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Black Kos, Week in Review: Daniel Penny murdered Jordan Neely; charge him with 1st degree murder [1]
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Date: 2023-05-12
He didn't deserve to be choked to death. Daniel Penny murdered him.
Commentary by Black Kos editor JoanMar
Daniel Penny had the privilege of turning himself in to his friends and protectors at the NYPD this morning. We are told that he’ll be charged with second-degree manslaughter. He turned himself in to the same NYPD officers who initially interviewed him and then sent him home, even though they knew he was responsible for the death of Jordan Neely. After patting him on the back and seeing him off, they then went to work on his behalf: they concocted a tale of bravery and heroism and were all set to nominate him for the highest award the city or state has to offer. They [the New York Police Department] shamelessly and unapologetically operated on behalf of Penny and sent the story they spun in the light most favorable to the killer to news outlets, who dutifully reported it as they were instructed. In the fabricated story, the victim became a dangerous criminal lunatic who made some 40 arrests and had to be put down so as to protect riders on the train. His death, therefore, was of no great significance.
It should be noted that Penny was treated with the deference that is especially reserved for white men who kill black people or their allies. He is just the latest in a long list populated by the likes of Zimmerman, Kyle Rittenhouse, the father & son McMichael duo, Andrew Lester, et al. But that’s a story for another day.
The fact is, Daniel Penny should be charged with first degree murder. He murdered Jordan Neely. His actions were intentional. How do I know?
My ex is a trained fighter. He and his younger brother regularly have wrestling matches. The ex is taller, has an athletic build, with a calm and deliberative demeanor. The brother is shorter with a much stockier build, brute strength, and with a volatile temper. I loved watching them go at it. I didn’t often let them know that I’m watching for fear that the younger brother would feel embarrassed when he’s outclassed, as he inevitably was. One Saturday morning, I’m watching from the upstairs window as they went at it in the backyard. They ‘d moved out of my line of vision when suddenly I heard the ex say, “Relax, man. Relax. You continue moving, you will break your neck. I’m telling you, Bro. Relax.” Over the years, I had heard similar advice numerous times.
The moral of the story is, when you are trained to kill, you are also trained to know how to prevent a death. When you are a taught a technique, you are also taught how to use it so as to avoid unintended injuries.
According to eyewitness accounts, Daniel Penny put the young man — weakened from hunger, thirst, and from the constant struggles with his untreated psychological traumas — in a chokehold for maybe up to 15 minutes. He knew what he was doing. The chokehold was expertly executed. “My wife is ex-military,” one bystander reportedly said, “You’ve got a hell of a chokehold.” The same bystander, who seemed to be the only one who gave a damn about the young life hanging in the balance, warned Penny that he was in danger of committing murder. After he unsuccessfully tried to get the three white men to let up, he could be heard saying, “He’s not squeezing? All right. You’ve got to let him go. After he’s defecated himself, that’s it. That’s a murder charge.”
And they can compress the carotid arteries, which are on either side of the neck, adjacent to the trachea. Seventy percent of the blood going to the brain passes through the carotids, Saadi said. If that blood flow is cut off in a chokehold or a stranglehold, some people can become unconscious in three to four seconds. If the flow continues to be restricted, a person can die within three to four minutes.
If Penny learned to use the chokehold during his stint in the military, do you think he was unaware of the dangers of the technique? Matter-of-fact, it doesn’t matter who taught him or even where he learned it. If he learned it on the streets, he’d have to know just how deadly a weapon it is or this would not be his first murder. And if he had forgotten everything he was taught, there was someone reminding him in real time that he’d gone too far. He chose to ignore his training and ignore the bystander. The killing of Jordan Neely was intentional.
Charge him with first degree murder. Jordan’s life, troubled though it was, mattered. We call your name, Jordan. You deserved better. #JusticeForJordan.
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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Democratic Sen. Bobby Powell says the mission will continue despite the fourth failed attempt this session to make the practice illegal. Florida Politics: Sponsor plans to bring back bill blocking hair discrimination despite cut from 2023 agenda
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The fourth attempt to add those with dreadlocks, cornrows and Afros to the list of those protected from discrimination failed a fourth time this Session, but Democratic Sen. Bobby Powell says he’s undeterred.
“We are committed to this legislation,” Powell said. “It’s bound to change the way people look at hair.”
The act, known as “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act“ or the CROWN Act is part of a national movement that’s been passed in nearly two dozen states and in the U.S. House. It’s aimed at ending bias, shown by studies, toward those who don “Afrocentric hairstyle conditions,” particularly women.
The U.S. Senate blocked the legislation after the House passed it in 2022. If the Senate approves it, hair discrimination based on natural texture would become illegal under Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Fair Housing Act and other federal civil rights laws.
Nationally, the CROWN Coalition is an alliance of organizations that started in 2019, according to its website. The members are Dove, the soap company; the National Urban League, a civil rights organization; Color of Change, an online racial justice organization; and Western Center on Law and Poverty, an anti-poverty organization.
