A man with a years-long criminal record allegedly pushed one woman onto the subway tracks in New York City before punching another woman in the face on Saturday.
Curtis Signal, 25, was arrested at a nearby homeless shelter and charged with assault, harassment, and reckless endangerment, the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/02/14/us-news/women-pushed-onto-nyc-subway-tracks-punched-in-face/">reported</a>.
The first woman, 51, suffered broken ribs after being pushed. The second woman, 43, suffered a busted lip. The attack took place on the R subway line in Brooklyn.
Signal is on probation until June 2027, the Post reported. In 2023, he allegedly punched a 67-year-old woman in the face, and punched a police officer one week later. Before that, he allegedly attacked a 31-year-old woman at a doctor’s office, and he was charged with assault after hitting his 13-year-old sister.
Al Rivera, who heard about the subway attack from a friend of one of the victims, told the Post that Signal would probably be released.
“He did wrong to those people and he is not going to stop until someone sends him to the cemetery,” Rivera said. “He’s not going to stay in jail. It’s a rotating door.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
A maniac pushed a woman onto the subway tracks and punched another lady in the face in Brooklyn Saturday — and was later arrested at a nearby shelter, police and sources said. <a href="https://t.co/RtLPRIYOK2">pic.twitter.com/RtLPRIYOK2</a>
— New York Post (@nypost) <a href="https://twitter.com/nypost/status/2022789337201475703?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 14, 2026</a></blockquote>
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Despite New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/01/mayor-zohran-mamdani-inaugural-address">promise</a> to “deliver an agenda of safety, affordability, and abundance,” crime on New York City&#8217;s transit system has increased 17% since last year, the Post reported.
That number included a 9% increase in assaults, with 71 this year compared to 65 last year, and robberies have seen a 58% increase. A man was killed at a Bronx subway station on Tuesday, the first subway murder of the year.
One woman, Yolene Martinez, told the Post that these attacks make her afraid to take the train into Manhattan for work.
“Every time I hear something like this, I get more fearful,” Martinez said. “It’s happening too often — someone gets pushed on the tracks, someone gets slashed, someone gets shot.”
Mamdani recently received criticism for saying that a mentally ill man who attacked police officers with a knife should receive mental health treatment instead of being prosecuted. Police had shot the alleged attacker after he charged them with a large kitchen knife, Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/nyc-mayor-mamdani-under-fire-defending-knife-wielding-suspect-over-police-officers">reported</a>.
In addition to rising crime, Mamdani has been criticized for a rising homeless death toll, as severe winter weather saw nineteen people dead as of Thursday, The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-yorks-winter-death-toll-rises-to-19-curtis-sliwa-faults-sanctuary-city-policies?author=Brecca+Stoll&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Curtis+Sliwa+Has+Thoughts+On+How+Mamdani+Is+Handling+His+First+Emergency">reported</a>.
Curtis Sliwa, former New York City mayoral candidate and long-time New Yorker, said part of the problem lies in the city’s sanctuary status — diverting resources to illegal aliens instead of the homeless — but he added that Mamdani is still partially to blame.
“I don’t see any of the homeless outreach workers that the mayor keeps talking about,” he said.

NYC Subway

WARMTH OF COLLECTIVISM: Repeat Offender Pushes Woman Onto NYC Subway Tracks

Crime

New York City

Subway

U.S.

Zohran Mamdani

Chicago typical silver colored commuter train moving on elevated tracks to railroad station in between urban city buildings of Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Career Criminal Freed By Radical Pro-Crime Judge Sets Christian Woman On Fire On Subway

Chicago

Criminal Justice

Illinois

Murder

Opinion

Train

Violent Crime

At least two people are dead after heavy rains triggered widespread flooding in the New York City area and beyond, officials confirmed on Tuesday, after more than two inches of rain fell in one hour on Monday night, the second-wettest hour ever recorded in the city.
In Plainfield, New Jersey, about 30 miles away from New York City, flooding swept away a vehicle, killing two people inside.
Subway service was delayed on multiple lines Monday night at the height of the storm, CBS News <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/nyc-subway-station-flooding-service-alerts/">reported</a>. The downpour flooded multiple stations in Manhattan.
&#8220;The New York City sewer system, the storm water system, accommodates about an inch and a half to an inch and three quarters an hour,&#8221; Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chair and CEO Janno Lieber told CBS News. &#8220;Last night, in that one hour, we had well over 2 inches of rain. So what happens is the system backs up into the subway.&#8221;
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Intense rainfall over New York caused severe flooding in the city, sending water gushing into a subway train platform as authorities issued several flash flood warnings across the New York City metropolitan area <a href="https://t.co/so3YNCJWgg">pic.twitter.com/so3YNCJWgg</a>
— Reuters (@Reuters) <a href="https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1945026799135576435?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
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The flooding left some riders stranded, while others navigated pools of water on still-functioning platforms. Subway lines restored service Monday night with delays.
New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency as multiple counties were under flash flood warnings. He attributed the storm damage to climate change, saying, &#8220;We New Jersey, we America, we the globe, are getting dragged by climate,&#8221; The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07/15/nyregion/new-york-jersey-floods">reported</a>.
Rescue crews pulled drivers from stalled cars while roads shut down. Authorities launched boats into flooded streets after a river overflowed, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/new-jersey-flash-flooding-rescues/">according</a> to CBS News.
Rafts, a giant truck, and a frontloader rescued people.
Conditions are expected to clear on Tuesday as the storm shifts southward.
The flooding comes after flash floods hit Texas, killing more than 130 people, ABC News <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/live-updates/texas-flooding-live-updates/?id=123729682">reported</a>. More than 100 people remain missing.

Phil Murphy declares state of emergency amid flooding, thunderstorms in New Jersey

