Daniel Penny is Free, But the Damage is Already Done

Penny’s tribulations will serve as a cautionary tale against acting in the face of evil; a reminder that stepping in to protect your community will make you a target to failing bureaucrats

Daniel Penny, the former Marine who restrained Jordan Neely on a New York City subway, has been acquitted on all charges. The ruling sparked celebration by those horrified that Penny had ever been charged in the first place, but unfortunately things aren’t as rosy as they seem. Though Penny will not see the inside of a jail cell, he will be trapped in a prison of a different sort.

Penny’s lot is now interminably tied to his actions last May. Hero or villain, his name will always be associated with that fateful moment aboard the subway.

Consider Kyle Rittenhouse, another man caught in a media firestorm before being acquitted. Despite the court’s ruling, Rittenhouse became a pariah, forced to drop out of Arizona State amid protests and now confined to conservative activism.

I fully support Rittenhouse, believing he acted heroically to defend his community from rioters and looters. But I sense that he, like Penny now, would likely rather have faded into the background and become just another ordinary citizen.

Unfortunately, Penny has become a symbol of something larger than himself: the social decay in America’s cities and the desperate actions citizens must take amid government failure.

Jordan Neely’s death warrant wasn’t signed by Daniel Penny, but by progressive Democratic leadership that would prefer to virtue signal than to protect the public. Neely had an extensive criminal record prior to his death. He had 42 arrests for such crimes as assaulting an elderly woman and kidnapping a child. He should have never been permitted to roam free in the first place, that he was reflects a dangerous reality foisted on an unwilling public by their allegedly benevolent political betters.

Democratic leaders in New York City have prioritized releasing dangerous individuals over protecting the public. They claim enforcing the law violates human rights, while ignoring the rights of commuters and taxpayers trying to live without fear or filth.

But if Neely had been in jail or a mental institution, he very likely would still be alive today. Instead, Democrats allowed him to fester and rot in public until his and Penny’s paths tragically collided. So much for human rights.

But worse than Neely’s needless death, Penny’s ordeal ensures fewer bystanders will act in the future, fearing legal consequences should they intervene. Every time a violent homeless person attacks someone, people cry about inaction from the crowd. Yet stories like Penny’s will reverberate louder than their appeals for aid.

This fear to act creates low-trust societies where cooperation between citizens erodes and individuals grow ever more atomized from each other. Eventually, those societies collapse as no one can live in constant tension with their neighbor.

Penny’s story shows we’ve reached a point where the powers that be grant more rights to drug-addled vagrants than to its contributors. While his acquittal is a victory, it’s also a blaring warning of societal ruin. The case lays bare the twisted reality where good Samaritans are publicly crucified and civilization is sacrificed in the name of ideological expedience.

Penny’s tribulations will serve as a cautionary tale against acting in the face of evil; a reminder that stepping in to protect your community will make you a target to unfeeling bureaucrats failing to keep us safe.

The tears in the social fabric, gleefully pulled apart by leftists like those in New York, will take generations to resew. But the work must be done. A society where trust crumbles, cooperation ceases, and fear reigns supreme is one not long for this world.

I feel there will be another Penny and another Neely in another city soon, though I sincerely hope I'm wrong.