Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa told Newsmax on Friday the former U.S. Marine charged with manslaughter in the death of a homeless man on a New York subway is the victim of political pressure and people who are trying to game the legal system.
"Everybody is gaming this situation now," Sliwa told "American Agenda." "You saw the attorneys for the surviving family members. It's all about the wrongful death case now because Kathy 'Crime Wave' Hochul, the governor, couldn't withhold commenting, she ends up saying three days later, when [the victim] was a passenger on the subway and his family deserves justice.
"[Cha Ching]. Lawyers know the state is going to settle wrongful death case so it's not about right and wrong."
Daniel Penny, 24, who served four years in the Marines, was charged Friday with second-degree manslaughter after he was caught on video May 1 on a New York City subway car restraining Jordan Neely, 30, a homeless man who had a history of mental illness and violent behavior, with a chokehold until Neely was rendered unconscious. Neely died later at a hospital and the coroner ruled the death as a homicide.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg decided to press charges before a grand jury issued an indictment. The Rev. Al Sharpton told MSNBC he talked to Bragg recently about the case, and Sliwa said Bragg might have faced political pressure to charge Penny, who is white, in the death of Neely, who was Black.
"Alvin Bragg could have put it before the grand jury and said, 'Let the people who ride the subways decide.' " Sliwa said. "No, he got his calls and even acknowledged he was spoken to by his mentor Al 'Slim Shady' Sharpton."
The grand jury still must issue an indictment before the case can proceed, The New York Times reported.
Sliwa said justice would be giving Penny, a former Marine, the benefit of the doubt over Neely, who was on the city's top 50 list of homeless people whom officials considered most urgently in need of assistance and treatment. Neely reportedly had more than three dozen arrests, with at least four on charges of punching people, two of them in the subway system. He reportedly had been harassing passengers on the subway car before Penny intervened.
"[Penny] did the right thing," Sliwa said. "You give the Marine the benefit of the doubt who served America, not Neely, who already was listed as one of the 50 most dangerous people living in the subways.
"We spend millions to catalog who are the most dangerous and we don't remove them and put them in shelters or psychiatric facilities."
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