Rudy Giuliani applauded citizen hero Daniel Penny, the young former Marine being persecuted by Alvin Bragg for confronting a deranged homeless thug on the New York City subway.

In an interview unearthed by the Daily Mail, Giuliani said if he were still mayor of New York, he would have given Penny a medal for his bravery.

"I’d have said that was an awfully brave thing you did. You had no idea if you would have gotten killed," Giuliani said.

Subway hero

By protecting bystanders from a violent criminal, Penny did the job the city should be doing but isn't, Giuliani said.

"We basically are empowering criminals to be on the street. [Penny] did what he should and protected people. The city should be doing it," he said.

Penny is facing up to 15 years in prison for manslaughter in the death of Neely, who was, according to witnesses, throwing garbage and threatening to kill bystanders when Penny intervened to restrain him.

"[Neely] walked onto the train, yelling and screaming, throwing garbage at them [the passengers], telling them basically he’s going to kill them. Then he took his jacket off and threw it on the ground. When he took his jacket off, you had to say is he going to kill somebody?" Giuliani asked.

In fact, Neely had over 40 prior arrests, and an open warrant for assaulting an elderly woman at the time of his death. But it is Neely, and not Penny, who is being treated like a martyr by the media, like George Floyd and countless other criminals.

Setting an example

Giuliani, who has been credited with cleaning the city up in the 1990s through "stop and frisk" and "broken windows" anti-crime policies, said the recent decline brings him back to the past.

"It’s like deja-vu. It’s like I’m living in the 70s and 80s before I was mayor. No, I don’t take the subway. We basically empower criminals and it’s going to keep people away."

By going after Penny, the city is sending a message to other would-be Good Samaritans to mind their business, Giuliani said.

"All it's going to do is deter other people. Maybe you're on the subway, or I'm on the subway and the next guy sits back and says, 'Gee, I don't know, if I get involved, I might get killed. If I get involved, if I don't get killed, I might go to jail.'"

Penny has spoken out since the incident, saying he was afraid to get involved but felt obligated to do something.

"I was scared for myself but I looked around there was women and children, he was yelling in their faces saying these threats. I just couldn’t sit still," he said.