Good morning. It's December 10th. It is a gray drizzly morning in New York City, and this is your Indignity Morning Podcast. I'm your host, Tom Scocca, taking a look at the day and the news. 

Syria continued to hold down the front of the New York Times today. “Shock, glee, and unease as Syrians wonder what's next,” is the five column headline. Above a four column picture, captioned “‘symbol of terror,’ thousands of Syrians descended on the Assad regime's notorious Sednaya prison outside Damascus.” The subhead on the news story next to that is “rebel transition in a country deeply torn.” For once, a bit of vibes writing seems defensible. “As the rebel coalition that swept into Damascus, the Times Right, suddenly found itself in charge of the Syrian capital, a sense of unease mingled with the disbelief. The precariousness of their newly won freedom was not lost on Syrians. No one, not residents, not rebels, seemed certain of what might come next beyond the daunting task of reconciling the deep ethnic, sectarian and religious divisions that wrecked the country under Bashar al-Assad's rule.” Inside are a bunch more stories about that same uncertainty as it applies to the people who have to write the news and people who have to make foreign policy. “As Syria changes, Biden shows caution.” And then “as Syria rejoices, new risks loom. Wary of rebel militia, US scrambles to navigate perils of new Syria, will Syria's factions pull the nation apart,” and “revolutions swept the Middle East in 2011, will Syria's end differently?” 

And then there are two stories more from the perspective of Syrian people themselves. “Father and son's legacy is of savage oppression, a police state bombed its own citizens and threw many thousands in prisons.” And then from Damascus, “Thronging a prison desperate for clues, Syrians seek kin at infamous facility.” The story ends with a scene from Aleppo. “A vehicle dropped off one former prisoner from Sednaya his face gaunt and his legs and body weakened by years of detention Two relatives helped him stand a small band of musicians beat drums to celebrate his survival The man was soon thronged by people holding their cell phones up to his face. They were showing him photographs of detainees, hoping he might have news.

Back on page one the left-hand column is about the acquittal of subway strangler Daniel Penny. Here the bid to be writing this into the history books feels a little bit sweaty and unnecessary. “Jury acquits man who was choking rider on subway, cleared of homicide, split reaction in a case reflecting tensions in New York City,” and the lead picks up right where that last one left off. “Daniel Penny, a former Marine who choked a fellow subway rider on an uptown F train last year was acquitted on a charge of criminally negligent homicide on Monday, ending a case that had come to exemplify New York City's post-pandemic struggles.” 

Had it? Had it come to exemplify post-pandemic New York? Is New York post-pandemic? Discuss. Anyway, before doing any municipal har-ya-spicy on the entrails of the trial, it might be worth looking at it just as a case study in what a strange institution the jury is. On Friday, the jury was so deadlocked on a charge of manslaughter that the judge granted a request from the prosecution to drop that charge and just move on to negligent homicide. But somehow, after the weekend, whichever member or members of the jury had been so set on convicting Penny of manslaughter that they were willing to stay deadlocked, turned around and brushed off the lesser charge to let Penny go free. 

Next to that, right above the fold in other criminal justice news, comes the surprisingly underplayed news “Call by Tipster leads to arrest in NY Killing.” The Times' account of the apprehension in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Adam McDonald's of the former Gilman School valedictorian and accused CEO shooter Luigi Mangione. The news that he hails from Towson, Maryland casts a new phonetic light on the bullets left at the crime scene, reading, deny, defend, depose. The Times' account is a very compact story for something with 12 additional reporting credits on top of the one byline, plus a research credit. Mangione's arrest came early enough in the day that the Times had access to his Unabomber Manifesto review on Goodreads, and the police quoting from the handwritten manifesto they said they found in Mangione's possession.

“These parasites had it coming, it said according to a senior law enforcement official who saw the document. I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done.” Or for those of us who were like Mangione born at the greater Baltimore Medical Center, maternity unit. “These parasites had it coming. I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it hadda be done.” Mangione was also allegedly in possession of a ghost gun and a homemade silencer. Luigi Mangione, the whole point of a ghost gun is you’re spozed ta get rid of it so they can't find you.” Condolences to all the people who studied the security footage and held forth on how this guy was a trained operator.

 Anyway, he seems to have been a well-liked Previously well-adjusted guy with corny tastes in podcasts and reading and probably simplifying the question of why he gunned down the CEO of a health insurance company What seems to have been intractable back pain in the lumbar region.

Next to that on page one Ellen Barry reports on a real intractable mess. “Intercepting self-harm, but many false alerts” is the headline. The sub headline is “Schools Use A.I. to Spy on Students’ Devices to Prevent Suicide.” It opens with back-to-back anecdotes. One about a mother finding police officers at her door in the middle of the night, alerting her to the fact that her daughter off in her bedroom had just overdosed on her anxiety medication after typing something about her plans on her school issued Chromebook. Yeah, they're about the police showing up at another family's house in the middle of the night to interrogate the teen about a poem she had written for class a few years ago with the word “die” in it. And from there it goes. This technology exists. It has been deployed. It has guided interventions toward kids who are talking about killing themselves. It has sent law enforcement officials to harass lots of kids who are not talking about killing themselves. It's all basically as dysfunctional as our entire surveillance system, and school security system and youth mental health system. Trying to act in concert might be expected to be.

Down at the bottom of the page. The Times catches up with the Mets having signed Juan Soto, making it as the Times must. about the Yankees. “With their new power player. Mets turn tables on Yankees.” That's not really true. It's not like the Yankees have been poaching a lot of top dollar superstars away from the New York Mets, which is the thing the Mets just did to the Yankees. But the story does conjure the Yankees' overall sense of entitlement pretty effectively by talking about how shocking it would be for a player to spurn the Yankees and then running through a list of illustrious Yankees free agent signings of the past, including Reggie Jackson, who went from the Baltimore Orioles to the Yankees in basically the same situation as Soto, which is to say he was traded to a strong winning team while under a contract that gave him no say in the matter. And then when that contract expired, he felt no particular obligation to stay with the team that had traded for him. That's why they call them free agents. 

That is the news. Thank you for listening. The Indignity Morning podcast is edited by Joe MacLeod. The theme song is composed and performed by Mack Scocca-Ho. Our podcasting is sustained by the generous contributions, through subscriptions and tips, of you, the audience. So please keep those coming. And if nothing unforeseen happens, we will talk again tomorrow.