Did he attack her though? Seems from the articles I read that she spat on him first. That's the attack.
It also seems she was arrested 5 times prior for knife crimes.
Pictures, Videos, Articles showing just how boring it is to live in a dystopic society, or with signs of a dystopic society.
Rules (Subject to Change)
--Be a Decent Human Being
--Posting news articles: include the source name and exact title from article in your post title
--If a picture is just a screenshot of an article, link the article
--If a video's content isn't clear from title, write a short summary so people know what it's about.
--Posts must have something to do with the topic
--Zero tolerance for Racism/Sexism/Ableism/etc.
--No NSFW content
--Abide by the rules of lemmy.world
Did he attack her though? Seems from the articles I read that she spat on him first. That's the attack.
It also seems she was arrested 5 times prior for knife crimes.
"I separate them. The mail guy in the front, the lady she was in back. She spit on him, in his face. And mail guy, he got mad. Lemon juice next to the coffee machine, he threw on her. So she took the knife," the deli worker said.
Witnesses claimed that, in an instant, Cruz pulled out a knife and fatally stabbed Hodge.
Yeah
Cruz stands a towering 6 feet 5 inches tall. Witnesses to the murder described her as huge, and said she appeared to be high on drugs during her confrontation with Hodges.
...
Well thanks for adding a +1 to the womens murder rate and not to mens, we need it
There's 15 very big reasons that say it was certainly not self-defence.
“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.
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.
“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.
Yeah, I'd probably feel worse for her if she seemed to have felt anything about this. There's no reason to ever feel happy about having killed someone. Perhaps relieved as in a "it's finally over" kind of way. But finding the fact that you've killed someone funny? Not reasonable whatsoever. He shouldn't have called her slurs, but words deserve words, actions deserve action. Fuck both of them.
this post is complete dogshit. "self defense" my ass
The framing uses quotes from the vicrim impact statements from the family of the victim.