Note that I'm not necessarily opposed to her facing consequences for killing him -- my issue is with how gleefully NYPost is framing it as if she just attacked him out of the blue and shoehorning her into the "evil transgenders" stereotype
You don't shoot two mags into someone out of self defense and you don't stab someone 14 times out of self defense. But hey, it's not like she had committed knife crimes 5 times before that.
She cut in line, he yelled slurs, she spat, he punched and then she stabbed him to death. And then proceeded to tell people she would do it again and was glad he died. Yeah, you're kind of a shitty person for this.
Punch the guy, stun gun the guy, pepper spray the guy, you have my blessing and support. You don't fucking kill someone.
The entire media campaign surrounding this is also despicable: For one group, she is the living embodiment of the ebul trans people, who are all just men in disguise trying to molest kids, for another group she is a brave, yet innocent bean who should be totally acquitted. Both groups are morons.
IMHO, she should serve a long ass sentence.
Yeah the fact that she is transgender has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she murdered someone, the only reason the press is including that fact is to stir up drama, hate, and ad revenue. It's pretty despicable, but I have come to expect nothing more from the press. There is no such thing as an honourable news reporter these days, just gossip columnists.
My read on it is that they’re intentionally cross wiring it to blur the issue and attach a negative colloquialism to trans people. This is part of how a group becomes considered untermensch by our illustriously imbecilic regime. If I was trans I would gtfo the country now, no joke. This is some goebbels-type shit, so you know it’s probably Steven Miller’s idea, that fucking psychotic dweeb
don't shoot two mags into someone out of self defense and you don't stab someone 14 times out of self defense.
I work in a trauma ward. It's not unusual to see people get stabbed dozens of times, whether it's self defense or not. People who get stabbed don't get dropped like a gun shot wound victim, they bleed out.
So more often or not if there's a confrontation with a knife people will keep stabbing until the person stops being a threat, which can take a while.
Yeah it's not like the movies, people don't just fall over when they're grazed by a blade or pistol-caliber bullet. If all I had was a knife to defend myself against an attacker I would choose "keep stabbing until they stop moving" even if that looks worse to juries. Better than being shot in the back trying to run.
Yeah she did a dick move then escalated into murder with 0 remorse. Life without parole.
Think about all the scared transphobes less likely to harass transgenders as a result this stabbing. She probably prevented numerous trans people from being assaulted and prevented some trans kids from committing suicide due to a reduction in bullying. She's a hero. IMHO, she should get a medal.
Also, by adhering to the principles of self-defense, which the founding fathers advocated for via the 2nd Ammendment, what she did was an act of American patriotism.
Think about all the transphobes who will now see trans people as violent and callous. If this has any effect, it'll increase the likelihood of violent attacks.
“I killed him laughing,” she said. “Oh, well. I’ll piss on his grave.”
“I did spit on him because he called me a f—-t,” Cruz’s confession reads. “I called him a dirty monkey. You said hurtful words, so I said hurtful words to you.”
As their dispute escalated, Cruz claimed that Hodges struck her three times before she pulled a knife and stabbed him in self-defense, according to court documents. “I told him, ‘You come to me and I’ll kill you,'” Cruz told investigators. “No motherf—-rs are going to put their hands on me no more.”
Hodges, who lived in the Bronx, reacted to the stabbing with astonishment, saying, “You really stabbed me?” to which Cruz replied, “Yes I did,” court documents state.
“I got in between them — twice,” said Janet Rich, who was in the deli buying coffee when the fight broke out. “There was another woman with dreadlocks [who] said, ‘Don’t do this. You have a good job. Let this go.’”
It's interesting to see how women generally react using reasoning and deescalation - which is commendable - but also knowing crime statistics against women maybe it wouldn't be the worst thing if men feared that assaulting a woman could end up getting you stabbed.
Too bad she seem quite evil with the whole "killing him laughing" thing - but I'm sure this isn't going to get twisted into all trans women are dangerous criminals and should be locked up in men's prisons...
This is so disgusting because she totally deserved to stab him in self defense. Getting hit three times necessitates self defense.
And I, a ciswoman, laugh when shit gets real because I have weird berserker blood or something. I can't control it, so if I'm going to stab someone in self defense, I would probably be laughing, too.
She could have filmed him and got him fired. You spit on people you get punched. If you are going to start a fight don't do it by doing something that instantly starts the fight while doing nothing to actually slow down your opponent. She could still have backed away, used pepper spray, used a taser, punched back.
All of these would see him face 99.9% of the consequences instead of him being dead and her life ruined.
You can't start a fight and claim self care.
He said video showed Hodges hurled slurs at Cruz, and that she only used the pocket knife — which she bought at a dollar store moments before the altercation, prosecutors claimed — after she felt threatened.
Hodges took off his jacket in the video, “the international symbol in New York City for ‘Let’s go, we’re going to fight,’ and rolls up his sleeves and hits her,'” Schuman told the court.
“While he’s still berating her, he called her a f—-t and a t—-y and she spit on him.”
So let me first say, I took that word for word, in the order you see it, from an earlier New York Post article. I hate giving them any attention, but the screenshot of a headline we're commenting on came from a blurb from the same website, as an 'update' to the article I linked. It really shows that ya'll didn't actually read anything, and are just commenting on other comments. They were at a bodega, where she allegedly cut in line. That's what started all this. She was supposed to 'get him fired' when he was off duty? You know how hard it is to get a postal worker fired?
