Daniel Penny beams, crowd breaks out in applause as Marine vet is acquitted in subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely

[Cirsium]

166. Ahhhhhhhhhhh

I hadn't followed this case. I didn't follow the OJ case either, back in the day, and like with this case I initially could not understand why there was such an uproar and so much interest about the case. I didn't know then that his wife was white. I witnessed white crowds gathered around TV sets in bars, restaurants and coffee houses cheering and booing at every little twist and turn in the trial. It was grotesque.

I just discovered that the victim in this case, Jordan Neely, was Black. Who here is naive enough to believe that racism does not play a powerful role in the discussions about this, as it does in just about every discussion in the US about crime, politics and justice? Not I.

Today, still, in the year 2024, it goes on, the same ugly mob mentality. It is shameful.

I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Now, it could well be that the choke hold was a last resort and was the only way to protect the other passengers from harm. I wasn't there and I was not on the jury. I am not addressing that. I am addressing the ghoulish commentary by people right here, and elsewhere around the country. I find it despicable.