Gov. Ron DeSantis was somewhere in the Midwest when he leaped into a controversy involving a killing on a New York subway, using a religious parable to make his point.
“We must defeat the Soros-Funded DAs, stop the Left’s pro-criminal agenda, and take back the streets for law abiding citizens. We stand with Good Samaritans like Daniel Penny. Let’s show this Marine… America’s got his back,” DeSantis tweeted Friday.
Penny choked out a man on a New York City subway May 1. He faces a manslaughter charge after killing the man in the wake of threats to passengers.
DeSantis’ fundraising appeal only helped to bolster what is, at this writing, close to a million dollars banked for Penny’s legal defense on GiveSendGo. The right-wing alternative to GoFundMe is billed as the “#1 Christian fundraising site,” and Penny’s fundraising has already more than tripled that of another self-styled vigilante, Kyle Rittenhouse.
The Good Samaritan parable in the Bible had nothing to do with vigilante justice, of course. It involved Jesus Christ advising someone to follow the example of someone who helped the victim of attacks from robbers.
For this reason and others, DeSantis elicited a variety of reactions for his support of the Marine amid his manslaughter charges.
“The Good Samaritan in Christ’s parable stopped & helped the stranger he encountered on the road, bandaging his wounds, carrying him to an inn, paying for his care and his recovery. The guy you call a Good Samaritan murdered a hungry homeless man on the subway. Big difference,” asserted former state Rep. Omari Hardy.
“My favorite part of the New Testament was when the Good Samaritan choked a stranger to death. The lessons of Christianity, such as they are said to be, are certainly not lost on the governor of Florida,” added David Simon.
“A Good Samaritan who strangled someone to death? That’s a new twist on the story,” commented Matt Martens.
“Man, he’s drilling DEEP into the culture wars,” asserted CNN’s David Axelrod.
“Black man gets choked to death in New York. Florida’s GOP governor and wannabe president promptly issues his support for the white guy charged with killing him, and throws in some antisemitic dogwhistling too,” contended MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan.
“Ron DeSantis is raising money to help defend a white man who lynched a Black man on a NYC subway,” tweeted Morgan J. Freeman.
Not all responses were critical, however.
“Thank you Governor DeSantis! Patriots: please consider donating to the defense of this Good Samaritan protector, I just did. Daniel Perry is being persecuted by the corrupt, Soros-backed leftist agenda, let’s help,” asserted Steve Cortes, who backs DeSantis for President.
“Thank you, Governor,” added Jack Posobiec.
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