May 2023 greeted America with the story of the death of Jordan Neely, a mentally ill homeless man who was acting erratically and violently toward passengers on an New York subway, where erratic and violent behavior has become de rigueur since New York decided that the anti-crime policies of the late 1990s and 2000s had worked too well to continue. Neely had a troubled past, a long struggle with mental health issues, and a lengthy criminal record. On this occasion he posed a reasonable threat to the safety of the others on the carriage. In response, a few passengers, led by 24-year-old Marine veteran Daniel Penny, intervened to subdue him until police could arrive. During the ensuing struggle, Penny restrained Neely in a headlock, from which Neeley subsequently died.

In no sane civil society would one suggest Neely’s death was anything less than a tragedy. Nor in any sane civil society would anyone suggest that Penny’s intervention was anything less than noble.

We, however, no longer live in a sane civil society. Rather than being praised for stepping up and putting his own life and safety on the line to help protect his fellow citizens, Penny is being charged by the New York District Attorney with manslaughter. And rather than using Neely’s tragic example as a springboard to identify where our society failed him, he is being held up by some as a martyr.

Result: we will learn nothing from it.

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A couple weeks later, a news story emerged in Denver of a few employees in a King Soopers grocery store who six months earlier caught a man stealing cell phones with the aid of a box-cutter. A female employee raised the alarm and yelled at the shoplifter as he tried running out of the store, a male employee rushed in to subdue him, aided by another, while another female employee called the police.

The police arrive, the thief is handcuffed and carted off to jail, and the proactive store workers are given a bonus and corporate recognition for their collective action in defense of their place of employment. Right?

Nope. All five King Soopers employees were fired for their actions 10 days later. The same amount of time the thief ended up spending in jail after pleading down the accompanying drug and probation violation charges.

Last week we read in the Wall Street Journal of how Baltimore is joining a handful of other big cities in responding to the dramatic increase in vehicle thefts. Ready? They are suing Kia and Hyundai for – get this – making their cars too easy to break in to. The person has not yet graced the planet who has the satirical resources required to make this stuff up.

These three stories paint a picture of a society that is racking up failures and compounds those failures by ricocheting the blame onto those least to blame.

New York’s progressive criminal justice policies, including prohibiting the institutionalization of those with severe mental illness, completely, and tragically, failed Jordan Neely. Another lingering mistake from the 1960s, “deinstitutionalization,” is the manifestation of the trendy idea that those experiencing mental issues to the point of living on the street and threatening passersby are really just engaging in an “alternative lifestyle.” Jordan Neely deserved better than to be officially left to is own insufficient devices until his behavior presented enough of a threat to others that he eventually died being restrained by a man coming to the aid his fellow citizens.

We see in the King Soopers incident that official toleration of criminal behavior eventually trickles down to the corporate level. And now, in both this and the New York incident, we are witnessing that being taken to a new level – not simply the active toleration of crime and disorder, but the active discouragement of responsible citizenship. Neither Penny nor the King Soopers employees were vigilantes out looking to bring justice to the streets; they were simply trying to be good citizens stepping in to protect lives and property until the proper authorities could come take care of it. And they are being punished for it.

The progressive policies that created and sustain the problem, like the concerted effort to divert blame, are an exercise in the reordering of society along ideological lines. What will be the ultimate outcome of this endeavor? Nothing less than the continued disintegration of civil society, a disintegration that failed Neely, that is failing Penny and five former King Soopers employees, and will eventually fail all of us.

Kelly Sloan is a political and public affairs consultant and a recovering journalist based in Denver.