A fundraiser posted to support a former Marine accused of strangling a homeless man on the New York City subway was a big hit on Sunday with more than $1.6 million raised on a popular hard-right site .
More than 36,000 people had responded by midday to the appeal for donations launched by the law firm Raiser & Kenniff, which defends Daniel Penny.
The 24-year-old white man, retired from the army, was charged Friday with “manslaughter” by a New York court and released on $100,000 bail.
He is accused of having caused, on May 1, the death by “compression” of the neck of Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old black homeless man, known for his resemblance and imitations of singer Michael Jackson.
A video of the drama, which triggered a strong emotion, shows the victim on the ground for five minutes, Daniel Penny lying behind to hobble him. She struggles before not moving.
The lawyers of the former serviceman assure in their appeal for donations that he “risked his life in order to protect the passengers of the New York subway from an attacker”.
A witness told AFP that Jordan Neely had indeed burst into the car shouting at passengers, but he did not visibly attack anyone physically.
The call for donations was launched on the “GiveSendGo” platform, which describes itself as “the first crowdfunding site for free Christians”, and is known for having agreed to raise funds for far-right figures banned from other sites.
It was relayed by the very conservative Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis, who has presidential ambitions. “We support good Samaritans like Daniel Penny, let’s show this Marine that America is behind him!” he tweeted.
The case strongly divides the country: the right, which accuses the Democrats of laxity in the face of crime, congratulates Daniel Perry for having set himself up as a “vigilante” having acted in “self-defense”. The left regrets an act of violence against a man suffering from mental illness which, according to them, reflects the city’s deep socio-economic and racial inequalities.
2023-05-14 17:31:00
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