WATCH: Torrential Rains Flood NYC Subways, 2 Dead in New Jersey

flooding

Floods

New Jersey

New York

Severe Weather

The following is an excerpt from the new book “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Children-Left-Behind-Rationalizes-Separation/dp/B0DSJZWMDL/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.mHwt-SB0BE6Z4SuvSL8BpJGq0o4KZKefFX7qCk2QDecQdDECQ5sacSwFhvoqNh0G.3kO-vQO6MHEer2Op5JTvskog7q0WE0RCOw0_toT-nOM&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;qid=1738089124&amp;refinements=p_27%3AAdam+Coleman&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-1">The Children We Left Behind: How Western Culture Rationalizes Family Separation &amp; Ignores The Pain Of Child Neglect</a>,” by Adam B. Coleman (Wrong Speak Publishing, April 1, 2025).
* * *
“I don’t care if I die. I don’t care if I go to jail”. 
These were some of the final words spoken by Jordan Neely, a homeless thirty-year-old man who died inside a subway after threatening frightened riders and being subdued in a headlock by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-daniel-penny-found-not-guilty" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Daniel Penny</a> on May 1, 2023.
Neely had a long 42-arrest history of criminal activity, involving four violent offenses spanning from 2013 to 2021, only to eventually die on the floor of an F train subway car.
While most of the public has focused on his threats before being taken down by Daniel Penny or the racial differences between Neely and Penny, I want to focus on Neely’s origin story.
My interest in sharing Neely’s story is twofold. Objectively, Neely was a troubled man who had a history of terrorizing riders and was riddled with mental health problems. But he wasn’t born that way. No child dreams of being a homeless person on the street. How did Jordan Neely go from an innocent child to dying on the subway? As I hope to illuminate for readers, it all stems from his abusive childhood.
The second reason why I want to share Jordan Neely’s story is more personal. In Jordan, I see something of myself: a child who was abandoned by his father. After my father left me, my mom, and my sister, my entire life was uprooted. By the age of six, I had lived in three states and various towns, residing with multiple family members and spending months in and out of homelessness. My father’s absence and my mother being left to raise me and my sister on her own led me to suffer from depression, low self-esteem, and suicidal ideation. At age eight, I was admitted to a mental hospital.
<div id="attachment_900349" style="width: 394px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Children-Left-Behind-Rationalizes-Separation/dp/B0DSJZWMDL/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.mHwt-SB0BE6Z4SuvSL8BpJGq0o4KZKefFX7qCk2QDecQdDECQ5sacSwFhvoqNh0G.3kO-vQO6MHEer2Op5JTvskog7q0WE0RCOw0_toT-nOM&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;qid=1738089124&amp;refinements=p_27%3AAdam+Coleman&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-1"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-900349" class="size-large wp-image-900349" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/71DC2oU2QoL._SL1360_-384x576.jpg" alt="Credit: Wrong Speak Publishing" width="384" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/71DC2oU2QoL._SL1360_-384x576.jpg 384w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/71DC2oU2QoL._SL1360_-200x300.jpg 200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/71DC2oU2QoL._SL1360_-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/71DC2oU2QoL._SL1360_.jpg 907w" sizes=" (max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px" /></a>Credit: Wrong Speak Publishing</div>
Would Jordan’s life have taken a different turn if he had a loving father in his life? Why could he not have been one of the lucky ones, like me, who by the grace of God overcame a traumatic childhood?
Neely grew up in an abusive household with his mother and stepfather. This violence from his stepfather escalated to the point of murdering Jordan Neely’s mother, Christine Neely, by strangulation, subsequently stuffing her body in a suitcase, and dumping her body on the Henry Hudson Highway in Bronx, NY, when Jordan Neely was 14 years old.
In <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/05/03/subway-chokehold-victim-jordan-neely-spiraled-after-moms-death-aunt/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an interview</a> with The New York Post, Carolyn Neely, Jordan’s Aunt, stated that his mother&#8217;s murder was the pivotal starting point of his mental downfall.
“My sister Christie was murdered in ‘07, and after that, he has never been the same. It had a big impact on him. He developed depression, and it grew and became more serious. He was schizophrenic, PTSD.”
After his mother&#8217;s killing, Jordan bounced around from foster home to foster home for four years, being left behind in New York City’s dysfunctional foster care system.
After Jordan Neely’s death, New York’s PIX 11 News <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iX7lkOZA_g" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interviewed</a> Neely’s foster brother, Larry Smith. Larry Smith viewed Jordan Neely as his best friend, big brother, and mentor.
Eventually, both Smith and Neely aged out of the foster care system, leaving them homeless on the streets of New York City. In the early years of their brotherly relationship, Neely would perform Michael Jackson dance routines on subway cars for money to feed themselves.
“He would do the whole Billy Jean [dance routine], and I would sit there and have the one hat that he gave me for Michael Jackson and collect a couple of dollars. He used that because foster parents were abusing us.”
It is Smith&#8217;s final statement that encapsulates the deep desire of every child: “Jordan never wanted money … Jordan wanted a home.”
Every child wants a home, and not just in a physical sense. It’s not enough for a child to have a place of shelter; they also need a place where they know they belong and are safe.
In various articles I’ve read about Jordan Neely in his teenage years, he was described as a quiet child who enjoyed Japanese anime. However, this quiet child was hardened like the concrete streets he’d occasionally sleep on.
There are only so many chances you’ll give the world to hurt you before you acknowledge your hopelessness by outwardly exclaiming, “I don’t care if I die. I don’t care if I go to jail.”
He gave his stepfather a chance, who ultimately murdered his mother. He gave the foster care system a chance, and they abused and abandoned him. If every adult you encounter lets you down, you’d probably go insane too and grow a deep hatred for mankind, including hatred for yourself.
Jordan Neely’s situation isn’t abnormal, and that’s the problem.
The only reason we even know his name is because of a fluke circumstance of being filmed by a journalist. But if he had overdosed alone on a street corner, he would be just another statistic.
Thousands upon thousands of Jordan Neelys all over America are on the street. They are adults now, but they were once children left behind by nearly every adult they encountered.
I once felt all the rage that Jordan felt. I sometimes still do. My father chose himself over me, my sister, and my mother and neglected me until the day he died. Thanks be to God, I made it, but my successes should never be a reason for parents to risk playing Russian Roulette with their children’s lives.
I am also a father now. And as a father, my job has been to raise my child to become greater than myself and to be a healthy and functional member of society. Over the years, I became incredibly conscious of how my actions and lack of actions could turn my son into the man you’d never want to be alone with on the streets at night.
Raising children isn’t just about feeding and housing them. How we treat them and what we teach them directly affects their likelihood of success in the world.
If you fail your children, don’t be surprised when they fail in our society.
* * *
Adam B. Coleman is the author of “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Children-Left-Behind-Rationalizes-Separation/dp/B0DSJZWMDL/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.mHwt-SB0BE6Z4SuvSL8BpJGq0o4KZKefFX7qCk2QDecQdDECQ5sacSwFhvoqNh0G.3kO-vQO6MHEer2Op5JTvskog7q0WE0RCOw0_toT-nOM&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;qid=1738089124&amp;refinements=p_27%3AAdam+Coleman&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-1">The Children We Left Behind</a>” and founder of Wrong Speak Publishing. Follow him on X: @wrong_speak
This excerpt is published by permission from Wrong Speak Publishing.
The views expressed in this book excerpt are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

US-JUSTICE-TRANSPORT-FUNERAL-NEELY

Let Jordan Neely’s Story Be A Warning To Parents: We Must Always Put Our Children First

Let Jordan Neely’s Story Be a Warning to Parents: We Must Always Put Our Children First

