maker or evolution (whichever you choose to ascribe to, gave humans the ability to see a full spectrum of colors.
I read this primarily because Olivia wrote it. She seems like the youngest reporter on staff, but she has become my favorite, because her reporting is so clearly nonpartisan and she even manages to excise the linguistic and social heuristics she was steeped in. I disagree with comments that critique how she writes about skin color. It is clear that is part of the story and part of what Olivia is writing about: many people in the nation judge stories, peoples, events by skin color. The article presents all known relevant facts, is fair to Neely and Penny and allows the reader to think about the implications. This is what journalism should look and feel like. It is just so damn rare.
It is a good piece of writing, and it is thought provoking. But any one fact is just that, one fact. This case is not, and should not be based on one fact, race. Those who are calling for Penny's head because Neely was black are looking at only one fact. Would we be here is they had both been black or both been white? I don't know. Race is but one fact here, not necessarily the only fact. Rather than accusations and assumptions by those who were not there, I suggest we let the system do its job. It is highly unlikely that the jury will be all black or all white.
"The white student who killed a black homeless man ...." The sentence could also be written with out reference to color. Skin color and race do not appear to have any relevant factual bearing in this case and only matter to racists and those intent on keeping society divided along racial lines. Meanwhile the news about five Memphis police officers (each black) beating a man (black) who ultimately died as a direct result of the assault barely made the news because.......the assaulters and the victim are black. I hate ad hominem broadsides but this all reminds me of someone (white, male, liberal) I volunteer with who occasionally will tell an anecdote as part of our daily conversion. Often times he'll mention the race of a person (always black) and yet the race never has relevance. WTF?
In the lead-in: "depending on who you ask." -- This would typically be 'whom' since an action is performed upon the object of the predicate phrase (I think). But I've also heard that who and whom are becoming interchangeable. As grammar evolves too, could this be another changing of the tide?
No, I do not house any cats.
You’re probably right.
Language does shift over time, and grammatical case losing favor to word order is one of the most noticeable changes when you compare High Latin with Vulgar Latin and its descendent Romance languages (something similar can be found in Ancient Greek as it progresses through Koine into the modern version): Word order was relatively unimportant in those ancient languages because the differences between the nominative, accusative, etc. were often apparent in spelling and pronunciation; over time, it became more common to recognize the difference between subject and object by where they fell in relation to each other. I’m not certain why this happened but I imagine, as their respective empires and cultural influence spread into foreign areas, it was simply easier to learn a SOV structure than a different variation for each case of every noun. The spread of literacy likely played a role, too, as meter and rhyme were less necessary for memory.
“Whom” has already largely disappeared from everyday English, to the point where correcting its misuse comes off as pedantic and applying it properly can be perceived as pretentious.
Reminds me - people are terrified of using "me" and default to "I" with sometimes tortuous sounding results.
I was struck with a tweet I saw this past weekend of a liberal woman complaining how there was a dangerous situation and no man stepped forward to protect them. Many of the replies were pictures of Penny. I used to enjoy New York, but I avoid it now. The government there seems to want chaos and danger and punishes anyone who tries to help. I think New Yorkers are insane for putting up with it.
I have no confidence in our judicial system to do the right thing.
You mean the legal system that imprisoned Derek Chauvin and damn near got him killed, still might.
How could we have any confidence in our legal system.
Less than real investigative reporting. Where are the interviews with the subway passengers present during the incident? What about the other two men involved in restraining Mr. Neely? Or the victims of his previous attacks? Or those previously involved in his release and abandonment by the “system?” Lazy and convenient to frame the story as a race issue. More challenging to understand the complicated web of fear/wariness/frustration/anger of the general public in the face of unrestrained and uncared for violently mentally ill. There is a limit the public can tolerate of the abuse of their compassion for mental illness. What should the populace be expected to endure in the name of tolerance? Unlimited threats and acts of violence? Why is the disorder and chaos of a psychotic person the measure of civilization?
