According to an article in The Washington Post today . . .
In the nearly two weeks since Daniel Penny was recorded killing Jordan Neely on a New York City subway with a minutes-long chokehold, the 24-year-old Marine Corps veteran has faced calls to be arrested, been denounced as a vigilante by activists and been labeled a “murderer” by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
But in the lead-up to the Manhattan district attorney’s office charging him with second-degree manslaughter, Penny has found a groundswell of financial and online support from high-profile Republicans such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Fox News personalities and conservatives on Elon Musk’s Twitter. Many of them have rallied around Penny and hailed the veteran as a “hero” and “good Samaritan.”
“We stand with Good Samaritans like Daniel Penny,” DeSantis tweeted Friday night. “Let’s show this Marine … America’s got his back.”
I won't go into the complexities of the case. However, one thing seems clear to me, which is that categorizing him a Good Samaritan is at best misguided and possible an attempt to muddy the waters. Certainly in the Bible (Luke 10:30–37) the Good Samaritan does not defend the victimized traveller from robbers by violence. He takes care of a helpless victim in the aftermath of violence. I note that in so-called Good Samaritan laws, the concept of Good Samaritan is in conformity with the parable. According to Wikipedia, "Good Samaritan laws offer legal protection to people who give reasonable assistance to those who are, or whom they believe to be injured, ill, in peril, or otherwise incapacitated. The protection is intended to reduce bystanders' hesitation to assist, for fear of being sued or prosecuted for unintentional injury or wrongful death." That definition, as I read it, cannot be stretched to apply to someone who steps up to protect strangers from a perceived threat.
I suspect the use of "Good Samaritan" in this instance by conservative politicians is more an effort to pander to the religious right than an honest approval of what Daniel Penny did. Politically, I am a lot closer to AOC than to Ron DeSantis, but nowhere near close enough to agree with her cry of murder.
Having ridden the subway for over fifty years now, there have been many times when I have been in situations in which I have felt threatened. But feeling threatened is not quite the same as actually being threatened.
It struck me that both Jordan Neely and Daniel Penny are victims of their own impulse control problems. Neely was frustrated and couldn't stop yelling, and throwing his jacket around. Unlike the other subway passengers who left the subway car or moved away, Penny couldn't stand watching Neely freak out, so he grabbed him and killed in the process of trying to shut him up.
ReplyDeleteBut instead of looking at this as the mental health issue I suspect it is, politicians have absorbed it as fodder for our national preoccupation with the right to use deadly force.
It is distressing that self-styled Christians are joining taking the side of politicians who support the rights of citizens to use deadly force when they are not directly threatened. The same story David cites noted that a right-wing "Christian" fundraising site has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Penny. They started their own site when they got kicked off Gofundme.com for trying to fund Kyle Rittenhouse.
I agree with David that this is neither Good Samaritan nor clear cut murder. I read the linked article, since I wasn't familiar with the details of the case. Maybe manslaughter is the correct charge under the circumstances?
ReplyDeleteAgree with Jean about the mental health issues. Too many people with poor impulse control.
Victims of the system, maybe both of them. People who go crazy or broke or both are discarded by this country, the United States of Darwinia.
ReplyDeleteI disagree that this is murder. When my Aunt Loretta, in her 80's at the time, was in line at the supermarket, some big fellow started wailing on her back. If I had been there, I might have seriously injured or killed him. Turned out he was a mentally disabled guy from the local Don Guanella School on an outing.
AOC has become another posturing politician. She voted for military aid for Ukraine without pressing for negotiations. So she supports killing. So maybe the crazy guy was Putin, the frightened passengers were Ukraine, and the ex-Marine was the USA coming to the rescue. I don't think so but I wish AOC would STFU sometimes.
I looked at the video of the event. Two guys were helping Penny but not doing much. Three guys could have sat on the crazy guy until the cops came. But three amateurs were on the scene and they screwed up.
While I appreciate David's analysis of the Good Samaritan aspect of this case, I see incidents like this as part of the media circus that serves us up the bizarre incidents of life for a thumbs up or thumbs down by politicians and media pundits.
