Tea at Trianon: On the Daniel Penny Travesty

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, December 5, 2024

On the Daniel Penny Travesty

To see such horrific treatment of a brave young man, who was just trying to protect innocent people from a deranged maniac, is beyond disgusting. I have no words for it. From Chronicles:

The case suggesting Penny overreacted is flimsy, not to mention cynical: Prosecutors and judges in New York routinely set dangerous people like Jordan Neely free to roam. In the eyes of the prosecutors, Penny’s real crime was not restraining Neely for too long or too forcefully—it was daring to lay his hands on a black man, regardless of how dangerously insane he was and no matter how seriously that man may have harmed innocent people.

There is no evidence that Penny’s actions had anything to do with race or that he had any motive except a manly protector’s instinct. But from its inception, the case has been defined by the familiar “white aggressor-black victim” dynamic that is often featured in cases involving police actions dealing with uncooperative suspects when they happen to be black.

There is good reason to believe that crucial evidence against Penny was tainted by this prejudicial framing. The prosecution’s key witness, medical examiner Cynthia Harris, said she determined that Neely died of a chokehold before seeing his toxicology and after watching cellphone video of Penny’s neck restraint, which would have told her right away that she was dealing with a racially charged case that would receive significant publicity.

Considering the politics of New York City, it is reasonable to question the integrity of Harris’s medical opinion. Neely was high on the potent synthetic cannabinoid, K2, which Penny’s lawyers argue may have contributed to his death, and he had a faint pulse when police got to the scene. But Harris said that, had Neely had enough fentanyl in his system to kill an elephant, it would not change her opinion that Neely died from asphyxia. We have heard similar testimony passed off as “expert” science in other cases against white defendants.

The passionate rhetoric from prosecutors has a familiar feel. Neely “demanded to be seen,” they said in their opening. Neely died “on the dirty floor of an uptown F train.” To Penny, Neely “didn’t deserve even the minimum modicum of humanity.” Penny should have run with the herd and allowed Neely to act on his threats: “We pass people like Jordan Neely every day in our city. As New Yorkers we train ourselves not to engage, not to make eye contact, to pretend that people like Jordan Neely are not there.” (Read more.)