Democrats, once vocal, all but silent on New York subway verdict

Democrats who represent New York City in the House and Senate had muted, mixed reactions to Monday’s acquittal of Daniel Penny – a break from progressive and racial justice activists back home, and a sign of how far the party has shifted away from its social justice posture of just a few years earlier.

“It’s a New York jury. I can’t say it was a gerrymandered jury,” said Rep. Greg Meeks, the chairman of the Queens Democratic Party. “I’m not sitting there, hearing all the evidence. The jury made a decision.”

Republicans hailed the verdict. Moments after Penny was found not guilty for the death of Jordan Neely, a homeless man he had held in a fatal chokehold after threatening subway passengers, House Speaker Mike Johnson called the defendant a “hero who saved lives.” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who had condemned Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg over his prosecution of Donald Trump, credited the jury “for doing the right thing,” and incoming Vice President JD Vance called it “a scandal Penny was ever prosecuted.”

By contrast, the party’s New York-heavy leadership, including House Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Leader Chuck Schumer, and incoming Congressional Black Congress chair Yvette Clarke, said nothing about the verdict on Tuesday.

Just one New York Democrat criticized it. Rep. Jamaal Bowman, who represents a sliver of the Bronx and lost his 2024 primary after heavy spending by pro-Israel groups, published a 12-post X thread addressed “to white people,” linking Neely’s death to the killings of George Floyd, Philando Castile, Trayvon Martin, and Breonna Taylor.

“He was sick. He was not a threat. He was subdued. Still not a threat,” wrote Bowman of Neely. “Daniel Penny choked him for 6 minutes. And killed him. We all watched it on camera, and he was still acquitted.”

No other congressional Democrat from New York fully echoed Bowman on Tuesday; conservative X accounts recirculated a May 2023 TikTok interview with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, criticizing Penny for not expressing “remorse,” but she did not react to the verdict. Manhattan Rep. Jerry Nadler, who said he “would have decided the case the other way,” added that he understood why Penny was acquitted.

“I think it’s a sign of how scared people are of the conditions in the subways, even though, objectively, crime rates are down,” Nadler told Semafor.