The case of the Marine in the subway shows a sad reality about the Big Apple.
If, in 1984, an inventive New Yorker set his time travel machine to
the year 2023, the city in which he arrived would confound
him. Although the New York City of today looks much like that of 1984,
our time traveler would have a hard time understanding the people,
almost as hard a time as H.G. Wells's "Time Traveler" did when his machine arrived in the year 802,701.
The public response of the average New Yorker to the arrest of former Marine sergeant Daniel Penny calls to mind the "Eloi" response to Wells's
Traveler. The Eloi were the little, pretty people of the future whom
the Time Traveler encountered. "Once the favored aristocracy" says the
Traveler, "the Eloi, like the Carolingian kings, had decayed to a mere beautiful futility."
The passivity of the Eloi allowed the subterranean Morlocks, once their servants, to become their masters. "Already the Eloi had begun to learn one old lesson anew," says the Traveler. "They
were becoming reacquainted with Fear." Unfortunately for their future,
the Eloi had lost their spines. Eloi males no longer had even the
instinct to rescue one of their own from peril or to defend themselves
from the creeping cannibalism of the Morlocks.
Enter the Time Traveler. Writing the The Time Machine
in 1895, Wells endowed his protagonist with those many virtues expected
of an Englishman in the age of Victoria and Kipling. Tempted to leave
behind the chaos he found in the future, the Traveler feels honor-bound
to intervene; to save the Eloi from extinction; and, in the process, to
show them how to save themselves.
After serving four years in the Marines,
the 24-year-old Daniel Penny arrived in New York City almost as innocent
as Wells's hero and likely as brave. "I have always been inspired by the ambition and grit," he posted on social media. "After
high school and unsure of my future, I enlisted in the Marine Corps in
search of adventure." In the Marines, Sergeant Penny served as squad
leader on two deployments.
Unlike most young men of this era, Penny pulled his inspiration from Cervantes's Don Quixote, a novel that at its most literal interpretation would have reinforced his Marine Corps values. As
Penny learned during this past week, if not before, his values and
those of his fellow New Yorkers were as out of sync as those of Wells's
hero and the Eloi.
In subterranean New York, Penny came face to
face with a modern Morlock, Jordan Neely by name. Neely had been
arrested 42 times in the past 10 years and had a well documented mental
health history. The NYPD knew he was dangerous. They had arrested
Neely most recently in November 2021 on felony assault charges after he
punched a 67-year-old female stranger in the face.
Two years later, Neely was roaming free. After
20 years of good governance, the left took over New York's City Hall
with the installation of Bill de Blasio in 2014. Since then, the
Morlocks of New York, armies of them, have been emboldened to terrorize
the Eloi on the streets and on the subways. Hardly a day passes without
some new video surfacing of a Morlock striking or threatening an Eloi
while the other Eloi pretend not to see.
It seems somehow
appropriate that Neely died on May 1, the ultimate feast day on the
revolutionary calendar. Eleven days later, the Morlocks' enablers got
their way. Manhattan's district attorney, Alvin Bragg, feeling the need to sacrifice a white man to the woke gods, charged Penny with manslaughter.
Penny
clearly did not intend to kill Neely. He expected to restrain him
until the police arrived. I suspect that from what he learned in the
Marines and in the books he read, Penny had been trained to intervene
when a madman threatens to kill the innocent people around him.
Penny's
response was measured. According to witnesses, he did not leap into
action until after Neely started issuing death threats. "I would kill a m-----------," said Neely. "I don't care. I'll take a bullet. I'll go to jail." However unintentionally, Penny helped Neely fulfill his death wish.
Penny certainly did not expect to be called a murderer, but he misjudged New York circa 2023. "Jordan Neely was murdered, tweeted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. "While many in power demonize the poor, the murderer gets protected w/ passive headlines + no charges. It's disgusting."
This was not the New York of 1984. That was
the year that the nerdy Bernard Goetz shot four teenage thugs on a New
York City subway car. In watching news from that era, I am reminded of
just how shabby New York City had become before the 20-year renaissance
overseen by Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg. I am reminded too of just
how much New Yorkers have changed over the past 40 years.
Unlike
the soft and spineless New Yorkers of today, everyday New Yorkers of
1984 were often bold and outspoken. I would encourage readers to search
YouTube for "Bernie Goetz" and watch the news clips from that
era. Although the white Goetz shot four black teenagers, New Yorkers,
black and white, were not afraid to speak out in Goetz's defense. These
were real New Yorkers, toughened by a life riding subways. They cared
more about justice than race.
In 2023, radicals have no hesitance
about speaking out, but everyday New Yorkers certainly do. Beaten down
by years of oppressive political correctness, they come off as feckless
as their Wellsian counterparts. That said, I suspect that the great
majority of them, certainly the subway riders, are pulling quietly for
Penny.
Like the Eloi, they are "becoming reacquainted with
Fear." If that fear does not motivate them to champion Daniel Penny and
acquit him, the Morlocks will own the city until it dies.
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