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U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) believes the prosecution of Daniel Penny has had “a chilling effect” on anyone who would consider intervening in dangerous circumstances.

Speaking Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “Faulkner Focus,” the New York Republican spoke of Penny’s case, in which the former Marine was charged with second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in 2023 after placing Jordan Neely in a chokehold. Neely was threatening subway passengers and Penny intervened to protect fellow passengers from the drug addict with an arrest warrant and lengthy criminal history.

“Now, who would you rather have? Would you rather have this guy running around setting innocent women on fire or a former Marine, Daniel Penny, who was saving people, seeing a violent person, and protecting lives? And, thankfully, he was found innocent by a jury of his peers,” Tenney said Tuesday as she referred to the horrible murder of a woman on the subway.

(Video Credit: Fox News)

The latest victim in New York City’s subway system was allegedly set on fire by an illegal immigrant identified as Sebastian Zapeta. The 33-year-old has been charged with first and second-degree murder and first-degree arson.

Fox News host John Roberts asked Tenney about the disturbing reports that surveillance video showed several bystanders and even police doing nothing to help the woman as she was burned alive.

The lawmaker contended that the treatment of Penny “certainly has a chilling effect.”

“I don’t know if that’s a little bit of New York City or people don’t feel confident enough to help themselves. But that’s why we have to have dangerous people out of the way,” she said.

“That’s the major role of government is to keep us safe in our streets and our subways as we have a free society and that’s why we have police and that’s why this is — all of the fallout from the defund police movement started by AOC and others, this is what you get. You get unsafe streets, unsafe cities demoralizing the police and making people think they’re the enemy, and relying on good Samaritans like Daniel Penny is not the answer. And that’s not the solution,” Tenney continued.

“Look, I think that this is, definitely, as you say, having a chilling effect,” she added.

Guardian Angels Curtis Sliwa referred to the “Daniel Penny effect” in remarks to Fox News Digital.

“And I think that’s because of the chilling effect that the Daniel Penny situation had on this entire city. It was not a racially divisive case… but what I have detected is that people just don’t want to get involved,” Sliwa said.

“They don’t want to be penetrated, as I call it, which means, God forbid, dragged into court, prosecuted, and then have your life turned upside down,” he added.

“Nobody got involved, no police on that train. When the police did respond. They didn’t do it expeditiously. And I think increasingly, you are going to see citizens just retreat,” Sliwa said of the latest incident.

Frieda Powers
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