A Metro practice rolls into the McPherson Sq. station in Washington, D.C. | Supply: Getty Photos / Getty
Within the 12 months after a white man on the New York Metropolis subway took the legislation into his personal palms and carried out a bodily assault in opposition to unsuspecting and unarmed Black males, historical past practically repeated itself about 241 miles south within the Metro public transit subway system of Washington, D.C.
In that occasion, a white man additionally went into vigilante mode this previous summer season and shoved a Black performer in the midst of a dance routine in a Metro subway automobile, in keeping with the Washington Metropolis Paper, which first reported on the incident this week.
MORE: Notable White Vigilantes Who Had been By no means Held Accountable
In each instances, white males acted violently out of a perceived and never precise risk. Additionally in each instances, the white males have mentioned they really feel as in the event that they had been the aggrieved events with the authority to dole out punishment that they see match.
Within the case of Daniel Penny, who employed a sprawling chokehold in opposition to Jordan Neely, an unhoused and unarmed Black road performer who was within the throes of a psychological well being disaster, a jury on Monday discovered him not responsible of committing any crime in any respect.
In an interview with Fox Information following his acquittal, Penny mentioned Neely’s “threats had been imminent and one thing needed to be executed” regardless of witnesses testifying throughout the manslaughter trial that Neely by no means did something bodily and was solely yelling earlier than he threw his jacket onto the ground of the subway practice, prompting Penny’s deadly wrath.
Within the case of Harold Christy, who angrily shoved the dancer solely out of the Metro practice’s door and onto the subway platform, the investigator with the D.C. Workplace of the Inspector Common (OIG), like Penny, is portraying himself as harmless of any crime.
In a letter Christy wrote to the Washington Metropolitan Space Transit Authority Board of Administrators and posted on the Reddit social media platform, he described himself as “a US Military fight veteran; a DC house owner, voter, and taxpayer” who was “minding my very own enterprise in my go well with, holding a briefcase and studying {a magazine}” when “people aboard the practice started to play extraordinarily loud and obscene music whereas dancing and aggressively panhandling within the aisle.”
Like Penny, Christy deputized himself as a savior of practice passengers, none of whom selected to react to the performer with violence. Christy wrote that he “demanded that the dancers cease their prison and harmful exercise.” He additionally portrayed himself as a sufferer as a result of the performers naturally moved to defend themselves after Christy initiated the unprompted violent contact.
Christy’s letter additionally describes the second “a number of weeks later” when he was arrested for misdemeanor assault. He bemoaned spending “a day in leg irons, a stomach band, and handcuffs whereas ready for my arraignment in Superior Court docket. For defending myself and others.”
Christy additionally posted a hyperlink to video footage from that fateful Metro encounter in order that impartial viewers could make their very own willpower as to who was within the improper.
Harold Christy, within the hat at proper, is proven shoving a performer off a Metro practice. | Supply: WMATA screenshot
In an interview with the Metropolis Paper, Christy in contrast the dancers’ efficiency to a “false imprisonment.”
Whereas Christy’s state of affairs bears various similarities to Penny’s there are just a few notable variations.
Before everything, nobody was killed. This is a vital level to make as a result of Christy, as an OIG investigator, mentioned he was legally armed with a gun that day on the Metro in July.
Secondly, Christy is being held accountable past the constraints of the legislation for the reason that OIG has positioned him on administrative depart. If Christy is discovered responsible, which the video proof suggests he can be, he’s prone to lose his job for the pointless vigilante violence.
Like Penny earlier than his acquittal, Christy can also be going through the prospect of incarceration.
Additionally like Penny, Christy is unapologetic.
“I don’t remorse something,” Christy, informed the Metropolis Paper. “As a result of I didn’t do something improper.”
Coincidentally, Bernhard Goetz — dubbed “the subway vigilante” after he shot 4 Black youngsters at shut vary on a practice in Manhattan practically 40 years in the past due to a perceived risk — like Christy and Penny nonetheless believes he didn’t do something improper. Goetz mentioned he believed the kids had been attempting to mug him and reacted out of self-defense after they requested him and different passengers for cash on Dec. 22, 1984. Goetz was finally acquitted of tried homicide and solely discovered responsible on a gun cost.
Goetz, like Penny and Christy, claimed he wouldn’t change a factor and would do it once more if positioned in the same state of affairs.
And like each Penny and Goetz, true accountability for Christy initiating vigilante violence in opposition to unarmed Black individuals is much from assured.
That is America.
SEE ALSO:
Eric Garner’s Mom Gwen Carr Suggests Race Factored In Daniel Penny Verdict: ‘Two Justice Methods’
Justice For Jordan Neely: Man Who Helped Daniel Penny On Subway Admits Mendacity That Neely Hit Him
