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A young woman riding Chicago’s Blue Line was doused in a flammable liquid and set on fire in a brutal, unprovoked attack on November 17, leaving her with life-threatening burns and the city scrambling to explain how this could happen in broad daylight. Commuters watched in horror as she rolled on the train floor trying to put herself out before collapsing on the platform, and the brutal footage has rightly shocked the nation.
Federal prosecutors have now charged 50-year-old Lawrence Reed with a terrorism offense for allegedly using gasoline and a lighter to commit this assault, a rare but appropriate escalation given the public nature of the attack and the danger to mass transit. Reed’s arrest record stretches decades, and officials say his criminal history and recent encounters with the justice system raise serious questions about why he was allowed to remain a danger on the streets.
The surveillance and court filings make the case even more damning: footage shows Reed at a nearby gas station filling a small container, then later entering the train with a flaming bottle and approaching the victim before igniting her. Witness testimony and investigators describe him calmly watching the woman burn and then fleeing; he was arrested the next day still wearing the same clothes and suffering burns to his hand. This isn’t a tragic accident — it’s premeditated violence caught on camera.
Already-inflamed public anger is justified because this suspect wasn’t a stranger to law enforcement. Reporting indicates he’s been arrested dozens of times — figures in the press cite roughly 70 or more prior contacts with Cook County police — and prosecutors have publicly criticized the decisions that kept him on the street despite warnings. If judges and pretrial systems are going to keep releasing violent repeat offenders, the people of Chicago have every right to demand hard answers and swift reforms.
This attack exposes the rotten logic of soft-on-crime policies that treat repeat offenders like a civil-management problem instead of a public-safety threat. Federal and ATF officials have condemned the fact that someone with Reed’s history was circulating freely, and Americans watching this horror know instinctively that the city’s revolving-door justice system failed both this victim and every commuter who rides the train. Political leaders who prioritize ideology over safety must be held to account for letting the public suffer the consequences.
We should let the facts drive the policy response: tougher pretrial detention for violent repeat offenders, true accountability for judges and prosecutors who ignore warnings, and reforms that put victims and public safety ahead of courtroom optics. Conservatives aren’t interested in vindictive punishment for its own sake — we demand a justice system that protects families, commuters, and hardworking taxpayers from needless terror.
The woman who survived this horrific assault deserves the full force of the law and a community that refuses to normalize this kind of violence; Chicago and every other city that tolerates a revolving door for violent criminals must change course now or accept more stories like this as the new normal.
