It’d be nice if, just once, the Left would line up behind a worthwhile martyr.

We thought we saw it happening back in January, when a black motorist named Tyre Nichols was savagely beaten to death by five rogue Memphis cops after a traffic stop. Unfortunately for the race-baiters, Nichols’s killers were all black, so the racial demagoguery that would normally accompany such an incident was de-clawed and de-fanged. We could practically hear the Marxist money-grubbing BLMers thinking, If only those cops were white.

Oh, the usual suspects trotted out their claims that “systemic racism” made ‘em do it, but these ridiculous assertions rightly fell flat and folks moved on.

Not so with the recent death on a New York City subway car of one Jordan Neely at the hands of a white Marine Corps veteran and fellow New Yorker named Daniel Penny. Neely, 30, was an inarguably sick and dangerous man, the subject of multiple Emotionally Disturbed Person reports and more than 40 arrests.

Just prior to his death, according to one eyewitness, Neely was ranting and raving and menacing: “He said, 'I don’t care. I’ll take a bullet, I’ll go to jail’ because he would kill people on the train,” the woman said of Neely. “He said, ‘I would kill a motherf***er. I don’t care. I’ll take a bullet. I’ll go to jail.’”

Earlier today, Daniel Penny, 24, who once swore an oath to defend this country against all enemies foreign and domestic, surrendered to New York City Police for having accidentally — by any reasonable interpretation — ended the life of Jordan Neely while attempting to subdue him.

Let’s clear something up: It wasn’t a chokehold that Penny used, even though that’s how the mainstream media has been universally characterizing it. The term “chokehold” is not only inaccurate, it’s also prejudicial because the intentional crushing of one’s windpipe carries with it a suggestion of aggression and violence that isn’t shared by the defensive application of pressure to the side of the neck for the purpose of neutralizing a threat.

As an insightful reader pointed out to us last week, Penny used what’s called a carotid restraint. So when you hear the term “chokehold” lazily thrown around for the next few weeks and months, remember: It wasn’t a chokehold.

Alas, if only our lawless leftist-run Rotten Apple had a 39-strikes-and-you’re-out rule in place, Neely would still be alive today, and Penny wouldn’t be facing second-degree manslaughter charges and a 3.5- to 15-year prison sentence.

The consequences of this case are far-reaching — not only for the first civil right, the right of self-defense, but also for Rule of Law. Democrats outnumber Republicans in New York City by nearly nine to one, and anyone who thinks the local jury pool can hear evidence objectively and render a dispassionate verdict need only look to the case of another white guy, Donald Trump, who was found guilty earlier this week for an ostensible sexual assault that took place nearly 30 years ago and whose evidence didn’t pass the giggle test.

As for Penny, “I hope he has a great lawyer, and I’m praying for him,” said a 66-year-old woman and fellow passenger on that subway car. “And I pray that he gets treated fairly, I really do. Because after all of this ensued, I went back and made sure that I said ‘Thank you’ to him.”

She had good reason to thank Daniel Penny. Contrary to the Left’s dishonest assertions that Jordan Neely was a noisy-but-harmless Michael Jackson impersonator, he was a danger even to elderly women. As the New York Post reports: Neely “had numerous arrests on his rap sheet, the most recent in 2021, when he socked an older woman in the head, severely injuring her and landing himself in jail for more than a year. … The 67-year-old woman fell when she was punched … and broke her nose, fractured her orbital bone and endured ‘bruising, swelling and substantial pain to the back of her head,’ according to charging documents.” Clearly, any assertion that Neely didn’t pose a very real and serious threat is either deceitful or delusional.

We thank Daniel Penny, too. Because we can’t afford to have good men cowed into inaction and avoidance by the prospect of an illegitimately rendered arrest and prison sentence. We can’t have men taking the easy way out of dangerous situations, especially when split-seconds matter and the cops are minutes away.

Neely’s family, which is certainly grieving, feels otherwise. Their statement through attorneys Donte Mills and Lennon Edwards read in part: “Daniel Penny’s press release is not an apology nor an expression of regret. … It is character assassination and a clear example of why he believed he was entitled to take Jordan’s life. In short, his actions on the train, and now his words, show why he needs to be in prison.”

Here’s how Penny’s attorney Steve Raiser laid things out: “When Mr. Penny, a decorated Marine veteran, stepped in to protect himself and his fellow New Yorkers, his well-being was not assured. The unfortunate result was the unintended and unforeseen death of Mr. Neely. … We are confident that once all the facts and circumstances surrounding this tragic incident are brought to bear, Mr. Penny will be fully absolved of any wrongdoing.”

Jordan Neely’s death is tragic, but it wasn’t the fault of the man who took his life. What are the long-term ramifications? Can this young man get a fair trial in New York City? And if he does, will The Mob rule as it did in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death?

We can only watch and wait.

Updated with additional info on Jordan Neely’s well-documented penchant for violence.