Books

Children

Daniel Penny

Foster Care

Homelessness

Jordan Neely

Parenting

It’s great to be back after a long Christmas break. Much has happened in the world since my last post. Today, however, I’d like to begin with a story that’s unfolding in New York. 
There’s one thing we know: Government officials, whether they&#8217;re elected politicians in this country or despots in the third world, do not like being reminded of their failures. This is why the greatest crime in any dictatorship is noticing. You aren’t supposed to notice things that are embarrassing to the ruling regime. It’s also why comedy and satire are banned in places like North Korea, just like they&#8217;re banned on late-night talk shows in this country. Petty, corrupt and ineffective people can&#8217;t stand it when their incompetence is exposed. They&#8217;re willing to take extreme measures to prevent that from happening. Right now, in the city of New York, we&#8217;re getting a very clear sense of what those &#8220;extreme measures&#8221; look like, in practice.
If you&#8217;ve seen the news lately, you know that the subway system is one of the most obvious and unavoidable signs of New York&#8217;s decline. It&#8217;s a monument to the many failures of the city government. As of late last year, ridership on New York&#8217;s subway system is <a href="https://gothamist.com/news/nyc-subway-ridership-hits-new-milestone-but-still-far-short-of-pre-pandemic-levels" target="_blank" rel="noopener">down</a> more than 25% from pre-pandemic levels. That means that, every day, there are at least a million fewer people riding the subway in New York, as compared to five years ago.
It&#8217;s not exactly a great mystery as to why people are avoiding it. There&#8217;s a constant stream of violent attacks on the trains and the platforms — from people being <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/assailant-charged-after-allegedly-shoving-man-directly-iin-path-of-oncoming-ny-subway-train" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pushed in front of the trains</a> to a woman getting <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nypd-identifies-woman-burned-to-death-on-subway" target="_blank" rel="noopener">burned alive</a>. Yes, if you didn’t hear about that, a woman was burned alive, on a train, in New York, in front of a crowd of people. This is what’s happening now in the third world country known as New York City. And that&#8217;s just within the last few weeks. These attacks are effectively endorsed and enabled by New York&#8217;s government, which has made the political decision not to incarcerate most criminals.
That explains why a man named Jamar Banks was able to use the subway the other day. The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/01/05/us-news/madman-accused-of-two-nyc-train-stabbings-is-busted-carrying-large-knife-sources/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports</a> that, &#8220;A subway maniac with 87 prior arrests was just busted for two transit stabbings — carrying the large knife he allegedly used in the violence &#8230; Banks&#8217; rap sheet includes arrests for alleged attempted murder, weapons possession, assault, criminal trespassing, turnstile jumping and petty larceny.&#8221;
If politicians in New York didn&#8217;t want to destroy the city, they&#8217;d immediately throw every criminal like Jamar Banks in prison. They&#8217;d start enforcing the law. It’s actually not hard to prevent people from getting randomly stabbed, torched, or thrown in front of trains. This is a very easy issue to address. The city could effectively end all of this madness overnight, in one fell swoop, if they wanted to. All you have to do is take all the people who are already known violent criminals and put them in prison. Then you have to ban homeless people from setting up camp in the tunnels or on the trains, and arrest anyone who causes a disturbance. This could all be done in one day.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1508-the-matt-walsh-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h3>
But none of that is happening. Instead, rather than admit they&#8217;ve failed their constituents, politicians in New York have just decided to compel citizens to use the subway. They&#8217;ve opted to make it financially untenable for most New Yorkers to avoid public transit. That&#8217;s their solution to the fact that no one in the city wants to ride the subway anymore. They&#8217;re going to force them to do it.
I&#8217;m talking about so-called &#8220;congestion pricing.&#8221; After several years of debate, this &#8220;congestion pricing&#8221; has just taken effect in Manhattan. In essence, this is a tax on anyone who wants to drive a vehicle into the heart of New York during work hours — as if it wasn&#8217;t already expensive enough to live in that diseased, rat-infested, crime-riddled, reeking, filthy, godforsaken hellhole of a city. This new tax is a very clear effort to force New Yorkers to use the subway system, which has become an international embarrassment. People don’t want to use it because they don’t want to be assaulted by schizophrenic vagrants. So the solution isn’t to get rid of the schizophrenic vagrants. Instead it’s to simply force everyone to use it, basically offering law abiding citizens up as sacrifices to the dregs of the community.
Specifically, this new tax covers the vast majority of vehicles entering Manhattan between 60th Street and the Battery, which includes Times Square, Hell&#8217;s Kitchen, the theater district, and other high-traffic areas. From 5:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on weekdays, and from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m on weekends — which is obviously a huge block of time — the so-called &#8220;peak period toll rate&#8221; is in effect. For all &#8220;passenger and small commercial vehicles,&#8221; that toll rate is $9.00 during the peak period.
To be clear about the political dynamics here, the majority of New Yorkers oppose congestion pricing, as far as I can tell. A Sienna College <a href="https://abc7ny.com/nyc-congestion-pricing-nearly-two-thirds-of-new-yorkers-oppose-plan-siena-college-poll-finds/14721916/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">survey</a> from last summer found that nearly two-thirds of people living in the city didn&#8217;t want a $15.00 &#8220;congestion toll.&#8221;
In response to the outcry, the governor of New York briefly suspended the plan. Then she said she&#8217;d lower the toll a few dollars, claiming it would save New Yorkers some money. To reiterate, she claimed she was saving New Yorkers money by taking less of their money than she was originally going to take. This was a prime example of political &#8220;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUMgX7-yZZs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">girl math</a>,&#8221; as I outlined at the time. And now it&#8217;s taken effect.
Naturally, some Left-wing New Yorkers rallied in response to their government gouging them even more. But instead of rallying against it, they actually rallied to thank their overlords for the privilege of being bilked by them. Some of these scenes are so absurd that they don&#8217;t even seem like they can be real. 
Here for example is a crowd cheering as the signage for the congestion pricing is unveiled:
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&quot;3, 2, 1… Happy congestion pricing!&quot; &#8211; New Yorkers *applaud* as the MTA unveils new regulatory tolls on them <a href="https://t.co/o55GtYlw92">pic.twitter.com/o55GtYlw92</a>
&mdash; End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) <a href="https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1875782069361766504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Yes, you just heard someone shouting, &#8220;Happy congestion pricing.&#8221; They are celebrating the implementation of an unprecedented tax, as if it&#8217;s a national holiday.
 This would seem to be boot-licking taken to an unparalleled extreme, and it is. But we should also understand that really they&#8217;re celebrating the fact that, because of this tax, wealthy New Yorkers will have to contend with fewer working class people on the roads in Manhattan. The same people who celebrated the assassination of the health care CEO as some kind of twisted &#8220;victory for the little guy&#8221; are very, very happy about using a tax to keep poor people away from them.
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That&#8217;s a pretty big clue that none of these people actually care about &#8220;the little guy.&#8221; If you ask them, of course, they&#8217;ll pretend otherwise. In particular, they&#8217;ll say that congestion pricing is necessary because it will help pay for improvements to the subway system. 
For example, when the governor briefly halted the plan for congestion pricing last summer, this was the response:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Pro-congestion pricing rally held in Manhattan" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/y-nnHGHfXi4?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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If you want to explain to someone how cities like New York are collapsing, just show them that clip. According to the residents of New York, it&#8217;s a &#8220;great betrayal&#8221; that the government isn&#8217;t taxing them enough. That is how these people think.
To be fair, the first guy was arguably a little less pathetic. He was talking about all of the alleged benefits that will result from congestion pricing. He&#8217;s saying they&#8217;ll be able to improve the subway system to make it more &#8220;accessible,&#8221; which is a talking point a lot of these protesters used. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Parents with strollers rally in favor of congestion pricing in NYC" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qTGJf7Y3NeI?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;
One of the many false assumptions these people are making is that more money will improve the subway system. But that&#8217;s not true. And we know that because the New York subway system is a comically obvious example of waste and mismanagement in government.
For example, the Second Avenue subway that was recently constructed in Manhattan somehow cost more money than any other similar subway system on the planet — by a lot. As <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-23/in-nyc-subway-a-case-study-in-runaway-transit-construction-costs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bloomberg reports</a>: &#8220;At $2.5 billion per mile, construction costs for the 1.8-mile Phase 1 of the Second Avenue Subway were 8 to 12 times more expensive than similar subway projects in Italy, Istanbul, Sweden, Paris, Berlin and Spain.&#8221;
So that&#8217;s one potential way to raise revenue, right off the bat. They could stop lighting money on fire. Secondly, if you&#8217;re worried about congestion in Manhattan, you could try a lot of things besides charging people to drive their cars. You could, for example, try opening more lanes, instead of closing them for cyclists and construction. Anyone who&#8217;s ever driven through Manhattan could tell you that. Here&#8217;s one example:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
The city caused this “congestion”. And now anti-car activists are celebrating by taunting drivers at toll gantries.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FuckCongestionPricing?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FuckCongestionPricing</a> <a href="https://t.co/nMIYOiWQLY">pic.twitter.com/nMIYOiWQLY</a>
&mdash; The Fight against Anti-Car (@NoBikeLanes) <a href="https://twitter.com/NoBikeLanes/status/1875717693355298824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
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This is something no one ever mentions as a possible solution. Get rid of the stupid bike lanes. You’ll find this same thing in cities all over the country. You have to sit in traffic because the city has blocked off entire lanes so that people can ride their bicycles in the street. As I’ve said many times, they might as well block off lanes so that you can use your ab roller or bench press in the middle of the street. If you want to exercise — that’s great, I support it. But you shouldn’t be doing it in the road when everyone is trying to commute to work.
One of the arguments you&#8217;ll hear from these activists is that, somehow, this new tax will reduce carbon emissions and change the weather and save the planet. This is science, you see. Step 1: you pay a toll. Step 3: hurricanes stop happening. The problem is that Step 2 is a bit foggy. And anyway, even if you assume that reducing carbon emissions by a tiny amount will change the weather for the better, it’s a moot point, because this won’t actually reduce carbon emissions. Instead, traffic is going to move elsewhere. People living in New Jersey understand that pretty well, which is why they&#8217;re suing to stop this tax.
<h3><a href="https://www.amiracist.com/?_gl=1*jtghwp*_gcl_au*ODQ1NjYzNTg2LjE3Mjg5MDk3OTE.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczMDEyMDgwOS40OS4xLjE3MzAxMjA4MzkuMzAuMC4w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MATT WALSH&#8217;S &#8216;AM I RACIST?&#8217; NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+</a></h3>
But regardless, even if you don&#8217;t buy any of the counter-arguments — even if you think that New York&#8217;s government urgently needs more money to improve the subway — it&#8217;s still not clear why &#8220;congestion pricing&#8221; is the best way to raise that revenue. Why not raise taxes on those evil corporations that the Left claims to hate so much? Why are they raising taxes on regular citizens instead?
It only makes sense when you realize, again, that the objective is to force more people into public transit, and get them off the roads.
Admittedly, this whole fiasco may seem irrelevant to anyone who has the good sense to not live in New York. But this sort of madness can be found, in varying degrees, wherever Democrats have power. The idea that Trump’s re-election would be some kind of wake up call for Democrats is a fantasy. They can’t be woken up because they aren’t asleep or in some sort of trance. They’re doing exactly what they want, and their policies are having precisely the effect they intend. 
Here for example is an image from the New York subway system:
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🚨 NYC subway riders are all terrified of being shoved in front of a train. <a href="https://t.co/HCXmcRJ69S">pic.twitter.com/HCXmcRJ69S</a>
&mdash; Breaking911 (@Breaking911) <a href="https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1876039855458979983?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
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You&#8217;ll notice that everyone is standing against the wall, because they don&#8217;t want to get pushed on the tracks by some psycho. It&#8217;s straight-up dystopian and you have to wonder how long people will put up with it.
If there’s any waking up that can happen and must happen, it’s among the average citizens in places like New York. If they ever come to their senses and realize that the people they put in power are actively and intentionally making their lives worse in just about every measurable way, then maybe things will start to change for the better.
Unfortunately, for everyone living in New York, based on the celebrations we&#8217;re seeing in support of &#8220;congestion pricing&#8221; — which is really a tax on using your own property and going about your daily life — it doesn&#8217;t look like that will happen any time soon.

