What happened on a Chicago Blue Line train earlier this week is the kind of unforgivable horror Americans expect our leaders to prevent, not explain away. A 50-year-old man, identified as Lawrence Reed, allegedly doused a 26-year-old woman with liquid and set her on fire, leaving her critically injured while bystanders apparently failed to immediately intervene. Federal prosecutors have even charged Reed with committing a terrorist attack against a mass transportation system, a shocking escalation that should wake every city leader up to the stakes of public safety.
Even more infuriating than the attack itself is the backstory: Reed had decades of arrests and, before this brutal crime, was on electronic monitoring after a judge declined to keep him behind bars on other charges. The system repeatedly gave him “second chances,” and local officials admit today that he should not have been roaming free to buy gasoline and board a train with murderous intent. This is the consequence of a revolving-door criminal justice system and of political impulses that prioritize leniency over protecting ordinary citizens.
New York voters should read this moment as a dire warning for their own city. Zohran Mamdani, who once loudly embraced “defund the police” rhetoric and even called for dismantling the NYPD, has tried to soften his language on the campaign trail and promises to keep headcount while slicing overtime and creating a Department of Community Safety. That walk-back may calm some elites, but it does not erase the real-world danger that arises when politicians cozy up to soft-on-crime orthodoxy.
Conservatives are right to point out that rhetoric matters. When candidates praise dismantling or defunding police institutions, it sends a signal not just to protest movements but to repeat offenders and career criminals who already exploit weak enforcement and catch-and-release courts. The Chicago case is a brutal illustration of what happens when repeat offenders — who “had no business being on the streets,” as federal agents put it — keep getting glancing brushes with accountability. Voters in New York should not be fooled by a change in tone when the record of support for defunding remains on the books.
Let’s be blunt: blaming the violence on poverty, mental health, or abstract systemic failings without demanding real consequences is a luxury that victims cannot afford. Elected officials must champion law enforcement, back prosecutors who seek meaningful custodial sentences for violent repeat offenders, and stop rewarding bad behavior with supervision instead of jail when public safety is on the line. Communities pay the price when the scales of justice tip toward coddling criminals instead of protecting citizens.
If Zohran Mamdani truly believes in keeping New Yorkers safe, he will prove it with ironclad policies, not platitudes: end the revolving door for violent repeat offenders, fund the police adequately, and stop creating parallel safety departments that neuter the force that answers the call in real emergencies. New York’s voters — and the victims on trains in Chicago — deserve leaders who prioritize the security of everyday Americans over ideological experiments. The next election should be a referendum on whether politicians will protect our families or leave them at risk.
