December 9, 2024 - 8:30pm
Anyone seeking evidence that the era of Black Lives Matter has drawn to a close need look no further than the Manhattan courtroom where Daniel Penny was today acquitted of criminal negligent homicide. The former Marine, who placed a homeless man named Jordan Neely in a fatal chokehold on a crowded F train in May 2023, faced four years in prison. Yet when the jury delivered its verdict, the response — both in support and opposition — felt muted compared to the protests which once brought millions into the streets.
The case had all the ingredients that, just a few years ago, would have sparked widespread demonstrations: a white man killing an unarmed black man, caught on video, in a major American city. But times have changed markedly since 2020, when George Floyd’s murder ignited protests across the globe. Today’s social justice advocates appear exhausted, their messaging less resonant with a public that has largely moved on from the fervour of that pandemic summer — or perhaps more focused on the cold-blooded vigilante who killed a health insurance CEO.
This shift was evident in the courtroom reaction to Penny’s acquittal. While some Black Lives Matter supporters voiced outrage — with one yelling “racist fucking country” as she left — their anger found little purchase beyond the courthouse steps. Even Black Lives Matter of Greater New York co-founder Hawk Newsome’s call for “black vigilantes” to retaliate sounded more like a desperate cry than a rallying call.
The contrast with previous high-profile cases is striking. Kyle Rittenhouse’s 2021 acquittal for shooting three men during unrest in Kenosha sparked days of protests nationwide. Meanwhile, the officer who killed Daunte Wright faced crowds of demonstrators throughout her trial. But Penny’s case, despite its similar themes of racial justice and use of force, has failed to mobilise the masses in quite the same way.
Penny’s defence team recognised this shift in the national mood. Rather than engaging with racial dynamics, they focused on public safety and self-defence, asking jurors: “Who do you want on the next train ride with you?” This approach proved effective with a jury that seemed more concerned with everyday safety than larger questions of social justice of the sort that animated prosecutor Dafna Yoran.
The case also highlighted how the circumstances which led to confrontations like these remain unaddressed. Neely, a former Michael Jackson impersonator with 42 prior arrests and untreated mental illness, represented the kind of complex social problem that defies simple solutions. His death stemmed from failures in mental healthcare, housing policy, and public safety — systemic issues that persist, despite the passionate protests of recent years, and likely always will.
Conservative commentators such as Laura Loomer have already positioned Penny as a heroic figure, much as they did with Rittenhouse. But so far, Penny himself has shown little interest in becoming a political symbol. Unlike his predecessor, who embarked on a speaking tour of Right-wing events after his acquittal, Penny has understandably maintained a low profile throughout his trial.
Perhaps most telling will be how quickly attention moves on from the verdict itself. In 2020, this outcome would have provoked immediate protest action and dominated news cycles for weeks. Today, it competes for attention with a CEO assassination, regime collapse in Syria, a possible ceasefire in Ukraine, the declaration of martial law in South Korea, and the looming inauguration of Donald Trump. The era of mass mobilisation around racial justice cases, it seems, has largely passed — not with a bang, but with a quiet verdict in a Manhattan courtroom.
Oliver Bateman is a historian and journalist based in Pittsburgh. He blogs, vlogs, and podcasts at his Substack, Oliver Bateman Does the Work
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SubscribeThere are quite few people who believe Derek Chauvin was railroaded in the trial for the killing of George Floyd. Maybe yes, maybe no – but what a difference of three years makes.
Of course he was railroaded. It was plain he was being railroaded at the time and we should really not be equivocal about it
This is taken from an UnHerd article written a year after the trial https://unherd.com/2021/05/the-day-american-justice-died/
“And here with this trial we seem to have taken the first step. We, collectively, have relaxed the most fundamental rule. Today, if the mob is convinced and motivated enough, their cause becomes the righteous one. Whether jurors accede to this out of fear for their own safety, or out of fear of the damage that may be done to innocent people if their verdict reignites violence, or because they are convinced by the mob that there is some higher principle whose value exceeds their duty to the accused, it must not stand.”
There is also the documentary The Fall of Minneapolis ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFPi3EigjFA
Chavin is the American Dreyfus
This needed to be said. Anyone who watches the footage of that day’s events knows that the four cops now sitting in jail do not belong there.
Let’s not forget the farce ahmaud arbery case either https://lawofselfdefense.com/ahmaud-arbery-case-seven-facts-the-jury-will-probably-never-hear/
All well and good, as far as it goes; but…
Looming, def. – an event about to happen seen as ominous or worrying
[Oxford Dictionary]
Can it really be the case that the author thinks the inauguration of a President of the US, elected by a significant majority, should be viewed as ominous or worrying?
Wow!
I like this attention to small and seemingly insignificant details. There is much more truth in them than in long, pompous arguments
“Seemingly” insignificant to you perhaps, but also symptomatic of a wider truth regarding entrenched mindsets.
Apologies if the brevity of that confuses you.
You didn’t get me. “The devil is in the details” is what I wanted to say
I’m glad of his coming inauguration, but I do other things each day.
