AOC Says Ron DeSantis ‘Should Read The Bible’ After Calling Daniel Penny A Good Samaritan

Squad member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has criticized Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for calling Marine Daniel Penny a Good Samaritan.

The awakened congresswoman suggested the presidential hopeful “read the Bible” as she left the funeral service for 30-year-old homeless Jordan Neely on Saturday.

Penny, 24, was filmed holding Neely in a chokehold after Neely threatened people on a New York City subway on May 1.

He is charged with second-degree manslaughter and faces up to 15 years in prison.

But some, including Florida’s governor, have defended Penny, saying he was just trying to protect others.

Speaking about the incident at a press conference on Tuesday, Ron DeSantis praised Penny for doing the “right thing” when he praised the Marine’s military service.

“Veterinarians look for vets,” said DeSantis, who is expected to announce his presidential campaign next week. “What we can’t have in our society are inmates running the asylum.”

He then went on to call Penny a “Good Samaritan.”

“What you saw on the subway was you saw a man who was very dangerous. He put people in danger. He boasted he could do evil,” DeSantis claimed.

And I think I can act like a Good Samaritan and protect people — I think that was “something that was the right thing to do.” And I don’t think he should be prosecuted.’

DeSantis also berated Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for bringing charges against Penny.

“I think you have a prosecutor there who sides with the criminal element over law-abiding citizens, and when people have the guts to fight back against the criminal element, he goes after them.

“I think the charges will be dropped,” DeSantis continued, “but if not, I think he might win in the end.”

But when asked Saturday by an unidentified reporter about his comments calling Penny a Good Samaritan, New York Congressman AOC said, “I think he needs to read a Bible.”

In the Christian Bible, the parable of the Good Samaritan is about a traveler who is stripped naked, beaten, and left half dead by the side of the road.

First, a Jewish priest and a Levite man pass the traveler – who is believed to be Jewish – without helping him.

Finally, a Samaritan comes along and helps the traveler, despite the mistrust of Samaritans and Jews at the time.

The term “Good Samaritan” has since been used to refer to anyone who helps a stranger.

AOC’s comments came just after Rev. Al Sharpton claimed Penny was a murderer during a eulogy for Neely.

He, too, addressed DeSantis’s comments by saying: “A Good Samaritan helps people in trouble, they don’t suffocate them.

“What happened to Jordan was a crime and this family shouldn’t be alone.”

Sharpton also condemned what he said was New York City’s failure to care for the homeless.

“He’s suffocated all his life,” Sharpton said, claiming Neely’s threats that day were a “cry for help.”

Neely had threatened death and thrown trash on New York City’s uptown F train before his death and had a long criminal record for misdemeanor offenses including assault and disorderly conduct.

Jordan didn’t annoy anyone on the train. Jordan screamed for help. We continue to criminalize people with mental illness. They don’t need abuse, they need help,” he said.

“We can’t celebrate Jordan’s life, but we can’t forget how he died. We’re not here for natural reasons.’

But Neely had an extensive criminal record for subway crimes, including violent assaults against other passengers.

In 2021, he attacked an elderly woman as she exited the Bowery station in the East Village. She suffered a broken nose, broken eye socket and “bruising, swelling and significant pain in the back of her head” during the Nov. 12 attack, according to an indictment.

On February 9, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, he admitted to committing a felony in exchange for an alternative to 15 months incarceration.

He would stay in a treatment center and stay sober.

Between January 2020 and August 2021, he was arrested for public lewdness after pulling down his pants and exposing himself to a woman, felony for punching a woman in the face, and criminal contempt for violating a restraining order.

According to Fox News, all three cases were dismissed as part of his Feb. 9 plea deal.

In June 2019, Neely assaulted 68-year-old Filemon Castillo Baltazar on the platform of the W. 4th St. Station in Greenwich Village, court records show.

“Out of the blue he punched me in the face,” the victim told the New York Daily News. He said he saw Neely searching for food in garbage cans before the attack.

A month earlier, Neely punched a man in the face and broke his nose on the Broadway-Lafayette platform — the same subway station where he died.

On both 2019 counts, he pleaded guilty to assault and was sentenced to six months in prison.

Neely’s family said he was “having an episode of mental health” and not a single rider asked what was wrong until Penny and two others restrained him.

A woman riding the subway that day has described how she was reading a book when she heard Neely scream.

He said, “I don’t care if I have to kill an f, I will. I’m going to jail, I’ll take a bullet.” I look at where we are on the subway, in the sardine can, and I’m like, “Okay, we’re in between stations. We have nowhere to go.”

She said Fox news that Penny was simply acting in self-defense, and I believe in my heart that he saved a lot of people that day that could have been hurt.

“No one wants to kill anyone,” she claimed. Mr. Penny didn’t want to kill that man. It took three men to stop Mr. Neely. He was having a hard time.’

The woman, who described herself as a “woman of color,” also said race has nothing to do with what happened on the train.

“This is not about race. This is about people of all colors who were very, very scared and a man stepped in to help them.

“Race is used to divide us.”

She said that New York – a city she has lived in for 50 years – was beginning to resemble a “Third World country.”

“I miss the city under Giuliani’s law and order. When it comes to exposing people or subduing violent behavior, the people in power who are supposed to protect us are not.”