In New York City The Innocent is Guilty and Gets Arrested, Sometimes Prosecuted
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New York State but particularly the city of New York, its had this bad habit of jailing the victims when the perp or allies say or show damages. I have been at the end of this unfair made stick.
A woman in my building twice came after me. Up to today Im not sure why but there are so many with screw up minds waling about. You will think I killed a dog or something in this case and the way this woman came at me. Someone mentioned it might be over parking. Didn't know this woman Michelle who lives of all places on my floor.
The first time she accosted me was in the lobby of my building as I was walking out. I briefly stopped to say hello to a friend and she ordered me to "keep walking, You Dirty Fagot" Then as she came towards me she invited me to hit her, I'm really sorry I never did. Enough witnesses to see she came after me. It seems she got embolden after I refused her invitation while she called me dirty names. I was more confused than anything. Then six month after that she accosted me as she blocked the door of the front of my building. I just used or began to use the other side of the door and started walking behind her, it when I felt a smack or pushed in my back by my waist. I turned around as she is there to let me have it and I either trip and fell on her or she tripped and brought me down with her.
I found myself on the sidewalk on top of this truck of a woman who was three times my side between her fat Truck driver Derrière and her 9 month old woman with child. No child just big. I think I blacked out momentarily. I have an injury from an equestrian accident.Does not show. but it feels 18 hours a day. She had me by the right side of my throat with a hand and I felt her nails cringed on my right side of the neck just below the ear.
I hit her a few times with close fist but like I was hammering on top of her head to let me go. She had me securely to her her nails and my hitting her seemed to have no results on her cringing to me.
We were separated it took 3 or four men plus the security guard to hold her back as she called me all the names and she would get me when I was not expecting it.
I went upstairs got water or juice or something and called the 911.
Caps came and arrested me for assault for hitting her which according to the cops that is what the tape of a cam showed.
The A.D.A asked the judge on my third visit to criminal court, they had no evidence to present the case and win. The judge dismissed the case for lack of evidence.
What do you think?
What happened to Daniel was similar as he defended the passengers around him being menaced by a hoodlum. He was a special forces ex marine and applied what he learned for self defense. It was too much for the perp and he died.
Im sure he was not a perp to his family but just a guy close to saint hood as I read the news and saw the family described him. That is all well and good and more power to them but the passengers together with Daniel Penny did not see it that way.
At the beginning the D.A was reluctant to bring charges but because the uproar from a few laud voices he gave the case to a grand jury which usually convicts almost everyone so they would go to trial.
The finality of the case was a hung jury, reduced charges and then a non guilty verdict. Hope he does well but this will follow him. Hopefully he will leave this city. Me, Im stuck here it seems.
You can read what these two writer below reported on the NYTimes.
Adam Gonzalez, Founder
By Hurubie Meko and Anusha Bayya
The New York Times
Daniel Penny, a former Marine who choked a fellow subway rider on an uptown F train last year, was acquitted on a charge of criminally negligent homicide on Monday, ending a case that had come to exemplify New York City’s post-pandemic struggles.
The jurors decided that Mr. Penny’s actions were not criminal when he held the rider, Jordan Neely, in a chokehold as the two men struggled on the floor of a subway car on May 1, 2023. Mr. Neely, who was homeless and had a history of mental illness, had strode through the subway car that afternoon, yelling at passengers and frightening them, according to witnesses.
After the forewoman announced the verdict, the courtroom erupted, with some people cheering the outcome and others responding with anger.
Upon hearing the words “not guilty,” Mr. Penny’s lawyer, Thomas A. Kenniff, slapped his palm on the defense table and turned to hug Mr. Penny, who had a large grin on his face. Another of his lawyers, Steven Raiser, stood and kissed his client on the cheek.
Mr. Neely’s father, Andre Zachery, lashed out at supporters of Mr. Penny, and the judge asked him to leave the room.
The jurors had spent more than three days trying to come to a unanimous decision on whether Mr. Penny, 26, was guilty of manslaughter — a higher charge — in the death of Mr. Neely, 30. On Friday, the jurors sent two notes to the judge overseeing the trial saying that they had deadlocked.
After the jurors — seven women and five men — sent the first note that morning, the judge, Maxwell T. Wiley, instructed them to resume their deliberations. When the jurors sent the second note in the afternoon, telling Justice Wiley that they were still unable to reach an agreement, he granted the prosecution’s request to dismiss the charge. He sent the jurors home for the weekend, telling them to prepare to begin deliberating on the lesser charge, criminally negligent homicide, on Monday. Ultimately, they decided to acquit Mr. Penny.
The decision was a defeat for the office of Alvin L. Bragg, Manhattan’s district attorney. In a statement on Monday, Mr. Bragg said that the jury “has now spoken.”
“We deeply respect the jury process and we respect their verdict,” he said.
In his statement, Mr. Bragg also noted that prosecutors and their families had been “besieged with hate and threats — on social media, by phone and over email” throughout the trial.
