Daniel Penny, 24, is the Marine veteran accused of killing Jordan Neely on a New York subway car when trying to restrain Neely, who allegedly threatened to murder the subway car passengers.
Penny recently spoke out on why he stepped into the fray and attempted to handle the situation. He first recounted reading a book about the Holocaust, Night, and said, “One of the overall messages that he talked about was that good people did nothing. It’s a lesson that I carry with me to this day.” Or, as the apocryphal Edmund Burke quotation goes, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
Mr. Penny evidently thought the subway car situation was such a situation where evil could triumph and that he was one of those good men who needed to step in and stop it. Emphasizing that point, Penny said, “If [Neely] had carried out his threats, he would have killed somebody.”
He added, “Between stops, you’re trapped on the train, and there’s nowhere to go. You can try to move away, but you can only do so much on a packed car. I was scared. I looked around, and I saw older women and children, and they were terrified.” His fellow Americans were scared, he thought evil would triumph, and he thought he needed to step in.
He also said, speaking about Mr. Neely’s family, “They’ve been in my prayers. I feel for their loss. Like Jordan, they’re also victims of a failed system.” And, speaking about being called a racist for what he did, Mr. Penny said, “The majority of the people on that train that I was protecting were minorities, so it definitely hurts a lot to be called that. It has obviously taken a toll.”
So who is Daniel Penny? He remembered the patriotism that followed 9/11 and wanted to serve his country when he came of age, saying he saw an ad for the Marines and thought “They were going out and helping the world, and I wanted to be a part of that.”
Speaking about his time in the Marine Corps, he said, “It was an awesome experience seeing parts of the world the majority of people don’t get to see, and it really opens your eyes to new perspectives.”
Though Mr. Penny would not recount events on the train other than to describe the palpable fear the other riders on it felt regarding Mr. Neely, an elderly woman on the train would. Speaking about what happened, she said, “It was self-defense, and I believe in my heart that he saved a lot of people that day.” She added that Mr. Neely was allegedly ranting, shortly before Mr. Penny intervened, “I don’t care if I have to kill an F, I will. I’ll go to jail, I’ll take a bullet.”
Similarly, Mr. Penny’s lawyer said that Mr. Penny did the right thing as well, saying, “Danny could have went to the corner of the train and waited for Neely to come to him. But it might have been too late for the little girl that was sitting in the middle of the train that [Neely] was screaming at.”
Mr. Penny was arrested in mid-May for the death of Jordan Neely, watch that here:
BREAKING: Daniel Penny is on his way to court in handcuffs after being arrested on a second degree manslaughter charge.
If you serve your country and try to be a Good Samaritan, the left will side with a violent crackhead who was arrested 40+ times any day of the week.
Penny is… pic.twitter.com/Gj6guO9qxq
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 12, 2023
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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