The narrative position on the left is so clear that the Washington Post, that bastion of partisan narrative perpetration, is complaining that conservatives have a drastically different view of the events that led to the death, and of the man who is charged with causing it.
Penny was assisted by other passengers in restraining Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old repeat offender who was, according to eye witness accounts, threatening to kill those on the train.
Neely died from injuries sustained, and in the wake of his death, people who had no idea who he was prior, or appeared to give any real thought to the increasing homeless problem on New York City subways, have rushed to his defense and aid in a way they absolutely did not do during his lifetime.
New York Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called Penny a murderer. DA Alvin Bragg, who is also undertaking the political prosecution of Donald Trump, has charged Penny with second degree manslaughter.
And conservatives have said that Penny acted as a good Samaritan who protected his fellow straphangers and is now paying an unfair price for that good deed. A fundraiser launched to help him pay the impending legal fees has surpassed $1 million. Yet for the Washington Post, a defense of Penny is unwarranted, and serves a conservative narrative and not the facts of the case.
"The right-wing response to the case suggests that Republican lawmakers and pundits could make Penny into the latest conservative talking point," WaPo writes. They point out, with derision, that Penny is listed on his voter registration as "conservative," and claim that those who have come to his defense are simply trying "to take the legal case against him out of the courtroom and onto television, social media and the fundraising circuit."
Donald Trump, Jack Posobiec, Charlie Kirk, Ron DeSantis, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and so many others have pointed out that Penny was acting in the public interest. Neely was making threats, acting eratically, freaking out, and subway riders were in danger. Passengers were afraid. After Neely was restrained, and the threat was neutralized, video shows that Penny tried to help him, putting him in what's known as the "recovery position."
Anyone who has ever been on a New York City subway knows the feeling of being trapped in an aluminum can with a crazy homeless person who goes up and down the train car screaming, intimidating passengers, and making threats. It's not a rarity for passengers to crowd around an exit door waiting desperately for the next stop so they can get off. And it's not a random occurence, either.
The NYPD encourages passengers to maintain alertness while in transit, to not listen to music on headphones, to make sure valuables, such as phones, are stowed. And when a homeless person or criminal does engage with a passenger, most of the time no one else on the train comes to their aid. Straphangers look away, relieved that they have not been targetted.
This is why passengers thanked Penny for intervening in a scary situation with a man making death threats at passengers.
But for the Washington Post, the whole thing is just a hypothetical, another reason to bash conservatives for having the gaul to defend themselves and others. They write that Penny should have had more care for the man who was having a "mental health episode" and done something other than restrain him.
The Washington Post, DA Bragg, and AOC, have no concern for those who were put in danger by Neely. Their only wish is to use the death of a man they didn't care about, who told passengers he wanted to go back to jail, to claim that conservatives are lacking in compassionate for the very same homeless crazy people that progressive policies leave to wander the subways in the first place.
