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Search FX's Shogun wherever you listen to podcasts. I want to send reinforcements to the mayor of New York, who has primary responsibility for policing the subways. But all of us know who have been on the subways, the subways are vast.
And we have seen a number of crimes, again, not statistically significant, but psychologically significant. And I want more people to go on the subway. I can show you all the statistics in the world that say you should feel safe because the numbers are better. But you're the mom on the subway with your baby in a stroller, you're the parent putting your kid on the subway to go to high school, you're that senior citizen going to a doctor appointment.
If you're anxious that I'm the governor of the state of New York, I'm concerned about it. And if you feel better walking past someone in a uniform to make sure that someone doesn't bring a knife or a gun on the subway, then that's exactly why I did it. I want to change the psychology around crime in New York City because we are the safest big city in America. I want people on the subways, it is safe, but I'm going to make sure people feel safe. What a joke. So if you're a mental patient and you have some type of mental illness and a misperception of reality, then I'll put people in camouflage next to you and pull them out of their normal jobs to serve on the National Guard. Maybe she wants to know this stat. Mayor Adams announced on Tuesday that he's putting more police patrolling the subways because subway crime has risen 20%.
So it's not a perception, it's a reality. Joining us now is Thomas Cunniff. He's an attorney at Razor and Cunniff and represents Danny Penny, the former Marine that saved everybody in a subway car because he's able to put this would-be assailant in a submission hold.
But sadly, because possibly because of the drugs he was on, he ended up losing his life. And now Danny Penny has to fight for his freedom. Tom, welcome back. Your response first about the governor's move. Well, I would just say, Brian, that I wish someone would have had this catharsis about a year earlier.
Yeah. Because maybe my client then wouldn't have been in the situation of having to step in to protect himself and his fellow passengers from unhinged Jordan Neely. So I don't know if, you know, better late than never is the appropriate response, but it's about all that comes to mind right now for me. She spoke about Danny Penny, too, in the past. Now she wants to make everyone feel better about it. Instead of saluting a good Samaritan for stepping up and noting the tragedy and how it ended, Alvin Bragg is trying to lock your guy up. But listen to what she said about Danny Penny in the past. I do want to acknowledge how horrific it was to view a video of Jordan Neely being killed for being a passenger on our subway trains.
I don't care about labeling it. Just looking at that video, you know it's wrong. No one has the right to take the life of another person. Now even our conductor's booths will now have cameras in there because we don't know who the perpetrator is or the person who slit the neck of a conductor just a week and a half ago. I talked to the doctor who saved his life. What a great guy to be on the train and go save the life of a conductor. You see her change in attitude because the conductor leaned out his head and got her neck slit. And now she's talking about your client that way. What an idiot.
Well, it's changing attitude. I'll just add that, you know, it's completely inappropriate. I made this point a couple times before I've been serving in the JAG Corps and I'm a former active duty JAG and still serve in the National Guard JAG Corps. And in the military, we have something called unlawful command influence, meaning that, you know, if a general officer or commander comments on a pending military investigation or case, that can get the whole case tossed on appeal because you're projecting to the potential jury, which in a military case is other officers in the military. What do you think the verdict should be when you're the governor of the state and you take an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States, which, by the way, includes the presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial and you're prejudging guilt or innocence, you're doing violence to that oath. But I want to touch briefly, Brian, if I can on, you know, a little bit in that clip you played, because the irony here, you could cut through it with a knife. You know, Governor Hochul is saying that she's concerned about comforting the mother with a baby in a stroller, the senior citizen on the train and the high school student, you know, taking the subway to school. Each of those individuals in those categories were, in fact, on the subway car, and those are the individuals that testified in the grand jury that how absolutely terrorized they were for themselves in the case of the mother, her children. The witness in this case talks about using her baby's stroller as a barricade to protect her child because she was so afraid that Jordan Neely was about to do harm to her and her child. So, you know, I mean, the irony is, like I said, it's thick.
Yeah, that's absolutely incredible. And how he's not looked at as a hero by that governor just shows how twisted everything is. You looked at that video and you can't be horrified Jordan Neely didn't deserve that for just riding, being a passenger on a train, not acknowledging that he was harassing and almost all your witnesses that you've lined up apparently have admitted they felt threatened.
What could you tell me about Jordan Neely's background? Well, yeah, I mean, I would say that it went far beyond harassment. We have multiple witnesses that were on that subway car that have testified under oath, and this is in our motions, which are part of the public record, that they thought they were going to die, plain and simple, quote, end quote, because Jordan Neely was so threatening, so demonic, to use another word, that one of the witnesses testified to.
So it's far beyond harassment. Look, I'm not here to this case doesn't inch on us disparaging Jordan Neely. You know, the loss of human life is tragic. There may be another tragedy that, you know, the system did not reach him, despite his absolutely prolific criminal record, violent criminal record and history of pronounced mental illness. So this is tragic on many, many levels. But what is not in dispute is the terror that Jordan Neely introduced into the subway car that afternoon, when my client stepped up again to protect himself and his fellow subway rides. The underlying causes, the root causes, as we progressives like to talk about, we can debate those all day long. What is not debatable is the facts that existed on the subway car that afternoon with Danny Penny, my client.
Yeah, absolutely. And we've all seen the video and we all see the fact that he did not run. He said that took every single question. He knew exactly where to find him. He's got this impeccable record.
