428 Comments
Jun 10, 2023·edited Jun 10, 2023

I plan on listening later today, but one quick comment on the sub-title: "When homelessness, mental illness, and vigilantism collide on the subway."

I strongly disagree with the use of 'vigilantism' in this case. The root word, vigilante, is defined as follows:

vigilante

vĭj″ə-lăn′tē

noun

A person who is not a member of law enforcement but who pursues and punishes persons suspected of lawbreaking.

A member of a vigilance committee.

A person who considers it their own responsibility to uphold the law in their neighbourhood.

Not one of those apply in this case and it's use exposes a bias on the part of the author.

***************

ETA:

I've finally had the chance to listen to this episode and I found it extremely nuanced, honest and fair, much to my surprise based on the description in the title and the above article. I highly recommend everyone listen.

I stand by my OP, this was not the act of of a vigilante. A vigilante is someone on a horse, with a rope, actively looking for a victim...

This begs the question, why such an incendiary title?

Was it because of an inherent bias on the part of the host/author? If that's the case then how do you explain the nuanced conversation?

Was it to generate clicks and comments? If that's the case then, as others have said, I question the editorial path of TFP. You're no better than CNN in that case.

Expand full comment

How about the entire woke liberal ideas are a failure. Vigilantism I don’t agree with as part of this. How about people are afraid and know the political system gives more rights to the mentally Ill, looters, car jakers, and plain old criminals than the working taxpayers. Now you must endure the mentally ill and criminals in your face and accept it as part of life. Someone tries to help and it’s racism. BS, this and all of the other crime falls on politicians, race hustlers, and stupid white liberals. The guy should never of been on the street. So now he is loved and his family cares. Why? Money! Plain and simple. The race hustler’s only care if it helps them. Trash all!

Expand full comment

Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ. Being in close proximity - a closed subway car - to a lunatic who is threatening not only you but everybody around you - and then you do something about it - is not "vigilantism." It's a reasonable response to an unreasonable threat. Too bad (maybe) the perp died.

What a fine place we live in now! Our elected officials go after men who are doing what men DO - protecting those unable to defend themselves - and put them in jail, then the public pisses and moans about Frenchmen who stand by and watch a different lunatic stab women and children. What do you people WANT, anyway?

Expand full comment
founding

“the policies progressives favor as an alternative to incarcerating the mentally ill failed Jordan Neely”

—————————————————

Really not a huge fan of the notion that we failed Jordan Neely like we let *him* down somehow.

He punched an old woman in the face and shattered her eye socket. She is the one who we let down. A decent society would have given that guy a cigarette and a blindfold ten years ago.

Expand full comment
founding

“To progressives, Neely, who was black, is another victim of systemic racism”

——————————————————-

My favorite thing about Democrat claims of systemic racism is that they completely control all of the systems.

Expand full comment

"progressives" make martyrs out of the worst human beings. I won't be spending another second on this because people like Neely and Floyd don't deserve our time and attention.

Let's treat every single suicide, every single one of the hundred thousand drug overdoses per year, like each of those people matter just as much.

With progressives it's never about a meaningful vision of human life, it's about stories that validate their delusions of racism.

Expand full comment

"When homelessness, mental illness, and vigilantism collide on the subway."

Oh please just piss off. So sick of pseudo-intellectuals pontificating about shit. Which of the "men" in this conversation have even had to jump in to save someone from one of these skells?

In fact, just consider how these navel gazing, useless nitwits have even perverted our language.

"Homeless?" No. In saner days, Neely was "a bum." A raving lunatic. And a violent psychopath.

And vigilantism. As Kings Full points out, a vigilante is one who pursues a miscreant. Dan Penny and the others pursued nobody. Due to the lazy, stupid and ineffective governance that pervades New York City, they were stuck in a filthy, subway - "the electric sewer" we all dread riding - and was forced to deal with an unhinged lunatic when all they wanted to do was get to work like normal people do.

Just the other day, a good friend was accosted in midtown just before dusk by another such lunatic, yelling racist invectives and threatening to stab him. Any one of us, who dares defend ourselves could instantly become another Dan Penny. Is this sane? Is this normal? Is this America? I despise what Democrats have done to our beautiful land. When will the spark finally ignite our simmering powder keg?

