While all sensible people recoiled against the “defund the police” nonsense of the left, the late Angelo Codevilla noted in his classic 1997 book The Character of Nations that our law enforcement bureaucracy was turning perverse in many ways:
“The paradigm is this: American police in general seem to have designated as their main enemy—as the criminal they cannot tolerate—the citizens who protect themselves. In fact, the police have effectively lobbied for the disarmament of law-abiding citizens and for punishment of those who ‘take the law into their own hands.’ . . . [C]ourts have consistently held individuals acting in undeniable self-defense liable for injuries to the assailant. Courts will protect a loud-mouthed youth who shouts obscenities at a woman, but punishes the woman’s husband or the youth’s father who punches that mouth. The regime has brought this about—not the people.”
Behold the current spectacle of New York’s subways, where, in the absence of any attempt to keep order, a citizen who defended himself and his fellow citizens now faces charges:
Daniel Penny to Face Manslaughter Charges for Jordan Neely Chokehold Death
Daniel Penny, the 24-year-old USMC veteran who put Jordan Neely in a chokehold that proved fatal on the New York City subway last week, will face second-degree manslaughter charges, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said Thursday.
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