NY Congestion Pricing Plan’s Fate Unclear After Court Ruling

2025 Just Started And Things Are Already Getting Crazy

Automobiles

Cars

Kathy Hochul

Manhattan

Matt Walsh

Traffic

In another horrifying attack in the New York City subway system, a 23-year-old man has been charged with attempted murder after allegedly shoving a commuter onto the tracks just as a train arrived at the 18th Street subway station in the Chelsea neighborhood in Manhattan.
Kamel Hawkins, 23, was taken into custody Tuesday after allegedly pushing the 45-year-old man at roughly 1:30 p.m. on the southbound No. 1 train platform, the NYPD reported.
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JUST IN: 23-year-old Kamel Hawkins charged with attempted murder after pushing a random man in front of a moving train in Manhattan.
The incident happened at the 18th Street station this afternoon. 
Police say the 45-year-old victim is expected to survive and only suffered a… <a href="https://t.co/sDMYidQXwB">pic.twitter.com/sDMYidQXwB</a>
&mdash; Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) <a href="https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/status/1874280225845981277?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 1, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Kamel Hawkins, 23, was arrested yesterday on charges of second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault, for allegedly shoving a 45-year-old white man in front of a moving train at the 18th Street station in Chelsea at around 1:30 p.m. yesterday.
Note that there is no… <a href="https://t.co/1s68ed5fqh">pic.twitter.com/1s68ed5fqh</a>
&mdash; Crime In NYC (@CrimeInNYC) <a href="https://twitter.com/CrimeInNYC/status/1874401174109007999?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 1, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Violet Paley, aboard the 1 train when it stopped, told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/01/us/man-charged-attempted-murder-new-york-subway-shoving-hnk/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNN:</a> “All of a sudden there was an abrupt stop and because of everything I’ve been seeing on the news, the first thing that came to my mind was that someone probably got pushed in front of the subway, which is such a dark thought.”
She added that after roughly 10 minutes, a conductor told passengers they had to evacuate the train because there was a man under the subway. She noted, “They pulled him out, and he was laying there, and I saw his hands and fingers move. I was in so much shock that he was alive. It was unbelievable.”
The victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital with injuries to his head and a broken rib but was conscious and alert. He is expected to survive, a law enforcement source <a href="https://www.nbcnewyork.com/manhattan/man-pushed-onto-subway-tracks-chelsea-nye-nyc/6090327/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">informed</a> NBC New York.
As recently as December 22, New York Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul boasted, &#8220;In March, I took action to make our subways safer for the millions of people who take the trains each day. Since deploying the @NationalGuardNY to support @NYPDnews and @MTA safety efforts and adding cameras to all subway cars, crime is going down, and ridership is going up.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
In March, I took action to make our subways safer for the millions of people who take the trains each day.  
Since deploying the <a href="https://twitter.com/NationalGuardNY?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NationalGuardNY</a> to support <a href="https://twitter.com/NYPDnews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NYPDnews</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/MTA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MTA</a> safety efforts and adding cameras to all subway cars, crime is going down, and ridership is going up. <a href="https://t.co/T7uRxx9nIO">pic.twitter.com/T7uRxx9nIO</a>
&mdash; Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) <a href="https://twitter.com/GovKathyHochul/status/1870932469266190412?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 22, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Critics quickly pointed out that Hochul&#8217;s claims would not be well-received on the same day that a sleeping woman was burned alive on a subway in Brooklyn — while the suspect reportedly sat and watched — and in a <a href="https://abc7ny.com/post/queens-deadly-subway-stabbing/15691084/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">separate incident</a> in Queens, one man was stabbed in the chest and another was stabbed in the face. The man who had been stabbed in the chest was later pronounced dead.
&#8220;Two hours ago, Kathy Hochul took a victory lap for making subways &#8216;safer.&#8217; She congratulates herself on the same day two subway riders were stabbed in Queens (one in the face and one in the chest) and another was barbarically burned alive. Has there ever been a more tone-deaf Governor in the history of New York?&#8221; Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) posted.
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Two hours ago, Kathy Hochul took a victory lap for making subways “safer.” She congratulates herself on the same day two subway riders were stabbed in Queens (one in the face and one in the chest) and another was barbarically burned alive. 
Has there ever been a more tone-deaf… <a href="https://t.co/KIPujqpKa3">pic.twitter.com/KIPujqpKa3</a>
&mdash; Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) <a href="https://twitter.com/RitchieTorres/status/1870967985344799102?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 22, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Virginia Kruta contributed to this article.
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kathy-hochul-brags-about-subway-safety-after-a-woman-was-burned-alive-in-nyc">Kathy Hochul Brags About Subway Safety — After A Woman Was Burned Alive In NYC</a>