Expand full comment

This is a giant example of the failure of government. Those who expect government or politics to solve complex problems like mentally ill people on the street are delusional themselves. The problem is complex but the answer isn’t - enforce the law. When people are threatened they will eventually fight back if the authorities don’t take care of the problem. Jordan Neely was definitely a big problem and I don’t care whether he was rich, poor, black, white, or green, he was a problem and all the delusional ideas of progressive “do gooders” weren’t helpful in the moment - someone had to do something. They should build monuments to Daniel Penny - he stepped up when someone needed to step up! It is indeed unfortunate that Jordan Neely lost his life but the real cause of his death preceded the intervention by Mr. Penny. Society needs to make sure the public is safe! Jordan Neely should NOT have been on the street - shame on the public safety and health systems in NYC.

Expand full comment

Protecting others in a tin can, underground, with no way out from a violent lunatic is not vigilantism but heroism.

Expand full comment

I do appreciate the Free Press and its sincere efforts to be thoughtful and principled. And I will give the podcast a listen.

BUT.

In no way was Penny’s action “vigilantism”. It was an act of selfless courage to defend himself and the innocent bystanders on that train from imminent and potentially fatal harm.

When will thoughtful people realize that this breakdown in our civilization is happening precisely BECAUSE our government officials want it to?

Where were they when tragic/evil mr Neely was suffering through his dreadful childhood, watching his mother murdered? Moving from panhandling pest to dangerous thug? Being cycled through the “justice” system through over FORTY arrests?

Watching Sharpton blather on at his funeral was infuriating.

Nobody did nuthin, until they could destroy the life of the one man who tried to do the right thing and protect the innocent.

I hope the podcast makes this clear but the use of the word vigilantism makes me skeptical.

Expand full comment

You know how evil the progressive narrative is when they eulogize not the person Neely had become but the kid he was over 10 years ago. They don’t have posters with a current picture of him but photos taken over a decade ago. Even Eli feeds into this fake narrative in his opening sentence. Starting 0ff with: "a homeless man suffering from severe mental illness, was choked to death …" and not reporting the real situation of: "a homeless man suffering from severe mental illness [threatening to kill passengers] , was choked to death…"

Journalists lie by omission to frame the "truth" they want people to know.

Expand full comment

Why and how Jordan Neely "slipped through the cracks" is of interest and would probably be valuable in addressing additional similar situations which exist, but the most important question outstanding is how the NYC DA has reacted to Neely's death. Mr. Penny, at risk to himself, protected his community. For that he was charged. What the case of Jordan Neely demonstrates is the moral bankruptcy of New York's District Attorney's office. New York City and state were once renowned for the quality of their chief law enforcement officers; Louis Lefkowitz and Robert Morgenthau. Today we have clowns like Bragg.

Expand full comment

I think what Eli Lake meant to say was, "A dangerous vagrant with a long history of violence was finally stopped dead in his tracks when he threatened to kill people on the subway."

Expand full comment

Jordan Neely was a 42 time felon/criminal who hurt many people - I am glad he is in the afterlife and it is the government who has failed you - do not forget that. Daniel Penny did the job of a good citizen; his actions were not malicious, Neely's were.

A 22 time felon bashed the face of our son and his friend 1.5 years ago causing a years worth of jaw reconstruction. Why are these people on the streets?

Because YOU elect radical district attorney's who are pro-criminal. Pay attention and do some basic homework before you check a box.

Expand full comment

Exactly! You beat me to it. This was a case of self defense, plain and simple. The headline is prejudicial and shows the author’s bias.

Expand full comment

Myself I was a victim on NY subway platform, attacked by similar character, who pushed me to the edge of that platform. I nearly escaped the tragedy!

Cop who showed up seconds after refused to do anything when I complained.

His reasoning was “if I take him out - he’ll comeback, if I write a report and take him to the station he’ll be let go almost immediately.”

System doesn’t know what to do with people who torment our cities because of the laws in place! There is total brake down of mental health system. There are no solutions nor resources. I wouldn’t even blame the police that much. They work with what they’ve got.

We are tax paying law-abiding citizens are not respected by our political establishment because we go alone with policies they put in place. Policies like “do not stop looters, do not stop vandals, you cannot protect yourself or your property”

We are scared to sound politically incorrect! Allowing our way of life to be destructed or even destroyed.

I’m retired now and can avoid subway like a plague.

Expand full comment