President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

National Public Radio is not a perfect example of anything, either in comparison or contrast. It's unique and is mostly a radio network.

 

Rittenhouse had his mom drive to Wisconsin with an automatic rifle - this guy was riding a subway car minding his own business. It's tragic and sad what happened - but people should have a right to feel safe on a subway car. Granted, it will be interesting to hear what the other witnesses have to say, but I do think the circumstances favor Penny. If it was a Nazi talking shit to a POC with the same result would there be charges?

 

Loud crazy guy in your subway car?

Get up and move.

The imaginative energy being expended to make Penny a hero is heartbreaking.

 

I don't think he should have been charged. Cops shooting people almost always are deemed "justified" - even with all of their training and preparation - if they say they feared for their safety or the safety of others - why should the standard be higher for someone like Penny?

And if it was on an open street? I'd agree with you Azrael, but a subway car is pretty enclosed - not sure how crowded it was.

 

Because cops, rightly or wrongly, are given the benefit of the doubt because it's their job to confront situations like this. To function, society can't allow unchecked disproportionate vigilantism by any and/or all citizens. That way you wind up with morons shooting kids playing hide and seek because they "saw shadows." I will also point out that you cite as fact the victim threatening people, which is in dispute and contradicted by some witnesses. Penny will have a trial and present his defense. But he has to be charged as a matter of civil order.

 

The "he should have just moved" bit is as head-scratching to me as "raving loons have been a subway fixture for decades."

 

True - this will come down to whather the jury feels it was vigilantism or self-defense, and the difference between being threatened, or feeling threatened.

 

Why?

 

No, actually it’s really simple.

Get up and move your ass to another car.

It’s just that simple.

 

Just seems, to me, an awfully glib way of shrugging one's shoulders: "What kind of rube are you?"