New York Subway Train

Assailant Charged After Allegedly Shoving Man Directly In Path Of Oncoming NY Subway Train

The NYPD announced Tuesday that police have identified the person who was set on fire and burned to death in a subway train car last week.
The woman, Debrina Kawam, 61, had a Toms River, New Jersey address, police said.
She had a “brief stint in our homeless shelter system,” New York City Democratic Mayor Eric Adams <a href="https://apnews.com/article/new-york-subway-burning-woman-688e2ebd46f0eb8f5c9e3430cf2b4bd5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Tuesday.
The mayor added that authorities have been in contact with her next of kin.
“Hearts go out to the family, a horrific incident to have to live through,” Adams said of the killing. “It impacts on how New Yorkers feel. But it really reinforces what I’ve been saying: People should not be living on our subway system, they should be in a place of care. No matter where she lived that should not have happened.”
On Sunday last week, Kawam was sleeping on a Brooklyn F train when she was set on fire by an illegal migrant. Horrifying footage of her burning alive while standing inside the subway car spread across social media last week.
Kawam reportedly had a walker and several bags nearby as she slept on the train around 7:30 a.m. at the Stillwell Avenue-Coney Island station at the end of the line. She had <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/12/31/us-news/mystery-woman-torched-to-death-in-horrific-nyc-subway-attack-finally-identified-by-cops-sources/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> been living in city homeless shelters since September. She had a bed at the Franklin Williams Women’s Shelter in the Bronx for a few days at the beginning of December.
The city medical examiner <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/12/24/us-news/woman-torched-to-death-on-mta-train-allegedly-by-illegal-migrant-still-cannot-be-idd-three-days-after-horrifying-attack-due-to-severe-burns-sources/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> had difficulty identifying the victim because the body was so severely burned.
An illegal migrant from Guatemala, Sebastian Zapeta, 33, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and arson for allegedly setting her on fire. Video footage appears to show the culprit fanning the flames with his shirt, then sitting down to watch his victim burn alive.
Zapeta is being held at Rikers Island jail without bail.
He entered the country illegally in 2018 and was deported less than a week later, according to immigration authorities, but he eventually entered again and was living in a New York City shelter as of March 2023.
According to a fellow shelter resident, Zapeta was addicted to smoking the synthetic drug K2 and drank vodka heavily.
“He smoked K2, drank, and bugged out,” Raymond Robinson, who slept next to Zapeta at the Samaritan Village Forbell men’s shelter in Brooklyn, <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/12/24/us-news/sebastian-zapeta-calil-charged-in-womans-burning-death-on-nyc-subway-often-bugged-out-after-smoking-k2-shelter-roommate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> the New York Post.
Police <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/12/24/us-news/sebastian-zapeta-calil-charged-in-womans-burning-death-on-nyc-subway-often-bugged-out-after-smoking-k2-shelter-roommate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Zapeta told them he had been drinking so much that he did not remember setting the woman on fire.
“This was a malicious deed. A sleeping, vulnerable woman on our subway system,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said when the indictment was announced against Zapeta.

Woman dies after being set on fire at subway train in New York

NYPD Identifies Woman Burned To Death On Subway

Illegal Immigration

Migrants

A well-known volunteer group known as the Guardian Angels has vowed to patrol the New York City subway system once again following horrific criminal incidents on the train, including an illegal immigrant fatally setting a woman on fire.
The group, currently composed of about 150 individuals, <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/12/29/us-news/guardian-angels-say-theyll-start-patrolling-nyc-subway-again-after-woman-burned-to-death-on-f-train/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> the New York Post that it wants to beef up its number of volunteers and act as another resource for residents.
“We’re covering the actual trains from front to back, walking through the trains and making sure that everything is okay,” founder Curtis Sliwa said on Sunday. “We’re doing this constantly now. Starting today. That’s going to be our complete focus because the subways are out of control.”
Sliwa said the red beret-wearing volunteers will hand out water and conduct wellness checks for those who are homeless or emotionally disturbed, and the group will also focus on reporting issues to the NYPD, the Post detailed.
“We’re going to have to increase our numbers, increase the training and increase our presence as we did back in 1979,” he said. “We’re going to step up. We’re going to make sure we have a visual presence just like we had in the ’70s, 80’s and ’90s.”
Sliwa said hundreds of citizens have requested that the volunteers head back to the subway in the wake of the recent crime. As highlighted by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/illegal-indicted-after-allegedly-burning-woman-to-death-on-nyc-subway" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Daily Wire</a>, a 33-year-old illegal named Sebastian Zapeta was charged this month with murder and arson after allegedly burning a woman to death on the subway.
The horrifying incident follows the high-profile case of Daniel Penny, a former U.S. Marine who stepped in to protect fellow passengers after a homeless man named Jordan Neely threatened straphangers. Penny was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-daniel-penny-found-not-guilty" target="_blank" rel="noopener">acquitted</a> in Neely&#8217;s death earlier this month.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul, both Democrats, have been under fire for the violent crime on the subway system. Notably, Hochul, in a particularly tone-deaf tweet, <a href="https://gazette.com/news/wex/hochul-touts-new-york-subway-safety-same-day-as-barbaric-crimes-occur/article_4ef823f3-a5f1-535a-8917-ba3934a70f67.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">celebrated</a> subway safety on the same day the still-unidentified woman was burned alive on the train and two others were stabbed.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
In March, I took action to make our subways safer for the millions of people who take the trains each day.
Since deploying the <a href="https://twitter.com/NationalGuardNY?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NationalGuardNY</a> to support <a href="https://twitter.com/NYPDnews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NYPDnews</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/MTA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MTA</a> safety efforts and adding cameras to all subway cars, crime is going down, and ridership is going up. <a href="https://t.co/T7uRxx9nIO">pic.twitter.com/T7uRxx9nIO</a>
— Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) <a href="https://twitter.com/GovKathyHochul/status/1870932469266190412?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 22, 2024</a></blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daniel-penny-is-not-guilty-justice-wins-in-spite-of-new-yorks-rigged-court-system" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Daniel Penny Is Not Guilty. Justice Wins In Spite Of New York’s Rigged Court System.</a>

