'FASCISM,' 'MURDERER,' 'RIGHT-WING MOBILIZATION': Academics go crazy following Daniel Penny acquittal
‘The right-wing mobilization of vigilantes is going to be felt everywhere, even in jurisdictions that don't sanction it via official state policies. Daniel Penny is a leading indicator,’ wrote one commenter.
‘Jordan Neely was murdered. Today, his murderer, Daniel Penny, will walk free. The courts have effectively declared open season on the unhoused, and this, too, is fascism,’ wrote another.
Daniel Penny’s recent acquittal has caused college and university professors and others to express outrage over the outcome of the case.
Penny faced a homicide charge for placing a chokehold grip on Jordan Neely, a homeless man with a history of violence who had been repeatedly yelling “I’m going to kill you” at fellow subway passengers before Penny intervened.
David Noll, a professor at Rutgers Law School, expressed his concern that the “right-wing mobilization of vigilantes is going to be felt everywhere, even in jurisdictions that don’t sanction it via official state policies. Daniel Penny is a leading indicator.”
He added: “It’s useful to contrast Penny with the other infamous subway vigilante, Bernard Goetz. The circumstances in which they killed aren’t that different: a white guy who sees a city in disarray decides that it’s on him to violently impose order amidst ‘social breakdown.’”
Michael Feola, a professor at Lafayette College, also opposed Penny’s acquittal and tied it to racism, saying his supporters were celebrating to “feed their fantasies of a world spiraling out-of control, where only the violence of the brave white man can set it right,” as previously reported by Campus Reform.
The outrage was not limited to just professors.
Elizabeth Adetiba, a Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University’s sociology department, wrote: “Daniel Penny murdered that young man, lied about the force he used during the chokehold, and still got off—in NYC at that. This country, man.”
Michael Gould-Wartofsky, a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at Columbia, called Penny a “murderer” and said that his acquittal is a sign of “fascism”: “Jordan Neely was murdered. Today, his murderer, Daniel Penny, will walk free. The courts have effectively declared open season on the unhoused, and this, too, is fascism.”
Gould-Wartofsky told Campus Reform that “Homelessness should not be a death sentence,” and continued: “Penny’s acquittal is a symptom of a larger tendency towards fascism in our society, where acts of political violence, especially those directed against society’s most vulnerable individuals, are increasingly permitted to occur with impunity.”
”Penny’s supporters are effectively condoning the death penalty for the unhoused, the unsheltered, and the mentally ill, with private citizens serving as judges, juries, and executioners. I can see no ethical or legal basis for this position,” he added.
Campus Reform has reached out to all those named in the article. This article will be updated accordingly.
