If you don’t want your daughters to meet Laken Riley’s fate, raise your sons to be men like Daniel Penny.

In two high-profile criminal trials taking place on opposite ends of the eastern seaboard, two men stand accused of killing a stranger. One is a good man, who restrained an unhinged madman threatening to harm innocent bystanders. The other is an evil man, who murdered and attempted to rape a young woman on her morning jog.

What happened to Laken Riley, the 22-year-old nursing student who was murdered by an illegal alien on a college campus in Athens, Georgia, is what every woman fears most: finding herself defenseless in the face of an attack. What happened to Daniel Penny, the then-24-year-old former Marine who found himself prosecuted after stepping in to protect fellow passengers, is what every man fears most (or should): being told he must stand by and do nothing to protect innocent people from bad men.

Men like Penny create societies in which women can jog in their backyards without fear of being raped and murdered. They are the fathers, brothers, neighbors, and strangers whose presence silently enforces the understanding that evil will be punished and women and children will be protected.

They are the Todd Beamers of the world who step up to fight bad men when you’re stuck on a plane with suicide bombers and the cops can’t help you. Women silently scan for such men when they step onto planes and subway cars or walk down dark sidewalks, because they know those men are the ones to turn to if things go south.