American justice has become politicized — a weapon against enemies with hall passes for favored groups. Attorney General Merrick Garland, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and dozens of big city, George Soros-funded leftist district attorneys routinely prosecute innocent citizens while letting criminals walk free.
The actions of these powerful officers of the law fit a pattern that the great Soviet-era Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn not only would have recognized, but he also detailed.
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s prosecutions of both Donald Trump and Daniel Penny — closing arguments for Penny’s trial are scheduled for after Thanksgiving — combined with his leniency for deadly criminals are a case in point.
In “The Gulag Archipelago,” Solzhenitsyn wrote of the “Voroshilov Amnesty,” granted three weeks after Stalin’s death in 1953, which “flooded the whole country with a wave of murderers, bandits, and thieves, who had with great difficulty been rounded up after the war.” Communist authorities thought a general amnesty would endear them to the people — of course, many non-violent political prisoners weren’t eligible.
This amnesty was compounded by Article 139 of the Criminal Code of 1926 which defined the “limits of necessary self-defense.” As Solzhenitsyn described the law, “you had the right to unsheathe your knife only after the criminal’s knife was hovering over you. And you could stab him only after he had stabbed you. And otherwise, you would be the one put on trial.” Solzhenitsyn then observed that “This fear of exceeding the measure of necessary self-defense led to total spinelessness as a national characteristic.”
Returning to Bragg’s prosecution of Penny, by now, much of the nation knows that Penny, a former Marine, intervened when Jordan Neely became aggressive and threatening on a subway train. Neely, who tragically died, either during the confrontation or shortly after, was not simply a man in need of help; he had a long history of violence and assault. By stepping in, Penny averted harm to fellow passengers. Yet instead of being hailed as a protector, Penny was prosecuted. It appears Bragg is a fan of the Soviet Union’s Article 139.
As Solzhenitsyn explained, the Soviet state reserved for itself the monopoly on force, punishing self-defense as a form of insubordination. Such policies deliberately cultivated fear and compliance, demoralizing citizens and teaching them to rely solely on the state for protection — a state that often failed to provide it. Solzhenitsyn recounted the case of soldier Aleksandr Zakharov, who, when sentenced to 10 years for murder for defending himself from a hoodlum’s attack, asked, “And what was I supposed to do?” To which the prosecutor responded, “You should have fled!”
The chilling effect of cases like Penny’s is already visible. People who might otherwise intervene in dangerous situations now think twice, fearful of becoming the next defendant in the crosshairs of prosecutors like Bragg.
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