Last week, a man with 72 prior arrests allegedly set a woman on fire aboard a Chicago Transit Authority train. The brutal attack shocked the nation. The victim, 26-year-old Bethany MaGee, suffered burns across 60% of her body and now faces a long, uncertain recovery.
ABC7 WLS reported that the suspect, Lawrence Reed, was on electronic monitoring for a previous crime.
Court documents reveal Reed had violated his curfew several times in the days leading up to the attack.And on Nov. 17, the day MaGee was set on fire, an alert went out just after noon that Reed was in violation of his curfew.Hours later, Reed allegedly attacked MaGee on the train.
And yet, just days later, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson declared, “We cannot incarcerate our way out of violence.”
For MaGee — and countless others — the incarceration of a repeat offender with Reed’s record would have prevented a nightmare.
But that’s exactly what he told reporters at a Tuesday press conference, insisting, ”We have already tried that, and we have ended up with the largest prison population in the world, without solving the problems of crime and violence.
“The addiction on jails and incarceration in this country, we have moved past that,” he said, adding, “It is racist. It is immoral. It is unholy and it is not the way to drive violence down.”
In a city where violence has become routine, the Marxist mayor’s anti-incarceration rhetoric sounds increasingly divorced from reality.
ABC7 reported that, last Friday night, “seven teens ranging in age from 13 to 17 were shot in the Loop” at a “teen takeover” event. “A separate shooting nearby left a teen dead and a man injured, officials said.”
Mayor Johnson said the city learned about a possible “teen takeover” [a coordinated teen mob takeover of a street which typically turns into a riot] from social media days before and did what they could to stop it, including adding an additional 700 officers on duty that night.”As difficult as this moment was, we’re doing and using every single tool that’s available to us, to ensure that these type of violent acts do not become normalized,” Johnson said.The mayor is calling what played out an “outbreak of accountability and opportunity.” He says the solution will take everyone playing their part, including parents and guardians.”That’s why it’s going to take police officers, it’s going to take my administration, our public education system, our mentoring programs, and just adults as a whole,” Johnson said. “Adults have to know where their children are.”
If you’re wondering why 700 additional officers couldn’t stop a teen takeover, it’s because there’s no real risk of consequences from the city.
Violence became normalized a long time ago in Chicago. And Johnson’s dream of emptying the prisons has only exacerbated it. Decarceration is not a solution; it’s a dereliction of duty.
Combined with Johnson’s knee-jerk resistance to President Donald Trump, which has only hardened since the administration’s deportation efforts ramped up this fall, it forms a governing philosophy that prioritizes ideology over protecting the people of Chicago, no matter the cost.
In October, anti-deportation activists in Chicago took their protest to a dangerous new level — using cars to ram ICE vehicles and box them in. Although agents repeatedly requested assistance, Chicago Police Department officials stunningly refused to dispatch officers to assist the surrounded agents. Although police officials denied this allegation, CPD dispatch recordings and internal communications told a different story.
So where did that order come from? Does anyone truly believe a CPD official would greenlight such a directive without the mayor’s approval?
More shocking still, two days later, Johnson signed an executive order creating “ICE-free zones” from which federal immigration agents would be prohibited from operating. At the signing ceremony, Johnson said he was acting to “rein in this out of control administration. This means that city property and unwilling private businesses will no longer serve as staging grounds for these raids.
“The Trump administration must end the war on Chicago,” Johnson demanded. “The Trump administration must end this war against Americans. The Trump administration must end its attempt to dismantle our democracy.”
Instead of blaming Trump for Chicago’s self-inflicted crime crisis, Johnson might start by enforcing the laws already on the books. Demonizing a president won’t make the streets safer — but holding criminals accountable just might. Until he chooses that path, the carnage will continue, and the responsibility will rest squarely with City Hall.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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