A Black Lives Matter leader who was in the courtroom daily during Daniel Penny’s subway trial called on ‘black vigilantes’ to step forward after the Navy veteran was found not guilty on Monday.
Walter ‘Hawk’ Newsome, who claims to be Jordan Neely’s uncle, threatened Penny inside the courtroom during the chaos that immediately followed the verdict.
He yelled, “It’s a small, fucked-up world, buddy.”
Later, speaking to the media and then to protesters outside the courthouse, Newsome said it was time for “black vigilantes.”
‘Everyone else has watchers. “We need some black vigilantes,” he said.
“People want to jump, strangle and kill us for making noise, how about we do the same when they try to oppress us?”
The comments came as protesters across the street pointed at police, shouted “fuck the police” and asked why they weren’t patrolling the train to defend Neely.
Walter ‘Hawk’ Newsome, who claims to be Jordan Neely’s uncle, threatened Penny inside the courtroom during the chaos that immediately followed the verdict.
Speaking to the media and then to protesters outside the courthouse, Newsome said it was time for “black vigilantes.”
Penny was found not guilty of negligent homicide on Monday, after the state dismissed the main charge of involuntary manslaughter.
The homeless, mentally ill black man had been threatening to kill people and telling travelers he was willing to “go back to Rikers” when Penny, then just 24, intervened and knocked him to the ground.
He held Neely in a chokehold, alternating between applying pressure and not applying pressure, in an effort to keep the travelers safe until police arrived.
Protesters have stood outside the courtroom every day of the mammoth trial. It took two weeks to even select a jury, followed by four weeks of evidence and then six days of deliberations.
Those protesters called Penny the “subway strangler” and warned that “there will be no peace without justice,” which Penny’s attorney said was a direct threat to jurors.
Outside the courthouse on Monday, after summoning black vigilantes, Newsome told those same protesters that he “loves them.”
He singled out several by name who have been there “every day, in the freezing cold” shouting insults at Penny.
Newsome told the crowd that black people could no longer trust authorities to keep them safe or give value to their lives.
The courtroom erupted after the not guilty verdict, as Penny was led out of the room.
Neely was a well-known Michael Jackson impersonator in Times Square (pictured in 2009).
Penny held Neely on the floor of the subway car while others helped on May 1, 2023.
“We patrol our community,” he said. “We stay safe.”
‘America will never solve the black problem because it needs a punching bag. They have designated us as the punching bag.
‘So, fuck America. How dare you laugh and cheer when someone gets away with murdering us? I don’t want a march. I want a step.
‘Racists: burn in hell.’