The Guardian Angels patrolling the New York subway

Guardian Angels Return To NYC Subways As Crime Remains ‘Out Of Control’

Guardian Angels Set To Patrol NYC Subways Again As Crime Remains Out Of Control

Guardian Angels

Governor Kathy Hochul (D-NY) boasted on Sunday about her efforts to make New York City&#8217;s subways safer for commuters and visitors alike — and immediately took blowback as the news of two separate murders on the subway in the last 24 hours began to circulate.
Hochul posted her statement via X, saying, &#8220;In March, I took action to make our subways safer for the millions of people who take the trains each day. Since deploying the @NationalGuardNY to support @NYPDnews and @MTA safety efforts and adding cameras to all subway cars, crime is going down, and ridership is going up.&#8221;
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In March, I took action to make our subways safer for the millions of people who take the trains each day.  
Since deploying the <a href="https://twitter.com/NationalGuardNY?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NationalGuardNY</a> to support <a href="https://twitter.com/NYPDnews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NYPDnews</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/MTA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MTA</a> safety efforts and adding cameras to all subway cars, crime is going down, and ridership is going up. <a href="https://t.co/T7uRxx9nIO">pic.twitter.com/T7uRxx9nIO</a>
&mdash; Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) <a href="https://twitter.com/GovKathyHochul/status/1870932469266190412?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 22, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Critics quickly pointed out that Hochul&#8217;s claims would not be well-received on the same day that a sleeping woman was burned alive — while the suspect reportedly sat and watched — and in a <a href="https://abc7ny.com/post/queens-deadly-subway-stabbing/15691084/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">separate incident</a> in Queens on Saturday, one man was stabbed in the chest and another was stabbed in the face. The man who had been stabbed in the chest was later pronounced dead.
&#8220;Two hours ago, Kathy Hochul took a victory lap for making subways &#8216;safer.&#8217; She congratulates herself on the same day two subway riders were stabbed in Queens (one in the face and one in the chest) and another was barbarically burned alive. Has there ever been a more tone-deaf Governor in the history of New York?&#8221; Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) posted.
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Two hours ago, Kathy Hochul took a victory lap for making subways “safer.” She congratulates herself on the same day two subway riders were stabbed in Queens (one in the face and one in the chest) and another was barbarically burned alive. 
Has there ever been a more tone-deaf… <a href="https://t.co/KIPujqpKa3">pic.twitter.com/KIPujqpKa3</a>
&mdash; Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) <a href="https://twitter.com/RitchieTorres/status/1870967985344799102?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 22, 2024</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Today, a lady was burned alive on a subway in NYC. Thank you Kathy, you&#8217;ve done a bang up job,&#8221; country music star John Rich added.
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Today, a lady was burned alive on a subway in NYC. Thank you Kathy, you&#39;ve done a bang up job. <a href="https://t.co/vSbUoIeHWo">https://t.co/vSbUoIeHWo</a>
&mdash; John Rich🇺🇸 (@johnrich) <a href="https://twitter.com/johnrich/status/1871003958375862763?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 23, 2024</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Are you kidding me??? You are really posting this after a woman was set on fire &amp; died on a Brooklyn train this morning and two people were stabbed (one killed) on a Queens train yesterday,&#8221; Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) responded.
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Are you kidding me??? You are really posting this after a woman was set on fire &amp; died on a Brooklyn train this morning and two people were stabbed (one killed) on a Queens train yesterday. <a href="https://t.co/PE3udrHxPZ">https://t.co/PE3udrHxPZ</a>
&mdash; Nicole Malliotakis (@NMalliotakis) <a href="https://twitter.com/NMalliotakis/status/1870954071818989568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 22, 2024</a></blockquote>
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New York City Council member Robert Holden added, &#8220;Unbelievable timing: just hours after a woman was senselessly burned alive, and two people were stabbed, one fatally. Kathy Hochul’s incompetence is costing lives—she needs to leave public office immediately before more New Yorkers suffer.&#8221;
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Unbelievable timing: just hours after a woman was senselessly burned alive, and two people were stabbed, one fatally. 
Kathy Hochul’s incompetence is costing lives—she needs to leave public office immediately before more New Yorkers suffer. <a href="https://t.co/P9LPIT9C0c">https://t.co/P9LPIT9C0c</a>
&mdash; Robert Holden (@BobHoldenNYC) <a href="https://twitter.com/BobHoldenNYC/status/1870939058312221101?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 22, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Rep. Mike Lawler commented, &#8220;It’s clearly not working. You are the single most inept Governor in the country and should be ashamed at the gross incompetence of your administration’s handling of public safety in New York.&#8221;
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It’s clearly not working. You are the single most inept Governor in the country and should be ashamed at the gross incompetence of your administration’s handling of public safety in New York.<a href="https://t.co/DHJG1QVipg">https://t.co/DHJG1QVipg</a> <a href="https://t.co/u00PZbFcLS">https://t.co/u00PZbFcLS</a> <a href="https://t.co/uN1L3tsoO5">pic.twitter.com/uN1L3tsoO5</a>
&mdash; Mike Lawler (@lawler4ny) <a href="https://twitter.com/lawler4ny/status/1870937526602461222?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 22, 2024</a></blockquote>
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New York Governor Hochul Makes Announcement On Congestion Pricing Plan

Kathy Hochul Brags About Subway Safety — After A Woman Was Burned Alive In NYC

Kathy Hochul Brags About Subway Safety Measures — After A Woman Was Burned Alive In NYC

Daniel Penny Acquitted In Trial Over Death Of Jordan Neely On NYC Subway

Is This The End Of The BLM Era?

