Black Star News Editorial
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
White Marine Daniel Penny was acquitted Monday morning for the choke-hold-lynch killing of homeless Black man Jordan Neely.
Are we really surprised by this inhumane verdict where a white man is acquitted for killing a distressed homeless and hungry Black man?
We’re being told this jury was an “anonymous jury,” though we hear that the said jury makeup was seven women and five men. Of course, the anonymity here is revolving around the question of what was the racial composition of the jury?
And according to Hawk Newsome, co-founder of New York’s BLM chapter, Penny’s lawyers picked a white supremacist jury specialist “to target the racists in that jury. The prosecution pointed out the fact that defense was eliminating people based on race.”
This case is another horrific example of the devaluation of Black life in America—including by the “justice” system that is usually criminalizing us, but not defending us. White men have a long bloody history of criminality, vigilantism, and murder against Black America.
Imagine this: Penny was just acquitted for choking (for 6 minutes) Neely to death, on May 1, 2023—a few short years after the May 25, 2020, police murder of George Floyd, who was choked for 9 minutes and 29 seconds.
Let’s keep this in mind: Penny is a trained veteran who clearly knew his actions could lead to Neely’s death. Therefore, we must ask was Neely’s death really as accidental as many have suggested?
In a conversation with police, Penny claimed, “I wasn’t trying to injure him. I’m just trying to keep him from hurting anyone else. He’s threatening people. That’s what we learn in the Marine Corps.”
The thing here is this: there is no report that Jordan Neely physically hurt anyone during this encounter, so where is Penny getting this “keep him from hurting anyone else” lie? Yes, there are reports Neely made verbally violent threats. But don’t mentally disturbed people sometimes make threatening statements? And does this give a civilian the right to preemptively clamp a death-choke around their neck?
Moreover, Jordan Neely had no weapon. Journalist Juan Alberto Vazquez, who filmed part of the choke-hold killing, in an interview with Curbed Magazine said, “obviously, the marine, in the end, went too far.” And since Penny isn’t a police officer why did he think he had the white right to restrain Neely for being verbally violent?
It must be said that Daniel Penny is a cowardly disgrace of a Marine. Jordan Neely was 5\11, but of slight stature. He was said to have lost plenty of weight due to being chronically hungry, besides being homeless. But Penny kills Neely by creeping up on him (from behind) placing him in a choke-hold and continued to do so while at least one other person was holding Neely’s hands.
But white racists call this chicken Penny a “hero.” A trained Marine can’t control a slight emaciated, unarmed, man?
Here’s another important point: Daniel Penny’s own words seem to telegraph that he indeed had malicious intent toward Jordan Neely.
Penny himself said he “just put him in a chokehold” and “put him out.” What are we to believe Penny meant by saying he “put him out? Another interesting note here is that Daniel Penny was reportedly on his way to the gym. Did this Marine decide to get in some early gym work by choking a hungry homeless Black man?
Here are other questions for us to consider.
Why did this jury think Penny was justified in strangling Neely, when Neely hadn’t, physically, attacked anyone? Why did Penny continue to choke Neely when at least one other person was restraining Neely’s hands? Why did Penny continue to choke Neely even after several people were begging him to stop, including some who warned Penny that he was killing Neely—and even after Neely had defecated upon himself?
The jury apparently decided because Neely was being verbally violent that Penny was justified. But would they have arrived at the same conclusion if Neely was white like Penny?
A major question here is what was the racial makeup of this jury of seven women and five men? Is Black Lives Matter co-founder, Hawk Newsome, correct when he says Penny’s lawyers used a white supremacist jury specialist to taint the jury pool white?
At the end of the day, yet another white man has gotten away with recklessly snuffing out the life of another Black man, while white supremacists of America applaud. This is because Daniel Penny killed Jordan Neely as an agent of, and for, those white Americans.
