The political prosecution of Daniel Penny in New York City may have failed, but the chilling effect it will have on public safety , especially in the subway system, will resonate for years.
Penny is a former U.S. Marine who found himself in the same subway car as Jordan Neely, a mentally ill homeless man with a history of violence. According to witnesses who were in the same car, Neely was acting erratically and saying things such as, “Someone is going to die today,” and “I want to go to Rikers. I want to go to prison.” Penny put Neely in a chokehold to restrain him, and Neely ended up dying.
Most reasonable, rational people would view this as an unfortunate but expected outcome of threats of imminent violence by a mentally unstable vagrant. Penny acted heroically to protect people on the subway who would not have been able to protect themselves from Neely, whether he had any weapons or not. Neely’s death was avoidable, but it was avoidable if he had been under the supervision of a responsible justice system, mental health officials with the authority to keep him in their care, or a family who cared about him. Unfortunately for Neely, he had none of those things.