Earlier this week, Daniel Penny was acquitted of murder within the killing of Jordan Neely, a Black unhoused man, on the New York Metropolis subway in 2023. And Vice President-elect JD Vance has invited Penny to commingle with him and felon-elect Donald Trump on the Military-Navy soccer sport on Saturday
“Daniel’s a good guy, and New York’s mob district attorney tried to ruin his life for having a backbone,” Vance posted on X. “I’m grateful he accepted my invitation and hope he’s able to have fun and appreciate how much his fellow citizens admire his courage.”
Penny’s case was immediately polarizing. Outcries from minority communities and their allies known as for authorized retribution over Neely’s demise. To them, Neely’s demise was each avoidable and being handled otherwise, given he was an unhoused Black man.
“Jordan Neely was murdered,” New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez posted on X shortly after the killing. And after New York City Mayor Eric Adams pushed back against her phrasing, Ocasio-Cortez elaborated in an interview with The Lower, saying, “I would like everyone to pretend [Neely] was their son. I would like anyone to look at that video [of his killing], see their son, and see if they would say the same thing.”
Nonetheless, conservative painted Penny as a hero, highlighting his previous as a Marine and arguing his proper to self-defense. And his actions turned a speaking level for right-leaning shops and politicians.
“I’ll take a million court appearances and people calling me names and people hating me, just to keep one of those people from getting hurt or killed,” Penny stated to Fox Information’ Jeanine Pirro the day after his acquittal.
And whereas many X customers applauded Vance for inviting Penny to the soccer sport, others known as out the odd celebration of somebody who, whereas acquitted, nonetheless had a job within the demise of one other man.
“Yay let’s go hang out with a killer at a football game,” tweeted one account.
Penny’s case and the general public’s response are harking back to Kyle Rittenhouse’s case. Rittenhouse was discovered not responsible within the 2020 deadly capturing of two unarmed males and the wounding of a pistol-wielding third throughout protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
On the time, tensions had been extraordinarily excessive following a police officer’s homicide of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man. Protesters had been taking to the streets to precise their anger and heartbreak.
Later, at his trial, Rittenhouse claimed he’d traveled to Kenosha with different armed buddies to guard non-public property from being destroyed throughout the unrest.
The case sparked outrage, which Trump fortunately stoked.
“If he didn’t pull that trigger, that guy that put the gun to his head, in one-quarter of a second he was going to pull the trigger,” Trump stated in a 2021 interview with Fox Information’ Sean Hannity, who as soon as reportedly pointed a gun at a fellow political analyst following an on-air debate.
Trump invited Rittenhouse to Mar-a-Lago, telling Hannity that Rittenhouse was a “really nice young man.”
Making a jab on the useless and wounded, Trump added, “[Rittenhouse] was a fan, unlike the other guy.”