So they're just two people at a bodega. She allegedly cut in line- I can't see her saying she did, or didn't, or where there was any reported camera footage. This dude starts screamin and cussin. She spits in his face. He hits her three times, she knifes him with the knife she just bought next door.
The fact that people are jumping to defend a guy hitting a woman for spitting in his face, because it's "escalating" and disrespectful, but ignoring that it was a response to escalating and disrespectful behavior, is ridiculous. You don't blame the guy who got knifed for yelling slurs first? You don't blame the guy for striking her after getting spit in the face? Why is she supposed to quietly and meekly accept this behavior when he can make her feel unsafe?
A man makes me feel unsafe and then hits me, three times! Three! I should absolutely knife him. I probably should've knifed him after the first time. (I'm kind of a big wimp so I don't think I'd be able to knife a guy, but I for sure would be right to defend myself.) And you know what? I'm a dumpy, middle-aged, short white woman. If a guy hits me even once and I knife him in self defense, and then say, "he deserved it," there are a lot of people who would be agreeing with me.
“I killed him laughing. Oh, well. I’ll piss on his grave.”
Sorry, but this IS pure evil.
Yeah, I'm trans and find this pretty indefensible. I've gotten slurs yelled at me, I've never started a physical fight over it and certainly never fucking stabbed someone 14 times to death.
He threw a plastic bottle and she then stabbed him to death. She was charged with 2nd degree murder and pleaded guilty.
Yeah, as much as this framing of "pure evil" is nonsense, where they quote the family of the deceased - everything I found does not make this a legitimate case of self-defense, even if 100% of her story is true.
Quoting from this one:
https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/05/30/jaia-cruz-admits-stabbing-postal-worker-death-harlem-deli-sentenced/
Cruz’s attorney claimed his client, a transgender woman, lashed out against Hodges because the 36-year-old postal worker had made a slur “about her gender identity.”
Hodges and Cruz were waiting in the sandwich line at the deli counter at Joe’s Grocery, on Lenox Ave. near W. 118th St., on Jan. 2 when the postal worker accused her of cutting the line.
Cruz claimed that Hodges had ridiculed her with homophobic remarks and struck her several times before she pulled a knife and fatally stabbed him.
She showed no remorse for her actions when interviewed by detectives at the 28th Precinct in Harlem.
“I hope he’s maggot food,” Cruz told detectives, according to court documents. “I killed him laughing. Oh, well. I’ll piss on his grave.”
While there is some sympathy for her there with me, understanding that some things can just make you snap - unless there are very different laws at play, answering harrassment over a fight over cutting in line with several repeated stabs is legally never self-defense.
And while morally, not "pure evil" by a long shot, and them presenting it as such is despicable - but trans people are people, and people can do shitty people things, like murder someone in overreaction when a fight escalates. The other guy using slurs, and even striking her is no excuse, if you pull a knife during a fistfight, and then repeatedly stab the other person - with witnesses reporting they tried to break up the fight, so potential for de-escalation was there - even if they are scum and started the thing, you are not just defending yourself, you got angry and out of that anger - no matter how justified that anger was - you killed a person.
Yea, as awful as the NY Post is for framing it this way, this ain't about them being trans. She bought a knife, wanted to stab someone, picked a fight and continually escalated (she fucking spat on him, sorry but bodily fluids are an assault and the dude had every right to treat it as being hit) until she pulled a knife in an encounter she started.
Got hit three times before pulling a knife? Just cuz she was too fucking slow to stab him after the first hit like she wanted to.
Can't believe there's people defending this.
Here is CBS's coverage of the event:
A deli worker told CBS News New York that Hodge was ordering a sandwich when a woman at the counter got angry and began arguing with him over who was first in line to order. According to the deli worker, in that instant, the woman pulled out a knife and stabbed Hodge in the stomach. USPS confirmed Hodge was a letter carrier assigned to Manhattan.
It appears to have started over a dispute over who was first in line. It's up to you to decide if that's a rational reason to attack someone with a knife, regardless of your sexuality / gender identity.
https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/usps-worker-stabbed-to-death-in-harlem/
The last sentence isn't about the trans woman but the author describing themselves.
I hope she gets acquitted.
They are quotes from the victim's family members at the trial. This woman murdered someone because someone called her a transphobic name after she cut the line at a deli. She isn't a good person.
Welp, at least he isn't going to call anyone else slurs anymore, that's definitely a plus.
Cruz claimed that Hodges had ridiculed her with homophobic remarks and struck her several times before she pulled a knife and fatally stabbed him.
I wish I was as cool as her
You wish you were so fragile and evil of a human being that you would murder people who insulted you?
Please get help. You are not ok if this is what you think.
He didn't get killed because he insulted someone. He got killed because he thought he could assault a trans woman and get away with it.
I'm opposed to her facing consequences for killing him. If it had been a white cis woman instead, we wouldn't be here
Its insane how every single trans and queer person is expected to be perfect law abiding citizens or suddenly the act of being Queer makes you a murderer. They used the same justification during the Holocaust to murder Jews and they're using the justification to murder Palestinians.
Not sure why the perpetrator being trans was important enough to put in the title, considering it didn't seem to have anything to do with the crime....
Yeah, this is a tabloid. In a decent world people running tabloids would be imprisoned or doing thousands of hours of community service.
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