Juror selection is underway for Penny’s trial, which should not be happening at all. In May 2023, Penny put Jordan Neely in a chokehold on a subway car. Neely, a mentally ill homeless man, was acting erratic and threatening people. One witness said Neely said, “Someone is going to die today,” and another that Neely said, “I want to go to Rikers. I want to go to prison.” Penny, a former U.S. Marine, restrained Neely by placing him in a chokehold until he became unconscious and no longer posed a threat.

As a result, Neely ended up dying, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Penny with second-degree manslaughter and negligent homicide. For trying to protect men, women, and children from a dangerous man with 42 arrests and multiple assaults on his record, Penny is facing up to 19 years in prison.

Violent crime on New York City’s subway system is still worse than it had been before the pandemic. Bragg, whose primary goal is making sure criminals avoid prison time, has no interest in addressing that. Instead, shortly after he tried to ruin an elderly Hispanic man’s life for defending himself against a black criminal who was assaulting him, Bragg is now trying to ruin the life of a white Marine who defended innocent people from a black criminal who was threatening their lives.

Bragg’s message, both to residents of New York City and to people across the country, is that defending yourself or others from criminals brings the risk of the justice system bearing down on you, while being one of those criminals confers you extra protections. The fact that charges were brought against Penny (and Jose Alba, the other incident mentioned above) already tells people that they should not intervene when they see a crime threatening people who can’t defend themselves.

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In fact, this already played out on the New York City subway system, when 60-year-old Laurell Reynolds was brutally beaten to death for two minutes by a career criminal. No one intervened to protect Reynolds and save her life because everyone knew they would be putting their lives at risk, not just from the violent criminal but from the “justice system” that has been twisted by Bragg to protect that criminal’s life and not their own.

If Penny is convicted, it will be a death knell for public safety in New York City and will have a chilling effect nationwide on heroic men stepping in to protect innocent people from criminals that their political leaders have failed to keep off the street. Penny’s trial is about whether or not people should watch someone like Laurell Reynolds be beaten to death and do nothing, or whether they should be able to step in and stop such an act before it happens. Only the latter is an acceptable outcome.