Anti-Racism

Court

Health Care

Social Justice

White Supremacy

Woke Culture

Big breaking news today. In the trial we’ve been following very closely, Daniel Penny, the man who stepped up to protect a subway car full of passengers from a violent, drug-addled vagrant, has been found not guilty. He is a free man. Justice has prevailed.
In spite of all that was stacked against him, in a trial that never should have happened, Daniel Penny will walk free. He should be awarded the Medal of Freedom for the courage he showed on that train that day — and maybe, with Trump coming in, that may still happen — but for now he will have to settle for, if not the Medal of Freedom, than freedom itself. 
Here’s Newsmax breaking the news:
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BREAKING NEWS: Jury finds Daniel Penny not guilty of negligent homicide. <a href="https://t.co/AhaucyvGQz">pic.twitter.com/AhaucyvGQz</a>
&mdash; NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) <a href="https://twitter.com/NEWSMAX/status/1866160590047367618?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 9, 2024</a></blockquote>
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This is, of course, a major victory for justice, fairness, and the rule of law. But we should not succumb to the temptation to just move on, let bygones be bygones, and forget about the injustice and persecution Penny suffered, as if the not guilty verdict means there is no harm and no foul. Penny’s acquittal is a credit to the jury, which ultimately made the right choice, in spite of the media pressure and violent threats from the crazed mob of BLM protesters outside and around the country. But justice is happening here in spite of the court system in New York. In spite of the corrupt, far-Left prosecutor. And in spite of the judge. 
So, let’s go back and review what happened just in the last couple of days, before this verdict was decided. There was an attempt — a rather desperate one, at the last minute — to rig this trial once and for all against Penny. It failed. But we should remember it, and talk about it. And before we do, I want you to remember back to the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, when one of the arguments we heard — over and over again — was that Rittenhouse had unlawfully carried a firearm across state lines. PolitiFact published a whole &#8220;fact check&#8221; <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/politifact-kyle-rittenhouse-fact-check" target="_blank" rel="noopener">asserting</a> it was false to claim that Rittenhouse had any legal right to possess his AR-15 in Kenosha. Don Lemon, meanwhile, claimed that Rittenhouse was a &#8220;white teenager who crossed state lines with an AR-15-style rifle.&#8221; Joe Scarborough said, &#8220;He crossed state lines with an AR-15.&#8221; 
Various members of Congress made the same claim, clearly implying that there was something sinister — even illegal — about Kyle Rittenhouse possessing and transporting his firearm.
Ultimately the entire narrative fell apart — and not just because Kyle Rittenhouse never actually crossed state lines with an AR-15. Shortly before jury deliberations began in Rittenhouse&#8217;s murder trial, the prosecution was forced to admit that, under Wisconsin law, Kyle Rittenhouse had every legal right to possess his rifle. That&#8217;s because the rifle barrel of Rittenhouse&#8217;s AR-15 was longer than 16 inches, which is the minimum barrel length that Wisconsin state law allowed. So with very little fanfare, after months of lying by the press, the judge dismissed the gun charge against Rittenhouse before the jury could even consider it.
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That&#8217;s the normal procedure that occurs in a criminal trial before the judge sends the jury to deliberate. It&#8217;s the kind of thing that happens when the judge is interested in a fair trial, as the Rittenhouse judge clearly was. Before the jury gets the case, there&#8217;s an effort to make sure that the jury is considering a specific slate of charges that are well-founded in the law. You want to clarify exactly what charges the defendant is facing, prior to sending the jury away to deliberate. 
Otherwise — if you start removing or adding charges after deliberations have begun — then you risk confusing the jury and sending signals that are obviously unfair to the defendant. This is the kind of thing that fair prosecutors and fair judges do everything they can to avoid.
What happened in the Daniel Penny case on Friday, on the other hand, demonstrates once again that neither the judge nor the prosecutors were remotely concerned about basic principles of fairness. Fortunately the jury was, but they weren’t. So, after several days of deliberation in the Penny case, the jury announced that it was deadlocked on the second-degree manslaughter charge, which requires the prosecution to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Penny deliberately disregarded a serious risk of causing death to Jordan Neely, and that Penny did not act in self-defense.
In response, the judge sent the jury back for some more deliberations to make sure they were deadlocked. This is called an &#8220;Allen charge&#8221; or a &#8220;dynamite charge,&#8221; and it&#8217;s normal in many jurisdictions when a jury says that it can&#8217;t reach a verdict, including New York. The idea is to remind jurors that it&#8217;s important that they try to reach a unanimous verdict if at all possible, without forcing them into finding one. 
And then after receiving this &#8220;Allen charge,&#8221; the Penny jury confirmed that, indeed, they were deadlocked on the first count. The jury did not return any verdict on the lesser-included charge of criminally negligent homicide, which requires that the prosecution prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Penny should have known he was posing some deadly risk to Jordan Neely, even if he didn&#8217;t deliberately and consciously ignore that risk. It also requires that the prosecution prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Penny was not acting in self-defense.
At this point, the appropriate thing for the judge to do would be to declare a mistrial. That&#8217;s what should happen when a jury repeatedly says they can&#8217;t reach a verdict, after deliberating for several days, and after the judge does his best to remind them of the importance of finding a verdict. Any other result risks influencing the jury, and suggesting that they should reach a certain outcome. It also happens to be inconsistent with New York law.
But instead of declaring a mistrial, the judge — whose name is Maxwell Wiley — decided to do something that, by his own admission, doesn&#8217;t have any precedent in his state. He dismissed the manslaughter charge entirely and left the criminally negligent homicide charge intact. And then he told the jurors to come back for more deliberations on Monday. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Manslaughter charge against Daniel Penny dismissed, jury asked to decide lesser charge" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H1eXoBQ0Iow?start=114&#038;feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
What&#8217;s not captured in that CNN segment is that, by the judge&#8217;s own admission, what he was doing in the Penny case has no precedent. It&#8217;s not just lawyers and CNN commentators who are saying this. As the judge <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2024/12/06/us/daniel-penny-jordan-neely-trial-verdict/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">put it</a>, “I’ll take a chance and grant the prosecution’s application.”
Yes, the judge actually said that. He said he&#8217;ll &#8220;take a chance&#8221; and implement a novel application of criminal law by dismissing the manslaughter charge while retaining a &#8220;lesser-included&#8221; offense. He&#8217;s conducting a little legal experiment in the middle of a homicide trial. He&#8217;s throwing out the established rules, and effectively allowing the prosecution to change their strategy, after jury deliberations have already begun.
This was clearly a violation of Daniel Penny&#8217;s constitutional rights. He has the right to be treated like every other criminal defendant, under the Due Process Clause of the Constitution. But the prosecution and the judge abandoned that principle for the most flagrantly political reasons imaginable. Instead of the jury getting an &#8220;Allen charge,&#8221; they&#8217;re now being told to conduct a whole new set of deliberations, with new rules.
To give you a sense of why this was such a significant ruling, take a look at the verdict form that the jury was considering. Here it is:
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-841321 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GeIoUCdXoAA5gNU-473x576.jpeg" alt="" width="473" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GeIoUCdXoAA5gNU-473x576.jpeg 473w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GeIoUCdXoAA5gNU-247x300.jpeg 247w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GeIoUCdXoAA5gNU-768x935.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GeIoUCdXoAA5gNU.jpeg 1125w" sizes=" (max-width: 473px) 100vw, 473px" /></div>
It begins by stating that, if the jurors find Daniel Penny guilty of manslaughter, then they&#8217;re done. They don&#8217;t have to consider the &#8220;lesser-included&#8221; charge of criminally negligent homicide.
But then the form goes on to state that:
<blockquote>If you find the defendant not guilty of count 1, manslaughter in the second degree, for the reason that the People have failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was not justified, then you must not consider count 2, criminally negligent homicide, and you must also find the defendant not guilty of that count.</blockquote>
The form continues:
<blockquote>If you find the defendant not guilty of count 1, manslaughter in the second degree, for some reason other than the lack of justification, then proceed to, consider, and render a verdict on count 2, criminally negligent homicide.</blockquote>
What this is saying is that, if the jurors found that Penny was justified and acted in self-defense — to protect himself or others on that subway car — then a &#8220;not guilty&#8221; verdict on the manslaughter charge means that there also should be a &#8220;not guilty&#8221; verdict on the criminally negligent homicide charge. And that&#8217;s a pretty clear logical progression. Self-defense is a total defense to both charges, not just one of them.
Now, very abruptly, the jury is being asked to throw out this whole logical progression. These instructions have basically been revised after-the-fact. Now they&#8217;re being asked to consider the charge for criminally negligent homicide in isolation.
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Again, it&#8217;s impossible to ignore the natural effect this was meant to have on the jury. The message was very clear. The judge was essentially telling the jury to compromise and convict on something.
Officially, the judge&#8217;s reasoning was that, in most other cases, there&#8217;s a, “very clear” difference between the primary charge, and the &#8220;lesser-included charge.&#8221; But he said that&#8217;s not the case in this trial. So that&#8217;s why he says he allowed the prosecution to dismiss one of the charges while keeping the other, after the jury had already deliberated.
This is a move that can politely be described as &#8220;novel,&#8221; as the defense attorney&#8217;s put it. More accurately, it&#8217;s a sleight of hand that undermines the legitimacy of the entire criminal court system. But the state of New York is evidently willing to sacrifice the legitimacy of its judicial system — whatever&#8217;s left of it, anyway — in order to punish Daniel Penny by any means necessary. And yet they still failed, because God is good, and truth wins in the end.
Not that it really needs to be said, but the point of laws — especially criminal laws — is not to be &#8220;novel.&#8221; It&#8217;s to establish rules that apply to everyone, so that they can be enforced fairly, without regard to politics. Once prosecutors start bending the rules and coming up with &#8220;creative&#8221; ways to imprison American citizens, it&#8217;s clear that they&#8217;re not actually concerned with justice. They&#8217;re activists who want to punish their political enemies. And in New York, the judges are activists too, so they go along with it.
Last week, we <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YriK2BkSaqw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">talked</a> about the prosecutor in this case, Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Dafna Yoran. Just a few years ago, she dramatically reduced the sentence of a black man who brutally killed an Asian man during an ATM robbery, because she said she felt sorry for the &#8220;trauma&#8221; in his life. She didn&#8217;t want to apply the law — which clearly applied to the assailant&#8217;s conduct — because she wanted to try out a novel concept called &#8220;restorative justice.&#8221;
In the Penny case, this same prosecutor was using a &#8220;novel approach&#8221; for a very different purpose. She decided, this time around, to go out of her way to punish a defendant in a homicide case. She employed every legal technicality in the book to throw him in prison. In fact, she came up with new technicalities that have never been attempted before. And it&#8217;s not hard to see why that is. Sure, Daniel Penny acted in self-defense, unlike the ATM robber. Sure, Jordan Neely was a menace to society, unlike the professor who was murdered while he was withdrawing $300.
But also unlike the ATM robber, Daniel Penny is white. And for that reason — and that reason alone — the jury in this case was forced to continue deliberations. The judge and the prosecutors refused to drop this case, long after it&#8217;s clear that they&#8217;re legally obligated to do so.
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Ultimately, they failed in their scheme. The whole thing backfired. Now they can’t retry Penny for the charge that was dismissed, because they dismissed after deliberations began, so double jeopardy protections apply. And obviously they can’t try again on the charge he was just acquitted of. If they’d taken the mistrial last week, they could have kept trying to throw Penny in prison. But they gambled that this maneuver would result at least in a conviction on a lesser charge, and they’d still be able to throw Penny in prison for four years and ruin his life.
That was the calculation. It didn’t pay off. They failed. They tried to railroad him, but they failed. We should never forget that. Daniel Penny surely won’t. But for now, what matters most is that he won. Justice won. And justice won in spite of the very people who are supposed to ensure that it wins.

