So far as I can tell, about thirty fellow New York commuters said that they perceived imminent danger from Neely. There's no evidence that anybody yelled for Daniel Penny, the marine who subdued Neely, to let Neely go. All of the sympathy toward Neely seems to be coming from rich white people, activists, people who weren't there (obviously). I wonder if any of the people who are protesting have ridden the New York subway.
Now, this is a self-defense/defense-of-others case that, if Penny is charged, and a lot of the white, leftists commentators on the media get there way, will show that New York City is the Kremlin and that Alvin Bragg is Lavrentiy Beria.
We have to deal with the subject of proportionality here.
Proportionality is one of the four to five (depending on state law) pillars of self-defense.
Just like the George Zimmerman case more than ten years ago, people are saying that the result of the death of Neely is what makes Penny's actions disproportionate.
That's not how this works.
Also, to be clear, this case is far less ambiguous than George Zimmerman. We had a massive blank spot and no eye witnesses with Zimmerman. We have some video and more than two dozen eye witnesses in regard to Penny.
So, proportionality...
Every justifiable killing in self-defense is a case where would-be victims killed attackers who created a situation that created serious risk of death or significant bodily harm. This idea that the the dead body shows that the defenders reacted disproportionately is to basically say that you can't kill your attacker unless your attacker kills you first. That's how overly simplistic and dumb this perspective is.
If a person came at me with a blunt object, screaming like a manic, and I shot him, that would probably be self-defense. If a guy assaulted me with his bare hands and I got in a good punch in response, and he went down, smacked his head on the pavement, and died, that would still be proportional on my part.
This case is showing that swaths of people on the illiberal Left really believe in a Duty to Die when it comes to self-defense. If somebody attacks you, just let them do it and hope for the best, because otherwise Alvin Bragg will be coming after you go throw your ass in prison forever.
This isn't absurd -- this is obscene.
Even in New York, where they arrested Jose Alba and sent him to Rikers Island after the most clear and obvious case of self-defense in human history, the police originally decided not to arrest Penny. The call to see him charged is fully political and racially driven.
Alvin Bragg should be in jail. Anybody calling for Penny's arrest should be ridiculed. We can't keep tolerating this bullshit.