Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley on Tuesday called on New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to pardon Daniel Penny, the Marine veteran charged with second-degree manslaughter for killing Jordan Neely, a mentally ill man, on the New York City subway with a chokehold in April.
Haley made the remarks in an interview on Fox News, saying it would help the city deal with crime. “Criminals will continue to rule the streets of New York, because they will know that there’s no accountability for anyone who tries to stop them,” she said. “And if she pardons him, that sets a right on a lot of things — it’ll put criminals on notice. And it’ll let people like Penny who really were very brave in that instance, it will let them know that we’ve got their back.”
Penny is being swept up into a broader right-wing narrative that valorizes vigilante extrajudicial killing as a noble pursuit.
Shocking as that rationale sounds, Haley’s position isn’t an outlier. There’s a growing movement of right-wing politicians, activists and pundits staking out an extreme position in ardent support of Penny. They don’t just defend his actions but glorify them as heroic. They don’t see tragedy in the needless death of Neely, but a potentially exciting model for dealing with social problems.
As we saw with Kenosha vigilante Kyle Rittenhouse, Penny is being swept up into a broader right-wing narrative that valorizes vigilante extrajudicial killing as a noble pursuit. It underscores the hollowness of the American right’s claim to favor “law and order”; what it really favors is upholding a certain kind of order by any means.
Haley isn’t the only 2024 contender who has signaled support for Penny. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis tweeted a link to a crowdfunding page set up by Penny’s lawyers, wrote that it’s imperative to “take back the streets for law abiding citizens” and called for support to show him that “America’s got his back.” Former biotech executive Vivek…
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