“Simply put, this is unacceptable, and everyone, no matter your opinion on this case, should condemn it,” he said.
Shortly before Mr. Penny arrived at the courthouse on Monday, two groups of protesters — those who supported Mr. Penny and others who protested on behalf of Mr. Neely — clashed briefly. Police separated the two camps with metal barricades, but they continued to hurl barbs at one another, amplified by megaphones.
In New York City, the Penny case drew comparisons to the 1984 subway shooting of four Black teenagers by a white passenger, Bernard Goetz, who said he had been a mugging target. Mr. Goetz instantly became famous — and infamous. Mr. Penny is white and Mr. Neely, a former Michael Jackson impersonator, was Black. Like Mr. Goetz’s case 40 years ago, the episode sharply divided New Yorkers and the nation.
After Mr. Neely’s death, video of the men’s struggle exploded online.
Some who saw the four minutes of footage said Mr. Penny’s actions reflected transit riders’ fears and frustrations, and pointed to concerns about crime in the city. A number of Republican politicians hailed Mr. Penny. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida compared him to the Bible’s good Samaritan. Matt Gaetz, a former congressman from Florida and provocateur who was President-elect Donald J. Trump’s initial choice for attorney general, called Mr. Penny a “Subway Superman.”
As prosecutors were set to close their case last Tuesday, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, called Mr. Penny “innocent” and a “hero” in a social media post.
Image
Two people wearing sunglasses hold up large identical signs that say, “Justice for Jordan Neely,” under a picture of Mr. Neely.
Demonstrators outside the Manhattan courthouse.Credit...Eduardo Munoz/Reuters
“Under Alvin Bragg, saving a train car full of innocent people is a crime,” the group posted.
For others, the killing showed the city’s inability or unwillingness to help its most vulnerable and marginalized residents. And Mr. Penny, they said, deserved to be punished.
Members of Black Lives Matter and the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network protested across from the courthouse nearly every morning, their chants sometimes audible inside the stuffy courtroom on the 13th floor where the trial unfolded. As Mr. Penny walked into the building, they would shout “murderer” and “subway strangler.”
Each day, members of Mr. Neely’s family gathered in the courtroom, which was often packed with supporters and observers.
On Monday, Mr. Sharpton said that the verdict “does not change what we have known to be true in our hearts since the very beginning: Jordan Neely’s life was brutally taken away because of unnecessary vigilantism.”
“This kind of behavior was inexcusable 40 years ago when Bernard Goetz opened fire in a subway car, and it remained the case more than a year ago when Daniel Penny took Jordan’s life,” he said.
Mayor Eric Adams, at a news conference on Monday, said that Mr. Neely “should not have had to die” and described the city’s mental health system as “broken.”
“But a jury of his peers heard the case, saw all the facts and all the evidence and made a decision,” Mr. Adams said. “And I join D.A. Bragg in stating that I respect the process.”
Over the course of the trial, Mr. Penny’s legal team pushed back at the assertion that their client’s chokehold had been the cause of Mr. Neely’s death. And the question of what exactly had killed Mr. Neely was central to the monthlong debate between the prosecutors and defense lawyers.
Mr. Penny’s lawyers suggested that Mr. Neely had died because of a toxic combination of his synthetic marijuana use, sickle cell trait and mental illness.
Prosecutors said that Mr. Penny had failed to recognize Mr. Neely’s humanity, squeezing his neck ever tighter as he struggled to break free. Pointing to the testimony of the medical examiner who ruled on Mr. Neely’s death, prosecutors asked the jury not to believe the defense’s hypothesis, particularly that his sickle cell trait had anything to do with his death.
On Monday, the jurors appeared to have been convinced by the defense’s argument, or at least did not find that prosecutors had proved their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
As the jury’s verdict settled over the courtroom, Justice Wiley shouted to get control of the room. One woman, unable to hold back her cries, ran into the hallway, where her wails could be heard.
As Mr. Neely’s family was escorted out of the courtroom, Hawk Newsome, a co-founder of BLM Greater New York — who has led daily protests during the trial — said toward Mr. Penny: “It’s a small world, buddy.”
Several people gasped and court officers urged the group to keep moving. Mr. Penny and his team were quickly ushered out.
Outside the courthouse beneath a gray sky, Mr. Neely’s father, Mr. Zachery, spoke to reporters for the first time in about eight weeks. In the minutes leading up to his brief remarks, he stood fidgeting with his clasped hands and looking up at the clouds.
“I just want to say I miss my son,” he said, adding: “It hurts. It really, really hurts.”
For Mr. Penny and his supporters, the verdict was a source of great relief. They gathered at the Stone Street Tavern in the Financial District, celebrating and taking pictures.
“They were having a good time,” said Edgar Lopez, 24, an employee of the bar. “They beat the case — they won — and they were having a couple drinks.”
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