Yes Master Bate Man does rather give the game away by playing the man not the ball. Justifies us doing the same. Does the writer drive a Pajero -? perhaps he’d like to comment on the recently de-fenestrated Oil Welby – bashing the bishop is clearly an easy gig – explains why the medjahadeen can only type with one hand!
Your initial silly name is a childish slur. I cannot for the life of me see why some of you have got so worked up. The word “looming”?. Don’t we say things such as “looming deadlines”?. Not particularly pejorative.
It seems that some of you on this here are endlessly flailing around almost trying to find more and more enemies who don’t toe exactly the correct ideological line, have precisely the same analysis -.or even parrot exactly the right words!. Rather right wing woke, you might even say!
A successful pushback against progressive politics will need to.be broad based, not just comprising MAGA supporters, or I suppose in the UK, those of Reform, albeit that a vanguard is likely to be necessary (shifting the Overton window and all that).
I think you are being over sensitive here. Trump’s inauguration is certainly “looming” from the point of view of the progressive Leftists embedded in academia, the great majority of federal and many state institutions, and indeed many large corporations.
You said:
” … the progressive Leftists embedded in academia, the great majority of federal and many state institutions, and indeed many large corporations.” illustrates why the phrase ‘progressive leftism’ has become such an oxymoron.
Hopefully, everyday people are catching on to the grift of race hustlers. NGOs and individual grifters like Kendi have a vested interest in maintaining the racial divide. Meanwhile, voters are starting to align along the class divide.
It will be over when the abomination of the Derek Chauvin verdict is overturned, or at the very least, the sentenced reduced massively.
Or given a presidential pardon!
The defense team avoided race because race had nothing to do with what happened, not because of some ‘national mood.’ It would be nice if people have had their fill of race hustling, but it will continue so long as it works as a tactic. I know elected officials who use it.
2015 to 2025 will be remembered as the decade of progressive overreach and toxic empathy. The public are seeing the fruits of all of this activist governance. Anyone who lives in even a moderate size city has noticed the increase in squalor, mental illness, open drug use and random violence. As the police have stepped back, or had their hands tied by bail reforms (like here in Canada), people are feeling more afraid. Look for much more robust policing in the future as conservative politicians get voted in to clean things up.
I am very pleased with the jury’s verdict. The acquittal of Bernhard Goetz of the most serious charges in his December 1984 self defense shooting of four youths who were trying to mug him gained public support for more law enforcement. Rudy Giuliani became mayor in 1994 and his tough on crime approach helped turn New York City around.
We have seen the decline in civil behavior, especially following BLM riots during the pandemic. Criticism of such actions could easily get someone shamed and canceled as a “racist.” People, of all races, have had enough with lawlessness and this verdict sends that message.
Being locked in a moving subway car with a violent or disturbed person is frightening and threatening. Many people will wish that Daniel Penny is a fellow passenger.
Also, the F Train is a difficult train to ride. Battered old cars, goes through bad neighborhoods, indifferent conductors, messy stations, etc ….
George Floyd died with Fentanyl in his system, a substance that causes the subject to stop breathing. Tens of thousands die in the US each year from this illegal drug, imported from China.
There’s too much passive voice in this piece:
Try adding actors to the narrative:
Experts agree that politics doesn’t just happen. It takes leaders to make it happen.
Hmmphf . . . chickens hatch before don’t count they your.
“Anyone seeking evidence that the era of Black Lives Matter has drawn to a close …”
BLM most certainly has not drawn to a close in the UK. It is rampant in every nook and cranny of our lives here. Just view a few minutes of BBC TV news or contemplate the DEI advertisements on ITV for evidence that BLM dominates. DEI, with a strong BLM bias, pervades and corrupts our daily lives.
Most folks with whom I mix are utterly sick of constant DEI/BLM brainwashing and do not buy into it. They detest it, as do I!
Ok, I agree but we need to try and be precise and forensic in our opposition. DEI policies embedded in, for example HR departments, are not the same as mass mobilization, rioting and the trashing of cities, albeit that they have much the same similar ideological root.
Sadly for the leftists it seems that we were (mostly) right: Humanity, aside from large portions of US Demrats, UK Labour and ofc the KKK are NOT RACIST. So we tend to judge on character over colour. I hope the left and their KKK or Jihadi fellow travellers re-join humanity, sooner than later. Because at the mo’ they are so far outside civic society i expect the average law -enforcer doesn’t even belive they can be re-habilitated. I hope they can but fear it is unlikely.
I also feel like so much of those earlier protests (Floyd, Rittenhouse) were the product of too many people having too little to do, or focus their attention on. If scores of people aren’t working or going to school during an anxiety ridden time period (covid), they can be easily manipulated or perhaps just be bored enough to show up at marches or rallies or what not. Once they inevitably turn violent, it just becomes opportunism. What a messed up time that was. Looking back, it almost seems made up. Thank God we are gradually coming back to our senses as a population.
Grazie a Dio, as us demi Italiani say