I have a few more thoughts on this subject. I still stand by my morning hot take on this and I believe he will probably face charges, perhaps a form of manslaughter. This doesn’t appear to be a murder to me.
This morning I was assuming that he was a trained grappler on account of him successfully grappling. After looking at the footage on my big monitor, he wasn’t even doing a technically-sound rear naked choke. This is what I’d expect from someone mimicking a UFC fighter or, perhaps, someone with a few dozen hours of grappling training in a program like the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program.
The best video I could find was short. Real short. I haven’t seen any of the lead-up. I haven’t seen anything other than what I can assume is selectively-edited video meant to show the most inflammatory images possible. Apparently the whole event took place over 15 minutes, and I’d be shocked if more footage isn’t out there.
If someone can find a longer video, please post it.
As @nealdog asked, was this marine’s conduct reasonable? That’s tough to say without knowing more facts and seeing a more complete video, if one exists. I think it was completely reasonable to confront someone like that with force. I may or may not have, but I generally am not looking to insert myself into those situations when I’m out minding my own business.
Why?
Because I carry a concealed handgun when I’m out and about. That means I’m not looking to play the same kind of role I did when I worked bar security, where I used the RNC on several occasions to control people. Nowadays I’m simply looking to keep me and my people safe, which means staying away from crazies and using decisive force to stop them should they present a credible threat of death or great bodily harm.
Assuming that the dead guy did not present an imminent threat of death or great bodily harm, which would lend justification to the deadly choke, the question shifts to whether or not it was a reasonable course of action to restrain a violent and erratically-behaving person. At this time I’m leaning towards an ignorant but well-meaning young man who was unaware of the deadly force he was applying.
If the marine was a BJJ black belt with competition experience and a decade of mat time, it may be hard to make the case that he was unaware that his restraint was deadly force. Choke mechanics are fundamental to BJJ training at any good school. He showed no signs of such expertise to me.
The marine may have some level of blame for an unnecessary death, but in my opinion the state and city of New York are absolutely to blame, and by extent the voters of New York. They have cultivated a situation where a guy with over 40 arrests since 2013, including a 2021 conviction for felony aggravated assault, was somehow free to terrorize people on the subway.
If you let assholes roam the streets, there will be more confrontations between normal people and those same assholes. Like we just saw here, they don’t always go very well. Get the violent and unstable people sequestered and into treatment programs that can prevent them from terrorizing the good people who don’t have 40 arrests in the last decade.
As for all of the leftist activists using this to further their destructive lies and false narratives, EAT A DICK, YOU LYING COMMIE ASSHOLES!
