On 22 August, a young woman, Iryna Zarutska, a 23 year old who recently came here from Ukraine “hoping for a new beginning”, instead found her ending. She was stabbed to death in a light-rail car in Charlotte, North Carolina. Video of the attack shows Iryna, sitting in a seat near the end of the car, reading something on her cell phone, while her assailant, wearing a hoodie, is seated behind her. Suddenly, he produces a knife, stands up and stabs her three times, once in the middle of her throat. Iryna died at the scene while her assailant calmly waited by the doors to exit once the train stopped.

The attack was reported by witnesses on the train. Responding officers found a man wearing clothing matching the description of the stabber on the outbound platform. The suspect, 34-year-old Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr, was taken into custody after treatment for a cut on his right hand. This is the hand that was holding the knife.

Brown has been charged with first-degree murder. The text of the charge states that he “unlawfully, willfully, and feloniously did of malice aforethought kill and murder Iryna Zarutska.” The video gruesomely makes that very clear. We can call him “the suspect”, and no doubt the media, to the extent that they deign to cover the crime, will do so. And, no doubt, there will be attempts by the media, and of course, Brown’s defense council, to paint the picture that he is an innocent victim; an innocent black man who just happens to look like the assailant in the video, is wearing the same clothes as the assailant in the video, was found in the same location that one would reasonably expect the assailant to be, and just coincidently has a knife cut on the same hand as the one wielding the knife in the video.

Oh yes, the knife. Video shows that it was a folding knife. A folding knife was recovered near the outbound light rail platform. I haven’t seen any reporting on whether or not fingerprints on the knife match those of Brown, or if the blood on the knife matches Iryna’s. The video clearly shows the assailant was not wearing gloves, so one would expect fingerprints. And no matter how you might try to clean it (short of immersing it in bleach), as it was a folding knife, traces of blood should remain.

So why is the media so uninterested in this story? An attractive young woman, who immigrated here from war-torn Ukraine is killed in a senseless, random act of violence. She flees the war in her country only to find her end on a light rail train in a medium sized city in the United States; a supposedly “safe” country. She is not engaging in illegal activity. She is not being provocative. She is merely doing what millions of people do every day; commuting home from work and perusing her cellphone.

Apparently, there is no “story” here. No “social justice” interest. Iryna Zarutska is white. If Iryna was a young black woman killed by some random white guy (preferably a white male conservative who voted for Donald Trump), then there would be a story, complete with the social justice angle the press loves to cover. But unfortunately, Mr. Brown is, well, brown. No story here; nothing to see – move along…

And who is Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr anyway? Well, it seems that Mr. Brown is not some fine upstanding member of the community who was somehow triggered by something Ms. Zarutska did to provoke him. Indeed, since 2011, Mr. Brown has graced the halls of the justice system with at least 14 arrests and multiple convictions. In 2013 he was convicted for felony larceny and felony breaking and entering. He went to jail in 2015 for more than six years after a conviction for robbery with a dangerous weapon. He was released in 2020 but was arrested again within five months for assaulting his sister, leaving her with minor injuries.

But wait, there’s more! In January this year, he was brought in for communicating threats and misuse of the 911 system. This was reported to be “during a mental health episode,” however he was neither hospitalized nor was he jailed for this “episode.” Instead, he was released without bail on his own recognizance. Typically, this type is release is granted when the court believes the individual is not a flight risk or a danger to the community. Clearly this was an error of epic proportions; the man was a crime waiting to happen.

<SOCIAL JUSTICE INTERLUDE>
Poor Mr. Brown. It’s not his fault, after all, if he is suffering from mental health issues. (And in truth, it is not. It should be incumbent upon us as a society to see to it he gets help for his afflictions). It’s not his fault he is prone to violence and a danger to those around him. He’s just a poor black guy who has obviously been wronged by society and systemic racism. We shouldn’t punish him for that. It's we out here in society-at-large, who are after all, responsible for his issues, who must bear the brunt of his violence, whenever and where ever it manifests itself. Instead of protecting society from violent criminals, “social justice” dictates that the violent criminals must be protected from the society that “created” them; that “just punishment” is to be inflicted on the society that created such folk, who are not responsible for their actions. The real criminal element is the systemically racist society, not poor Mr. Brown, who is actually the real victim here.

