Violence is messy and brutal. Real life isn’t like TV where you can set phasers to stun and people faint gently and nobody hits their head. It’s not like TV where you can gently tap someone on the head and they just fall asleep. In real life, when you subdue a grown man who is resisting, they can die or shit themselves-- particularly if nobody has restraints handy. An entire subway train was being terrorized by a violent mentally ill man who should have been confined. One man had the courage and willingness to confront him. It’s absurd to nitpick about how he did it.
If you don’t want things like this to happen, reverse the decades of policy choices that make it impossible to confine people like Penny.
The front pages of everything were Luigi Mania when the Penny story broke. I don't have an inside line to Reddit moderator slack, or whatever hellish plane of reality they call home, but I think they have decided that class war is in, and culture war is out, or some idiotic talking point like that. I won't bother to point out the disturbing features of the world view in which Daniel lynched someone and Luigi is a folk hero, because your readers are smart enough to put that together on their own.
Sainthood is not the mark of a healthy society, it's the indication that someone did what was right despite all the forces arrayed against them. I don't think Penny is a saint, but he did what most likely needed to be done, when others wouldn't.
Your heart may be in the right place, but your very first sentence is wrong. Neely was breathing when the cops arrived. It was a defense contention that Neely was not provably killed by the chokehold, or, that the chokehold was only one contributing factor.
"the deification of a former Marine who held another man in a chokehold until he defecated himself and died is not a hallmark of a healthy society."---Agreed. I would say though that the deification is partly in reaction to the demonization of Penny.
People are trying to destroy the one person willing to put his life on the line to protect others is for sure a sign that the right doesn't trust the prosecutors or the judicial system to be doing this in a fair manner, equally we see people on the left equally tearing down the institutions of justice. One wishes there was more willingness to let these processes work themselves out but that is not where we are.
very much agreed here: "the deification of a former Marine who held another man in a chokehold until he defecated himself and died is not a hallmark of a healthy society."
Violence is messy and brutal. Real life isn’t like TV where you can set phasers to stun and people faint gently and nobody hits their head. It’s not like TV where you can gently tap someone on the head and they just fall asleep. In real life, when you subdue a grown man who is resisting, they can die or shit themselves-- particularly if nobody has restraints handy. An entire subway train was being terrorized by a violent mentally ill man who should have been confined. One man had the courage and willingness to confront him. It’s absurd to nitpick about how he did it.
If you don’t want things like this to happen, reverse the decades of policy choices that make it impossible to confine people like Penny.
The front pages of everything were Luigi Mania when the Penny story broke. I don't have an inside line to Reddit moderator slack, or whatever hellish plane of reality they call home, but I think they have decided that class war is in, and culture war is out, or some idiotic talking point like that. I won't bother to point out the disturbing features of the world view in which Daniel lynched someone and Luigi is a folk hero, because your readers are smart enough to put that together on their own.
Sainthood is not the mark of a healthy society, it's the indication that someone did what was right despite all the forces arrayed against them. I don't think Penny is a saint, but he did what most likely needed to be done, when others wouldn't.
Your heart may be in the right place, but your very first sentence is wrong. Neely was breathing when the cops arrived. It was a defense contention that Neely was not provably killed by the chokehold, or, that the chokehold was only one contributing factor.
"the deification of a former Marine who held another man in a chokehold until he defecated himself and died is not a hallmark of a healthy society."---Agreed. I would say though that the deification is partly in reaction to the demonization of Penny.
People are trying to destroy the one person willing to put his life on the line to protect others is for sure a sign that the right doesn't trust the prosecutors or the judicial system to be doing this in a fair manner, equally we see people on the left equally tearing down the institutions of justice. One wishes there was more willingness to let these processes work themselves out but that is not where we are.
dear mike,
thoughtful piece!
very much agreed here: "the deification of a former Marine who held another man in a chokehold until he defecated himself and died is not a hallmark of a healthy society."
thank you for sharing as always.
love
myq