Daniel Penny enjoyed a well-earned beer more than a year too late. After protecting dozens of New York City subway passengers from the violent fantasies of Jordan Neely, Penny was punished at the hands of activist Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Though he escaped a heavy punishment—spending the prime of his life rotting away in jail—for Penny and others like him, the process is the punishment. The stress of a grueling trial, the financial toll brought on by his parents fronting an $100,000 bond, and the reality that many Americans taken in by the media’s lies think Penny got away with committing a lynching in broad daylight—all of this will serve as a stern warning to men who dare stand up to the lawless tyranny in many of America’s major cities.

A regime that allows an army of Jordan Neelys to harass and threaten its citizens, and then tries to make an example of any man who dares try putting a stop to it, is a regime infused with a deep-seated hatred of masculinity. This makes sense given that masculinity is what will protect the innocent from the regime’s open embrace of lawlessness.

A decent society would honor Daniel Penny. Instead, our elites dragged him through a sham trial that ended in an acquittal despite their most brazen efforts. In a regime of lawlessness, citizens who enforce order are the enemy.

A well-functioning society possesses an inherent will to survive. Daniel Penny’s grave mistake was assuming he lived in such a place.

When I resided in Washington, D.C., insane men threatening passengers during my daily commute was commonplace. Commuters cowed at the other end of the train platform while I and other women were aggressively followed. Men stood awkwardly looking at their shoes, switching to other train cars during brief stops as women were verbally harassed. I saw one woman physically harassed; she just walked away quickly. No one, least of all her, expected to be helped. In New York City, right outside of Penn Station, a man tried to grope me.

In every instance, men who could easily win in encounters with vagrants had no desire to step in. I understand why given the ordeal Penny was just put through, but it’s no less maddening.

As is often said, hard times create strong men. At some point, though, these strong men create good times—good times where men like Daniel Penny don’t have to physically restrain madmen on public transportation.

In some ways, no one could blame a young man for refusing to risk his future to save a suicidal society. But as our culture collapses, it brings down a whole lot of innocent men, women, and children with it. Folks like Daniel Penny are their only hope.

We ask where all the men have gone—but men watched Penny’s name dragged through the mud for defending innocent passengers. Reacting to the treatment Penny received, it would be all too easy for most men to continue assuming the passive role they’ve taken in public—the role the regime wants them to take. But a state of societal collapse will only be reversed through actions taken by men who have cultivated masculine virtue. That’s a strength we don’t deserve, but should be mighty thankful for.

Perhaps one day, men like Daniel Penny will receive the honor they deserve right away. Still greater is the hope that one day, men like Daniel Penny won’t have to do such a thing in the first place.

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