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A 26-year-old woman was doused with gasoline and set on fire aboard a Chicago Transit Authority Blue Line train in November, a savage attack that left her with severe burns and the city reeling. The footage and eyewitness accounts of the woman stumbling off the train as bystanders tried to help are a nightmare no commuter should ever face in America.
Authorities arrested 50-year-old Lawrence Reed the next day and federal prosecutors have charged him with a terrorism offense after alleging he deliberately bought gasoline, poured it on the victim and ignited her. Court records cited by local reporting show Reed has an extensive criminal history stretching back decades, raising obvious questions about why he was on the streets to begin with.
The Federal Transit Administration, fed up with what it called systemic failures, issued a blunt demand to Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson: come up with and implement a verifiable safety plan — or face the loss of federal transit funds. FTA Administrator Marc Molinaro set a firm deadline for the Chicago Transit Authority to show real action, signaling the federal government will no longer treat this kind of carnage as a municipal problem to be shrugged off.
Naturally, the city’s leaders cried politics and accused the administration of grandstanding, but furious rhetoric won’t stitch skin or make trains safe. The public deserves more than platitudes and press conferences; they deserve functioning law enforcement, accountability for repeat offenders, and transit systems where families and workers don’t fear a ride to work.
This isn’t about partisan scorekeeping — it’s about competence. When the administration points to Chicago’s history of violent repeat offenders and withheld infrastructure money over concerns about governance, citizens should demand answers from the people running the city. Only when mayors and governors stop making excuses and start enforcing basic law and order will commuters be able to breathe easy again.
Let’s be candid: policies that release dangerous individuals back onto the streets, or that hamstring prosecutors and judges, are a public-safety disaster. The fact that the alleged attacker had dozens of prior cases and was reportedly on electronic monitoring is a damning data point that exposes how permissive treatment of criminals endangers ordinary Americans. It’s time for tougher bail and supervision standards, not more lectures about systemic causes while victims suffer.
If the federal government’s leverage — the withholding of funds — is what it takes to force a city to put safety first, so be it. Hardworking taxpayers and transit riders shouldn’t be held hostage by political theater; they deserve a plan that includes more cops on platforms and trains, better coordination with prosecutors, and a zero-tolerance approach to violent recidivism.
Every American who boards a train or drops a child off at school has a stake in this fight. Patriotism means protecting your neighbors and demanding leaders who will enforce the law, secure our streets, and restore common-sense public safety. Voters should remember which officials stood with victims and which chose excuses over results when the next election rolls around.