He's already served the country and he wanted to be a student to go downtown and go to class. He did not get up in the morning and say, let me try to get somebody in a headlock. But, Tom, let me ask you, in the bigger picture, what was in his toxicology report? What was in his blood, Jordan Neely? Well, what I would say is it is documented, all right, documented evidence that Jordan Neely had a pronounced drug problem, that he was the user of synthetic cannabinoids, which, you know, I've heard some people out there make the case. Well, you know, he used marijuana. So synthetic K2, synthetic cannabinoids, it's not marijuana.
It is a ever evolving mix of chemicals that are thrown together and sprayed on something that looks like vegetation to try to evade the drug laws. And say, well, you know, it's not a Schedule 2 substance because it's not this. And the reality is that there are, you know, cases throughout the country of people just, you know, dying on this stuff, causing harm to others, taking life.
Yep. You know, it's history. And, you know, certainly we'll have reports that it was a fact in his system. So, again, that's something else that's not in dispute in this case. And, you know, how that's going to play out at trial, you know, I think that we'll wait and see.
We're quite confident that the drugs that were in his system contributed to these events in a variety of ways. And a grand jury did vote to indict. We have to make sure Danny Penny's off the streets so we all feel safe. That's the motivation with this ridiculous Department of Justice here in New York City, who's now going to focus on Donald Trump over the next few weeks, not the Venezuelan drug lords who are being living for free, getting turned down service at various hotels, while beating up cops on the streets, two of which will be at the State of the Union today. So what is Danny Penny's legal schedule on? When's he due back in court? Well, we have a court appearance coming up later this month. I think it's mostly just me talking about pretrial issues and scheduling.
There is no trial date as of yet, but as of latest estimates, we're estimating that this has to go to trial, which unfortunately it may, probably sometime in the early fall. Unbelievable. And I just want to hear her talk more about the crackdown on crime in New York City, cut 36. But all I know is my job is to protect the people of the state, and I'll do it. And I'm also going to demonstrate that Democrats fight crime as well. So this narrative that Republicans have said and hijacked the story that we're soft on crime, that we defund the police. No, we care about civil liberties.
We don't want overpolicing. We want to make sure that police operate within certain restraints, protect our citizens rights. But by God, I'm going to protect their lives and protect their sense of safety and security here in the city of New York.
I don't see any action to back that up. And that's why there are 6000 cops down and can't filled up an academy class because most cops, Tom, do not think that they're backed by this city or this state. Your thoughts? Well, look, Brian, you know, as you know, I ran for Manhattan District Attorney against Alvin Bragg in 2021. You know, my views on all this, I think, are, you know, well documented. Not many people have to pay attention to district attorney, but you can you can go back and see where I stand. You know, look, what I would say is I've been, you know, myself, even raise our entire legal team has been suspicious about keeping this case political. It's not political. There's nothing political about this case. There's nothing political about my client either. You know, but as a concerned New Yorker, someone who rides the subway virtually every day, I hope she means it. I hope, you know, Governor Hochul and everyone else that has the ability to deal with the crisis on our subways and in our streets. You know, it is not a it is not much statistics. It's real. Tom, how much harder is it to put a criminal behind bars with this bail reform bill that has now been in law since 2019? Probably the most egregious example is now on the cover of Newsday today, which is a New York newspaper.
There were people who were found with hacksaws who chopped up a body and spread all these body parts throughout the park of two individuals and were let out with ankle bracelets while their while their case will be deliberated without bail. Well, it's nuts and it's close to home for us. Right, Brian, because we're both miles from our house at the massive equal guys.
Right. You know, it's crazy. Look, and I know Ray Tierney personally. I campaigned with Ray Tierney. He's the district attorney of Suffolk County. He broke the Gilgo Beach serial killer case, as we all know.
And he's just he's just a great, great private. He's the guy you want as your district attorney if you care about safety. But, you know, the best prosecutor in the world can only work with the law. The law, the legislature gives them right. We all learned in eighth grade about separation of powers. Right.
It's a real thing. So by divesting not only prosecutors from the ability to request bail in these situations, but divesting the judiciary of the ability to set bail. You know, the legislature in Albany has put their thumb on the scales of justice and the same people that say they care about public safety and so forth are, you know, the ones who pass this thing. Listen, I've been a criminal defense attorney.
I'm a former prosecutor, a criminal defense attorney for most of my career. I believe in the presumption of innocence. I believe in in in in fair bail. I don't think that with the bail system should be used just to throw someone in jail because they committed a low level offense or they're not a threat to the community. But but but totally divesting judges of discretion to set bail in a whole loo of cases. You know, it's it's, in my opinion, crazy. And in my opinion, you know, has contributed to what we see it manifesting itself on the subways, on the streets, in cases like this one out on Long Island all the time.
Yeah. Let's hope people understand. We had four years to get a look at what lawlessness looks like and how and to vilify cops and hope we never were for that. Hopefully people will realize the folly in that because we've seen the results.
And now they want to just adopt somebody else's talking points. Thomas Kniff, thanks so much. Good luck with your client, Danny Penny. Great, great being here, Brian. Thanks. Thanks for the time to listen to the show and free on Fox News podcast plus on Apple podcast, Amazon music with your prime membership or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-03-07 12:46:09 / 2024-03-07 12:52:19 / 6