US-JUSTICE-SOCIAL-TRANSPORT

Daniel Penny Is Not Guilty. Justice Wins In Spite Of New York’s Rigged Court System.

Daniel Penny Is Not Guilty. Justice Wins In Spite Of New York's Rigged Court System.

The prosecutor and a witness in the trial of Daniel Penny referred to him as “the white man” during testimony while referring to the deceased, Jordan Neely, as “Mr. Neely.”
On day two of the controversial trial, where Penny faces charges relating to the death of Neely after the latter allegedly threatened New York City subway passengers, Ivette Rosario testified about what she saw when Penny placed Neely in a chokehold to prevent him from hurting other passengers.
Rosario filmed a short video of Penny restraining Neely in the chokehold and was asked about her experience the day Neely died, the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/11/04/opinion/daniel-penny-labeled-the-white-man-at-racially-charged-trial/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. Rosario apparently didn’t know Penny’s name, so she referred to him as “the white guy,” and the prosecution not only didn’t correct her but began referring to Penny as “the white man” throughout her testimony. Rosario, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic who has lived in New York City for 10 years, referred to Neely by his first name or as “Mr. Neely.” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Jillian Shartrand did the same throughout the exchange.
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The two referred to Penny as “the white man” or &#8220;the white guy&#8221; more than half a dozen times during Rosario’s testimony, the Post reported.
When Thomas Kenniff, Penny’s defense attorney, stepped up to cross-examine Rosario, he first pointed out that “the white man” had a name: Danny.
Rosario told the jury that she was frightened of Neely on May 1, 2023, when he entered the train, removed his sweater, and angrily announced to everyone that he was homeless, had no money, and didn’t care about returning to jail, according to the Inner City Press.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
ADA: Where did he throw his sweater? 
Rosario: It didn&#8217;t land on any one. 
ADA: Did he touch anyone? 
Rosario: I didn&#8217;t see that, no. No weapons. 
ADA: What did you do? 
Rosario: I was very nervous. I got scared by the tone of what he was saying, an angry tone.
— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) <a href="https://twitter.com/innercitypress/status/1853460755992952942?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 4, 2024</a></blockquote>
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“I got scared by the tone. It was an angry tone,” she said, according to the Post.
The Post noted that during <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trial-begins-for-daniel-penny-in-controversial-subway-chokehold-case" target="_blank" rel="noopener">opening statements</a> on Friday, the prosecution asked why Penny did “not see Mr. Neely’s humanity,” yet on Monday wouldn’t even use his name.
In the opening days of the trial, law enforcement said Neely was alive when first responders arrived at the scene, but they did not give Neely mouth-to-mouth because officers were worried about what diseases he may have been carrying, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jordan-neely-was-alive-when-police-arrived-didnt-give-mouth-to-mouth-because-he-was-filthy-nypd" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
“He was an apparent drug user and he was very dirty,” NYPD Sgt. Carl Johnson testified, <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/11/01/us-news/daniel-penny-trial-live-updates-nov-1/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the Post. “I didn’t want my officers to put their lips on his mouth. They could get hepatitis or AIDS … chest compressions would be enough to get him awake.”
Penny, a 26-year-old former Marine, faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of manslaughter or up to 4 years if he’s convicted on the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide.

Daniel Penny Repeatedly Referred To As ‘The White Man’ By Prosecution

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