XPost: talk.politics.guns, alt.politics.socialist.nazi, alt.law-   
   nforcement.corruption   
   XPost: sac.politics, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   From: jew@whores.nyc   
      
   NEW YORK (AP) — Potential jurors’ own subway-riding experiences came   
   into focus Friday in the case against a white U.S. Marine Corps veteran   
   charged with killing a troubled Black man on a subway train.   
      
   No jurors have yet been chosen for the manslaughter trial of Daniel   
   Penny, who put Jordan Neely in a chokehold that, medical examiners said,   
   killed him. But in a Manhattan case that concerns perceptions of safety   
   in the nation’s largest subway system, the jury pool so far is full of   
   people with a mix of comfort levels with riding the trains.   
      
   Most of the roughly 20 potential panelists who underwent questioning   
   Friday were at least occasional subway riders, and many said they’d seen   
   people have outbursts. Some said the episodes hadn’t left them feeling   
   personally threatened or harassed, but several said they had.   
      
   One recalled an unsettling subway-riding moment years ago when he and a   
   woman sitting near him were approach by a disheveled man who was upset   
   that she was ignoring him. The prospective juror got off the train, he   
   said, as another man stood up as if poised to intervene.   
      
   Another potential jury member said he’d seen things on the subway that   
   made him nervous in recent years. A third said he hadn’t ridden the   
   subway throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and while he wasn’t afraid of   
   the underground, he’d “heard of some criminal violence” there.   
      
   And after a prosecutor explained that Penny isn’t charged with an   
   intentional killing and asserts he was protecting himself and other   
   subway riders, a fourth prospective juror had had enough.   
      
      
   “This all seems incredibly complicated,” he said, and soon after asked   
   to be excused. His request hadn’t been decided by the time court broke   
   for the day.   
      
   Jury selection is set to continue Monday in the case, which has become a   
   crucible for opinions about public safety, mental illness, the line   
   between intervention and vigilantism, and the role of race in how people   
   perceive all of it.   
      
   Some demonstrators have rallied to decry Penny, others to defend him.   
   Some prominent Democratic officials went to Neely’s funeral, while   
   high-profile Republican politicians portrayed Penny as a hero who   
   confronted Neely to protect others. Penny’s legal defense fund has   
   raised millions of dollars.   
      
   Prospective members of the anonymous jury were asked whether they or   
   their loved ones had served in the military, taken martial arts or   
   self-defense training, or had problems with drug addiction, mental   
   illness or homelessness.   
      
   Neely had once been familiar to some subway riders for his Michael   
   Jackson impersonations. But relatives have said he struggled with mental   
   health problems after his mother was killed and was found stuffed in a   
   suitcase in 2007.   
      
   Over the years, Neely became homeless and developed a history of drug   
   use, disruptive behavior and arrests, including a guilty plea to   
   assaulting a stranger in 2021.   
      
   On May 1, 2023, Neely boarded a subway and began shouting and acting   
   erratically, witnesses said.   
      
   Neely’s family and supporters have said he was only appealing for help,   
   not menacing anyone.   
      
   Other passengers differed on whether he was a danger. Some told police   
   he was frightening people by making sudden movements and statements   
   about being willing to die or go to jail. Yet at least one witness   
   described Neely’s behavior as “like another day, typically, in New   
   York,” according to a court filing.   
      
   Penny, who told officers that Neely threatened “to kill everybody,” put   
   an arm around his neck. With two other riders helping to pin Neely to   
   the floor, the Marine veteran held him around the neck for more than   
   three minutes, until his body went limp.   
      
   Penny later told detectives in an interview that he was “just trying to   
   de-escalate,” not to injure or kill Neely.   
      
   City medical examiners determined that he died from compression of the   
   neck. Penny’s lawyers have indicated they plan to argue that he wasn’t   
   applying pressure in a way that could have killed Neely, and that his   
   death could have been caused by other factors, including the use of the   
   synthetic cannabinoid known as K2.   
      
   Noting Neely’s mental health problems, K2 use and conduct on the train,   
   prosecutor Dafna Yoran probed prospective jurors about whether they   
   might think he brought his death on himself.   
      
   “You don’t really know what the person’s going to do on K2,” one   
   potential panelist responded, adding: “Not that I would think he   
   deserved it.”   
      
   “Under the law, all life is equal,” the prosecutor reminded the group,   
   emphasizing that anyone selected as a juror will have to judge the   
   evidence, not Neely’s history — or Penny’s.   
      
   The 25-year-old former Marine was discharged in 2021 and has since taken   
   college classes, his lawyers have said.   
      
   “You can be grateful” for his service, Yoran told the prospective   
   jurors. “Can you understand that you are not here to judge the defendant   
   as a person?”   
      
   “Law is law,” one responded. “And if the evidence proves itself correct,   
   then it is what it is.”   
      
   https://apnews.com/article/nyc-subway-chokehold-death-jordan-nee   
   y-penny-4dcc87ff7a54de125625297bdd56a095   
      
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