On Monday, Daniel Penny, a 26-year-old white man, was acquitted of all charges in connection with the May 1, 2023, killing of Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old unhoused Black man with severe mental illness, in New York City U- Train. Penny was charged with second-degree manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter after he choked Neely for nearly six minutes, resulting in his death. The Marine veteran claimed self-defense after an unarmed Neely threatened passengers and complained of hunger and thirst, according to witnesses.

In a police interview after Neely’s death, Penny described Neely as “just a weirdo” who “acted like a madman.” Experts say Penny’s acquittal fits a long-standing pattern of how white vigilante crime is treated in the U.S., where white murderers are celebrated and black victims vilified.

“In situations where people of color have tried to defend themselves, that’s a very different outcome,” said Mark Brodin, a law professor at Boston College Law School. “It is as transparent a double standard as you can imagine. And race is the only explanation. The class discusses this with Mr. Neely; his mental problems are mentioned. But race is at the top of the pyramid.”

Despite widespread outrage over Neely’s murder in New York City, Penny received an outpouring of support from the far right following his arrest. A crowdfunding campaign for Penny’s legal fund raised more than $2.9 million in the months following the incident. (Neely’s funeral funds, by contrast, brought in just $150,094.) Fox News host Greg Gutfeld referred to Neely as a “violent guy” who was “better at impersonating Michael Meyers than Michael Jackson.” referring to Neely’s previous impersonations of the pop star. And another Fox News pundit, Kayleigh McEnany, joined her colleagues in laughing at the protesters who gathered to condemn Neely’s killing.

After his acquittal, Penny was praised by conservatives, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Ben Shapiro and Meghan McCain, who called those who criticized Penny “crazy people.”

Such comments are part of an “unfortunate spiral” in which news outlets, platforms and people “demonize individuals for their existence,” said NAACP President Derrick Johnson. “The fact that (Penny) called this person (a) crackhead shows his state of mind. He did not view this person as someone who was human (or who had more or less the right to live.”

Brodin said Penny’s acquittal was all but certain given the “history of the legal system sending these people into the courthouse through the back door.” You can set your watch for it,” he said of cases in which white vigilantes claimed self-defense. “There’s just no accountability to these people.”

For example, George Zimmerman, who shot Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, in Florida in 2012, Kyle Rittenhouse, who killed two men and injured a third during a Black Lives Matters demonstration in Wisconsin in 2020, and Bernhard Goetz, who shot and killed in 1984 He killed four black teenagers on the New York subway and were all acquitted. Vigilantes like Penny are also generally portrayed and celebrated as “heroes,” Brodin added. Goetz was hailed as the “Savior of the Subway” by the New York tabloids. And Rittenhouse received messages of support and fundraisers after his arrest on first-degree intentional homicide charges. (Rittenhouse’s victims were all white, but the protest he traveled to was against the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man. Rittenhouse’s defense team said he traveled across state lines to the demonstration to “to protect people help”.)

The acquittal of white vigilantes occurred for several reasons, Brodin said. For one thing, the standards of self-defense are based on a perpetrator’s testimony that he believed he was in danger, where the burden of proof in a criminal trial is high and the jury is “vulnerable to scaremongering by defense attorneys.”

“It’s supposed to be a ‘reasonable fear,’ but the jury doesn’t hear the ‘reasonable’ part of it,” Brodin said. “You think, ‘That could have been me on the subway.’ I’m glad he strangled that man after strangling him for six minutes.”

Defense attorneys representing vigilantes “often play on jurors’ fears,” Brodin added. In Zimmerman’s case, his defense team included testimony from Olivia Bertalan, a young white mother who said she lived in the same gated community as Zimmerman and was the victim of a robbery.

“It had nothing to do with (Martin), but she was portrayed by the defense attorney as cowering in her bedroom closet when she heard the burglars walking next door,” Brodin said. “It was (an) all-female jury who obviously put themselves in a position to cower in their own bedrooms.”

Additionally, Penny’s acquittal could have far-reaching consequences for homeless people, a population already at increased risk of violence, said Dave Giffen, executive director of the New York-based Coalition for the Homeless. “The fear is that we are sending the message that citizens should take these situations into their own hands, that it is OK to attack and even kill someone you are afraid of.”

There could also be a possible increase in violence against homeless people as homeless people are unfairly blamed for the perceived increase in crime, Giffen said, noting that violent incidents committed by homeless people tend to dominate the headlines. City and state officials then responded with law enforcement actions, stoking further fears about public safety, rather than providing resources to those in need, he continued.

Penny’s portrayal as a hero and Neely’s as a villain only result in a lack of focus on how to help vulnerable populations cope with homelessness, Giffen said. “If we say it’s OK to attack someone who behaves in a way that makes you nervous, then the city will descend into chaos.”