The very gist of this article - that the Daniel Penney case is a Rorschach test - is absurd. It's not simply about "depending on who you ask." The salient facts of this case are not in doubt, and they show convincingly that this was self-defense. The both-sides-ism of this article is deeply disappointing.
The comments here give me hope for America to return to sanity. Academia has tragically indoctrinated way too many people into believing without skepticism claims of systemic racism, yet not one of them seems capable of pointing to a single policy in place that promotes whites over all other races.
I see the same strife and dishonesty when it comes to academics: blacks and whites are constantly compared to one another with the suggestion that the disparity is racist. Yet no one studies the best performing ethnicities or questions why females are significantly outperforming males in academics (which is not to take away from female success but rather to analyze the question of male failure). The dialogue only goes in one simple conflict-driven direction.
I live in Portland, Oregon. Enough said? Well let me go on anyway… mentally ill men and public transportation go together like mentally ill men and women’s shelter- you rarely encounter one without the other. And in both cases, the mentally ill are given the right to violate all social norms, to endanger, intimidate, and to do so without consequence. Well not everyone understands the new rules that govern our society. What Daniel Penny is up against is the liberal apparatus that wants to teach us- the normies- where we stand, how long we hold our breath, how much we take, and to whom we must now bow. Good luck, Dan, you’re gonna need it.
It really helps that he’s extremely attractive. I mean that in the creepiest way possible.
Ride the subways in New York long enough and you have your stories. I have plenty which I won’t bore you with. I will bore you with a story my daughter told me when she came home after her first solo trip on the subway in the summer of 2024. She was nervous, so on the platform she stood next to a pleasant looking family; a father his wife and their two toddlers. The dad was hovering over his kids to shield them from what could happen and what was happening. What was happening, was just typical MTA controlled chaos. What could happen, did happen. It came like a lightning bolt. The father could have been a black belt in Karate, a heavy weight boxer, a navy seal, it would not have mattered. A large man slid up to the father and broke his jaw with one huge unprovoked punch to the face. How did my daughter know it was a broken jaw? She heard the bones break and she saw the man crumble to the subway platform. OK, now my daughter has her subway story.
Perhaps the father should have been scanning a bigger circle so he would have had some warning of the approaching attack. This would have given him time to move his family out of harms way or block the punch or hit first in which case he might be on trial. A direct punch to the head can be lethal. The attacker in this case just hit and moved along and evaporated into the chaos on the NYC subway system to most likely attack someone else.
Daniel Penny was probably the person on the subway car who was least in danger from the violent behavior with which Jordan Neely was threatening the passengers on May 1st, 2023. After all Daniel Penny was a trained Marine with the rank of Sergeant. Mr. Penny could have retreated to a far corner of the subway car and prepared himself to fight off an attack. That would have been self-defense. He could have waited for Jordan Neely to attack someone and he could have even waited after that. Rather Daniel Penny acted in the defense of everyone on the subway car who was not a trained soldier. The case of the truly unfortunate and tragic death of Jordan Neely is not about self-defense it is about community defense.
Why would Daniel Penny take the initiative to subdue a man who was threatening the passengers with immediate real and dangerous physical harm. I would answer with a question which is; “how can people be surprised that Mr. Penny stepped in to protect his community of fellow riders?” From what I have learned from speaking with and reading the stories of Marines, Semper Fi is deeply and permanently ingrained in their souls. Semper Fi is not a slogan or a bumper sticker or a tee-shirt; it is a way of life for Marines. I would guess that in that time in the tunnel in the closed space of the subway car, Daniel Penny was acting like a Marine by not abandoning his fellow passengers to their fates, to dumb luck, to the hope that Jordan Neely would not smash someone in the side of the head so hard that they would suffer catastrophic injuries.
New York should have protected Jordan Neely from himself and the people of New York from Jordan Neely. New York failed on both accounts. It is unjust to make Daniel Penny pay for these failures.
Well said.
Hear Hear.