ReplyDeleteI don't really want to contribute to the media circus by clicking on any articles about it, or use google search to enlighten myself further about it.
Interesting. I’ve been doing the same thing for quite a while, refusing to click on 95% of the stories involving trump, and DeSantis, and the latest culture war book bans, curricula revisions that mention forbidden subjects like the Holocaust and even slavery, which apparently have become matters of opinion rather than history. And of course, drag queens.
DeleteAmericans love novelty, the grift, violence, getting angry, demonizing foreigners, and blaming others for their problems. Our history is full of examples of it. I'd say the nation was founded on it--armed revolution, slavery, exploitation by capitalism, civil war, not to mention Jim Crow, lynching, "decency" laws, dog fighting, pentecostalism, Polish jokes, and quack medicine.
DeleteTo paraphrase my patron saint HL Mencken: No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
I am pretty sure I do not have very delicate sensibilities, but even I think things seem to be getting more awful. But I don't blame newspapers. They merely reflect what we are back to us. If it's a 24/7 geek show out there, I guess I'd like to know it.
" But I don't blame newspapers. They merely reflect what we are back to us."
DeleteYes. The reflecting of reality is both depressing and important. I guess we can also see that media *shapes* our perceptions of reality - or unreality. I'm thinking of Fox News and the stolen-election BS.
If there wasn't a market that wanted the BS they couldn't peddle it. I think the mainstream media, especially in the 24/7 news cycle with unlimited digital space, has begun to slide toward the OMG LOOKIT THIS!! stories. Listened to an interesting podcast last night about how the National Enquired got its dead Elvis photos.
DeleteDavid - THANK YOU for making that point about the parable of the Good Samaritan.
ReplyDeleteFwiw - I rode the subway / L train to school and then work every day in Chicago, not nearly as long as David rode NY's subways but for a number of years. It can be uncomfortable being "captive" to riders who come across as aggressive and dangerous. That happened once in a while. But I don't recall anyone taking matters into his own hands like Penny and those other two.
ReplyDeleteFear of urban crime is a big Republican political issue. Looked at purely politically, its track record seems mixed at best. It was a loser in Chicago's recent mayoral election. And it didn't deliver McCarthy a big House majority in 2022. Personally, I think fear of crime is genuine, but there are issues that outrank it.
ReplyDeleteThe Boy lives in an urban environment and deals with petty theft and vandalism. He says the one thing that cuts down on crime in his area are the retired guys who sit on their front porches all day and yell "what in hell you doin over there" or record stuff on their phones.
DeleteI've seen Facebook memes with pictures of old ladies looking through their curtains, with the caption, "surveillance system".
DeleteWhen Republicans say "fear of urban crime", they pretty much mean, "white people's fear of Black people committing crimes", although Donald Trump in 2016 also tapped into a reservoir of "white people's fear of Latino people committing crimes". The crime isn't completely fictional, and the fear is real enough, and I don't see how the racial aspect can be separated from it.
DeleteThese are guys who own very modest old homes near downtown. The don't peer thru curtains. They want to be seen. When the BLM protesters were forming up their March to the Capitol same guys were filming in case the cops or white nationalists showed up.
DeleteSo we don't very often have demonstrations with people carrying signs in our town. Oldest son and DIL came out yesterday and said there had been anti-circumcision demonstrators on one of the highway intersections. People wearing white outfits with red paint at the crotch, signifying blood, I guess. Kind of odd on Mother's Day. Of course K and son had to go back and do a drive-by.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was young we got three newspapers: morning and evening Pittsburgh newspapers and a local newspaper each evening. We slowly got rid of them because my mother was tired of seeing retractions on page sixteen of stories that appeared in earlier days on pages one or two.
ReplyDeleteOver the years as we got recording devices, I simply recorded the daily morning, noon and evening TV news in order to get the weather report, which like Paul Simon was the only news that I needed.
The internet has such sophisticated options for weather, that I don't need to both with any other news. Of course when I sign on to the internet they have an abundance of news stories which I am very careful about choosing. Recently Catholic News Service went out of business, but I found that since I always click on stories about Catholic parish and school closings around the country I don't really need them. There are plenty of sources for Catholic News.