The treatment of New York subway Samaritan Daniel Penny is just more proof that there is a “two-tiered system of justice” in blue cities, Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro said Thursday.
Shapiro was responding on his podcast to the news that Penny, a former Marine who is accused of killing Jordan Neely, was indicted by a grand jury in Manhattan. The Daily Wire co-founder said that the law is being enforced inconsistently in Democrat-run cities, especially if a white person is accused of harming a black person.
“So take, for example, in the case in which a crazed white homeless person is subdued by a law-abiding black American Marine, and then the white person dies, do you think that black person is going to end up in the dock, indicted by a grand jury and prospectively spending the rest of his life in prison?” Shapiro wondered.
Shapiro noted the complexity of the Penny case, as several witnesses on the train reported that Neely, who had a violent past, was making threatening comments toward passengers on the train. Video shows Penny putting Neely in a headlock on the floor of a subway in an attempt to subdue him alongside other passengers.
“When that sort of thing happens, you don’t prosecute the person who’s responsible for defending the life and limb of innocent citizens from a crazed homeless person on the subway. And yet that is precisely what’s happening in New York,” Shapiro said. “And the reason that’s happening, is because Daniel Penny is white. There’s just no other way to read this. If Daniel Penny, you were a black man, this would not be in court.”
The Daily Wire host also took the media to task for its role in shaping the narrative around controversial incidents.
“Now, the media immediately went into spin mode after this incident and they released old tape of Jordan Neely dancing like Michael Jackson, the obviously innocent Michael Jackson impersonator, this innocent Michael Jackson impersonator. He was just dancing his life away when he was accosted and attacked by this evil white person,” Shapiro said, before noting that Neely had been arrested 42 times, including once for punching a 67-year-old woman in the head.
While the exact charges are still unknown, Penny has maintained his innocence, saying that he was just trying to protect people on the subway.