Contrast

The choking death of subway performer Jordan Neely at the hands of former marine Daniel Penny has steeled the American right's resolve to see the act as justifiable. Fear of the other, whether it be the poor or visible minorities, has been magnified by the right in recent years because convenient scapegoats are needed in times of crisis. This is a historically provable pattern.

The increasing radicalization of the right wing is having grave consequences on American democracy as battle lines are drawn for control of voting districts through gerrymandering. The idea being to defeat your opponent by crushing their ideology.

This death has provided us a portrait of how stark in contrast the political ideologies can be. One side sees a dangerous criminal while the other a hungry victim of globalization who was at the wrong place at the wrong time.