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Daniel Penny, a 24-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran, will face a charge of second degree manslaughter, which could carry a jail term of up to 15 years. Associated Press: Man who choked NYC subway rider to death will face manslaughter charge, prosecutors say
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Manhattan prosecutors said Thursday that they will bring criminal charges against a man who used a fatal chokehold on an unruly passenger aboard a New York City subway train, a death that stirred outrage and debates about the response to mental illness in the nation’s largest transit system.
Daniel Penny, a 24-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran, will be arrested and face a charge of second degree manslaughter, which could carry a jail term of up to 15 years.
“We cannot provide any additional information until he has been arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court, which we expect to take place tomorrow,” the Manhattan district attorney’s office said in a statement.
The charges come nearly two weeks after Penny pinned fellow subway rider Jordan Neely, 30, to the floor of a subway car and put him in a chokehold that lasted for several minutes.
Jordan Neely
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Furious Egyptians have accused Netflix of misrepresenting history The Economist: A new docu-drama about Cleopatra has riled officials in Cairo
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“I detest the Queen,” Cicero opined in around 44bc. The Roman statesman had, at least, held court with Cleopatra before he formed his unflattering opinion of her. Others were less scrupulous. Most surviving classical texts about the last queen of Egypt were written about a century or more after she died in 30bc; the historian Plutarch, Mark Antony’s biographer, fashioned the ruler as a power-hungry manipulator of men. Nor were these authors objective observers of history: Plutarch and his Roman contemporaries tarnished Cleopatra’s name to glorify the Romans who had defeated her.
As these dubious sources suggest, very little is known about the monarch. (Accounts of women in antiquity—even ruling ones—are scant). That has not stopped historians, poets and authors from trying to flesh out the historical record. The mystery may be part of the allure. Western writers latched on to Cleopatra’s tragic love affairs with Caesar and Mark Antony; medieval sources from the Maghreb praised the pharaoh’s military prowess and her “wisdom”. “As time goes on, different people have seen different things in the story,” says Jane Draycott of Glasgow University.
Producers at Netflix are the latest to reconstruct the ruler’s life in “Queen Cleopatra”, a new four-part documentary-drama released on Wednesday. It is part of the “African Queens” history series that Jada Pinkett Smith, an actor, has produced for the streamer. In many respects, Netflix’s pharaoh is not so different from the one depicted by Arabic writers; she is devoted to Egypt. But there is one matter on which these versions of history diverge: the colour of her skin.
Adele James, a mixed-race British actor, plays the lead role in Netflix’s production (pictured, above). This prompted outrage in Egypt: people took to social media to accuse the streaming giant of “blackwashing” Egyptian history. The country’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities released a statement declaring that Cleopatra was “light-skinned”. The spat is indicative of modern Egypt’s protectionist view towards its ancient civilisations. It also exemplifies how academic enquiry into the past is becoming enmeshed with modern identity politics.
Yet Netflix’s decision to depict Cleopatra in this way is not without justification. In the first episode, commentators acknowledge the uncertainty over the monarch’s racial heritage. Like their predecessors, the show’s experts were working from patchy historical material. To fill in gaps, they relied on the principle of “competitive plausibility”, explains Shelley Haley of Hamilton College in New York state, who appears in the documentary. In other words, the historians considered all the possible scenarios and surmised which was the most likely. This is not a novel or unorthodox approach. But a historian’s own identity influences how they interpret sources, points out Professor Haley. “We can’t be objective,” she argues.
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To answer the call for more diverse representation in fashion, the long-running fashion and lifestyle magazine is looking online for its next star. The Root: Will Vogue's Open Casting Really Give Black Models a Chance? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now Vogue is giving a new crop of aspiring models a free chance to shoot their shot. The long-running fashion and lifestyle magazine is conducting a global model search “to identify, encourage, and support a new generation of models that embody a modern ideal of beauty.” Vogue’s Open Casting Portal was open between April 24 and May 8 for “femme-identifying individuals” 18 and older to upload photos, a short video and answer questions about their personality. And the best part, the casting call was literally open, so aspiring models didn’t need agency representation to apply. A committee of Vogue editors, stylists, and casting directors, along with industry professionals including Eva Chen, director of fashion partnerships at Instagram and model Paloma Elsesser, will select the finalists in June. Those chosen will make up the Vogue Open Casting Class of 2023, who will be featured in a photoshoot in a fall issue of the magazine. The selected models will also receive ongoing mentorship. And if their luck is anything like Fanfan’s (winner of Vogue China’s Open Casting Call), they could live out every model’s dream and walk high fashion runways for designers like Prada and Burberry. In a press release, Anna Wintour, Chief Content Officer at Condé Nast and Global Editorial Director of Vogue, expressed her excitement for the new class. “Open Casting is an initiative that will foster the next generation of Vogue talent, with particular attention to the need for more diverse and inclusive representation in fashion. We can’t wait to meet them,” she said. According to a 2016 report from The Fashion Spot, Black models represented just over 8 percent of all models in spring campaigns, so the industry clearly has work to do. We just hope Ms. Wintour will put her money where her mouth is and give some of these stunning melanated models a chance:
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