We the people are at fault, most specifically white people. In the case of Ms. Zarutska, the target was valid. Death to the oppressors! There are no “innocents.” If a person of color gets caught in the crosshairs, well, that is regrettable, but you have to crack eggs to make an omelet, right? It’s still the white people’s fault for setting up this society of systemic racism in the first place.
</SOCIAL JUSTICE INTERLUDE>

The video of the event which has been released is truly frightening. It provokes a visceral response; the same response one would have of a predator staking out a watering hole, waiting for its next meal to appear. This could happen to anyone in today’s America. Thousands of people just like Brown, or similar enough to not matter, are roaming the streets today. They come in multiple varieties. People who should be incarcerated and yet are not. We aren’t talking about folks who have never committed a crime that suddenly snap. We are talking about people who have been arrested for violent crimes and have been released back into the public for what seems to be “social justice” reasons. Many, but not all, are so-called “people of color.” So what? Does having darker skin make one somehow less of a risk and their violent actions more acceptable? Acceptable to whom?

The victim in this case was white. Does that make it ok? Is it more acceptable for a white family to be grieving the loss of a daughter? What if the victim were Black, or Asian, or Hispanic, or Aboriginal American? Would that simply be “acceptable collateral damage?” Was the battery he inflicted on his sister (I am going to go out on a limb here and suppose that he and his sister share the same racial background), months after leaving prison, acceptable collateral damage? Once again, acceptable to whom?

Because that is happening too often across our country. People who should be in jail, but who instead are roaming our streets, are killing, maiming, or brutalizing people every day. The people who should be stopping this behavior are not doing so. Instead, many, such as the police, are targets themselves; targeted by the media and the political leadership they are supposedly working for. The incident in Charlotte isn’t new and it isn’t isolated. But there is video. We can see the entire thing. We realize that could be us sitting there in the rail car, or bus, or simply walking down the street.

We are tired of it. Tired of living in fear and tired of being lied to by those we elected to, among other things, keep us safe in the streets, on public transportation, and in our homes. Does a Black mother grieve for the loss of her son or daughter any less than a White mother? Does a Hispanic or Asian? Who speaks for them? Anyone? What about the “person of color” who “looks like them” and is running the city, who claims that there is nothing that can be done, while they continue to push policies that cut the police force and turn violent offenders back into the streets to offend again? Does the fact that they “look the same” make the grief any more palatable when it’s your kids, or parents, or other loved ones that are harmed?

Those of you who are Democrats and live in Democrat-run cities; I know you are Democrats. I know you have been raised to believe that Republicans are evil, racist, hate-filled fascists who hate you because you are “different from them.” Clearly, you can’t vote for them! But voting for a different Democrat than the one that screwed you over today is not working for you. Things are getting worse instead of better. Time to try something different. Like Trump said, what have you got to lose? You are losing already. And we are not fascists, racists, and filled with hate. There are individuals that are all of these things on both sides, but they are individuals and should be equally despised by all.

We all have one thing in common; we are Americans. No matter how our forebearers got here, we are here; we were born here or we have been naturalized and have become citizens that way. We are in this together. We can all hang together or we will all be divided and hang separately. At the end of the day, one of the main functions of government is public safety. If your city government cannot keep you safe on its streets, then what is all the tax money for? Gay pride parades? Drag queen reading day at your kids’ school? Cushy jobs for elected officials and their friends?

On a final though, one of the articles I read on this subject stated that “a spokesperson for Charlotte’s Lynx transit system said this week that the agency is short-staffed by 25 people, nearly 15% shy of what they consider to be an ideal number of police.” The problem here doesn’t seem to be a paucity of police, although that is indeed a problem and a separate issue. The problem here seems to be that a person with serious mental health issues, and a rap sheet as long as your arm, was allowed to roam free and live in the streets; a person who appears to be unstable, presenting evidence of severe psychosis, and a clear and present danger to himself and others around him, was released without bail, or necessary support or supervision back into the public sphere, to ultimately murder an innocent young woman whose only “crime” was riding home after work on a light rail car in Charlotte.

Paraphrasing the immortal bard, from The Merchant of Venice; “We are all Americans. Have we not eyes? Have we not hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as anyone else? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you stab us, shoot us, beat us, do we not die?”

Final Note: My wife, upon reading this, tells me it sounds “angry.” As well it should. The subject should make anyone angry. I can’t imagine how one could look at the video, and read the circumstances leading up to it and not be angry. This did not have to happen. That young lady should be alive today, going about her business, and enjoying her life for decades to come. Instead, she is dead. I don’t usually write angry articles. This is, I hope, an exception. I haven’t written much in the past few years. I have wanted to, but life seemed to intrude every time. This event has caused me to rethink that stance. I know few if any actually read the things I write. It really doesn’t matter. It does matter that it is said even if there are few to hear.