Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley became the latest conservative to back Daniel Penny, the ex-Marine charged in the killing of Jordan Neely on a New York City subway.
Ms Haley has called for Mr Penny to be pardoned by the state’s governor, Kathy Hochul, to prevent law enforcement authorities from prosecuting him for the choking death of Neely, 32, on a subway earlier this month.
Neely, who was experiencing homelessness and was reportedly complaining to passengers on the subway on 1 May about hunger and dehydration, had not physically attacked anyone on the train or shown any kind of weapon before being placed in a chokehold by Mr Penny.
But, some reports have indicated that some passengers felt endangered by his emotional outbursts before the violence unfolded.
The shocking death has polarised the United States as many see it as an example of the brutality, lack of compassion, and unprovoked violence with which America’s unhoused and mentally ill adults are treated by the population at large.
Many others, like Ms Haley and her fellow conservatives such as Florida Gov Ron DeSantis, instead view the killing as the logical result of a growing issue of houselessness in American cities and towns that they argue is going unaddressed by urban (read: Democratic) leaders and contributing to a crisis of mental illness.
They have argued that Neely’s death was a tragic but unforeseen result of a citizen being forced to defend themselves and others from a supposed crime surge they believe is centred in American urban metropolises.
Ms Haley made her comments about Neely’s death on a local New York radio show, Cats and Cosby, hosted by GOP billionaire megadonor John Catsimatidis. The New York Post first reported her remarks.
“Military members, they are trained to defend and protect. That’s what [Mr Penny] was trying to do,” she argued.
The former governor continued: “I actually don’t think we need to just get behind Penny. I think we need to tell the governor she needs to pardon him. We need to pardon him because what he was doing was trying to protect other Americans.”
Her remarks served to subtly escalate the support for Mr Penny that was first raised as a presidential campaign issue by Ron DeSantis in the preceding days; Mr DeSantis is thought to be prepping a bid for president and is currently the only Republican polling in the double digits in surveyed hypothetical matchups with Donald Trump.
As governor of South Carolina, Ms Haley won the support of many conservatives in the Republican establishment; however, her hard right turn under the presidency of Donald Trump was not convincing either for her now-former supporters in the #NeverTrump sphere as well as the base of Trump-loving GOP voters she has thus far failed to tap into for her 2024 bid.
Mr Penny voluntarily surrendered to authorities earlier in May and was charged with second-degree manslaughter.
