IN DANIEL PENNY TRIAL DEFEAT, D.A. BRAGG OVERPLAYED HIS HAND

Daniel Penny's trial threw New Yorkers back into the era of Ed Koch's unsafe subways, epitomized by Bernard Getz's trial and his acquittal, except for the illegal possession of a weapon charge. It was a time of subways not only covered with graffiti but ridden with crime. Daniel Penny trial was started before the last presidential elections, precisely on October 21, 2024, when Donald J. Trump and the republicans were busy in exposing the crimes and violent attacks in the New York City subway system, whereas the democrats were responding with claims of violent treatment of African-Americans by the police officers. When the trial ended on December 9, 2024, with jury acquittal of Daniel Penny of the remaining charge of negligent homicide, Donald J. Trump was already elected to his second term of the U.S. presidency. I have watched pretty much the whole trial in Judge Maxwell's courtroom on 15th Floor at 100 Centre Street in Manhattan, starting from the selection of the jury until the closing statements. It is obvious that the trial never should have been brought and that it was initiated by Manhattan D.A. Bragg for political reasons. When the jury got hanged on the reckless homicide charge, the more serious one of the two charges, Dafna Yoran, the lead prosecutor, apparently with approval of her boss, D.A. Bragg, overplayed her hand by withdrawing it, to let the jury proceed with deliberations on the remaining charge of negligent homicide. Surprisingly to her, and to almost all the pundits, the jury acquitted Daniel Penny of the remaining lesser charge. Now, Bragg was precluded from retrying the reckless homicide charge. Although the family and BLM holdouts were shocked, the majority of the courtroom as well as the public greeted the acquittal with relief, for they were afraid that guilty verdict would pour cold water on any people trying to act as Good Samaritan to straphangers attacked in the subways. Whereas Daniel Penny legal team was professional throughout the trial, the D.A. team attempted to play racist card with the jury, however, to no avail. Ultimately D.A. Bragg was punished by the jury for proceeding against Good Samaritan protecting the fellow straphangers. It was obviously a tragedy, the death of Jordan Neely, but the guilty is the City and the State of New York in not being able to protect mentally ill people.

Janusz Andrzejewski is a New York attorney, admitted to practice in 1993, You can reach him by telephone (212-634-4250) or by e-mail at janusz@januszandrzejewski.com

LONDON 2012: OLYMPICS IN CONSTANT TROUBLE

It appears that Mitt Romney got it right: the 2012 Olympic Games in London, known as London 2012, are in huge trouble. Day after day, one scandal is being chased by another one. It all started with shortages in security personnel: turned out, that organizers were missing approximately 3,000 people necessary to provide safety to the olympians and their audience! It was too late to train the necessary personnel, so, the organizers had to call in the military forces to cover for the shortages - Thank you Sir Sebastian Coe for converting the civilian holiday into a military operation! Then, as soon as the olympians from all over the world started to arrive in, the London airports were not able to process them, the baggages were misplaced, the buses were getting lost in traffic, unable to reach their destinations for hours. Finally, before the opening ceremony was wrapped up, one country after another started to protest the treatment of their teams, the most vocal being the team of India, who felt humiliated by an exposure given to unknown woman marching by India team's flag-bearer; the intruder dominated the 10 seconds spot of the tv coverage, granted by the organizers to the second most populated country in the world. We are now only in the fourth day of the 2012 Olympics, yet scandal follows a scandal. Country after country experiences so called false flag shocks, to be associated forever with London 2012; the most crude example being the football match between North Korea and Colombia, prior to which North Koreans walked off the pitch. Eventually, as a result of organizers' display of their enemies' (South Korea) flag as a purported emblem of North Korea, the match had to be delayed for approximately one hour. Yesterday, it was the Chinese's turn to get offended by display of their flag at a lower height than South Korea's flag; swimmers from those two countries were classified both in second position and both received silver medals, and the olympic etiquette required that both countries' flags should have been placed at the same height. Well, I never thought the English were so lackadaisical! And, most of the times, the olympic venues shock with huge patches of empty seats! Some of the observers must be quipping that BBC Panorama and Sol Campbell had something to do with it! I can understand that the US liberal media jumped on Mitt Romney to show his purported lack of diplomacy and inexperience on international scene, in an attempt to score a point for Obama campaign in the US presidential elections. Yet, Romney's words, perhaps crudely undiplomatic, were definitely warranted and the majority of the media, instead of pouring the scorn on him, should have rather applauded Romney for the sincerity, which the same media often says is so needed in the politics. Let's hope that the Londoners finally will get a grip on the olympic machinery and redouble their efforts in the remaining days of the 30th Olympiad. Yet FIFA, the world footbal (soccer) authorities, should be applauded in their collective wisdom for not gratning England's bid to organize the 2018 World Cup. For once, FIFA got it right! And let's hope that England, before applying for organization of another international sporting event, would first hone their organizational skills. Perhaps, they should consult the Poles and the Ukrainians, the hugely successful organizers of Euro 2012 - whom, paradoxically, the London and English media denounced so prematurely, prior to the kick off of Euro 2012, for alleged racism, xenophobia, lack of infrastructure, and expected calamities. Well, those dark predictions at Euro 2012 did not come to fruition, instead, the English now have to constantly blush for their own shortcomings. I presume, with some dose of satisfaction and "schadenfreude", that English media, including BBC's Panorama (and Sol Cambpell), Guardian, Telegraph, the London Times as well as their loud tabloids, enjoy the quality of British paper while eating their own words. Bon appetit, mes amis!

Janusz Andrzejewski, is a New York based attorney, writing on legal and other important community topics. You can contact him by telephone: (212) 634-4250 or through e-mail: janusz@januszandrzejewski.com