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An illegal alien approached a sleeping woman on the New York City subway on Sunday morning and calmly set her on fire. He then sat on a bench and watched the woman burn to death. 

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The illegal alien from Guatemala wasn’t the only person watching the woman burn. The gruesome murder was caught on video by a bystander who was 10 feet away. Also watching was a New York City policeman who was standing outside the subway car while the woman burned.

All told, there were three people within a few feet of the woman who failed to act. Why? Was it the shocking immediacy of the act that caused the witnesses to freeze? Was it simple fear? 

Guardian Angels founder and community activist Curtis Sliwa thinks he has an answer. 

“There’s no doubt that people don’t want to get involved. It’s the Daniel Penny factor. It’s frozen people. They’re saying to themselves, ‘I don’t want to get jammed up like Penny.'”

“People should have been running over to the woman on fire. They did nothing. They said nothing,” Sliwa said. He calls it “The Daniel Penny Effect.”

Recall that Penny, a 26-year-old Marine veteran, confronted and subdued a mentally ill man named Jordan Neely, who was threatening passengers. Penny placed Neely in a choke hold until he went limp. Medics were unable to revive Neely, and he was pronounced dead. The resulting trial by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg attempted to demonize Penny for his heroic actions. Penny was ultimately found not guilty.

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“People are reticent about getting in the middle of criminal activity,” Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar, a Brooklyn resident, told The Post Monday. “There are a lot of New York City residents who think twice about acting because they don’t think they have the support of our Democratic elected officials. They are wary of revolving door justice.”

“This murder never should have happened in the first place,” he said.

New York Post:

Sources said charges are pending, with Brooklyn prosecutors awaiting the results of an autopsy — which is complicated by the scorched condition of the victims’ body — to determine the cause of death.

But the incident has raised several questions, including why it took cops so long to get to the burning woman, why Zapeta-Calil was allowed to leave the scene after cops arrived and why required fire extinguishers on the subway car weren’t put to use, sources said.

Related: Shoplifters in California Arrested Under New Prop 36 Rules Are Shocked to Find That Stealing Is a Crime

About the time that the woman was being burned to death, Gov. Kathy Hochul was bragging about how safe the subways were.

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X users were not kind in their responses.

I can’t say that Silwa has a point. There are many reasons someone witnessing a person being burned to death wouldn’t leap to save them, including the sheer horror of the image before them and the desire not to catch fire. 

But in the aftermath of the Daniel Penny persecution, a resident of New York City has to be crazy to make any attempt to stop a mentally ill person from threatening innocent people on a subway — not while DA Alvin Bragg is waiting to pounce and make their life a living hell.