Posted on 09/13/2025 4:33:45 AM PDT by MtnClimber
The murder of Iryna Zarutska on Charlotte’s light rail was not only a savage crime—it was the inevitable result of a national agenda of progressive “justice reform,” funded by outside NGOs and executed by local officials who put “equity” ahead of public safety.
Charlotte is just the latest example of how this machine works: money flows in, jails are emptied, and the public is left to pay the price.
As ZeroHedge aptly summarized,
It seems as if the very pillars the Democratic Party has built itself on, whether social and criminal justice reform, progressive judges, or its dark-money-funded NGO complex, all played a role in allowing serial criminals to roam the streets, endangering the public. Americans must avoid cities and towns where progressives enforce cashless bail and other woke policies, as these places are increasingly crime-ridden and unsafe.
That’s the backdrop. But as I noted in my earlier column, “Charlotte’s Crime Sanctuary: You Can’t Spell Violence Without Vi,” the county sheriff has already shown where his priorities lie—hosting dinners to “reduce stigma” around inmates and building music studios that showcased an accused killer.
What’s new, and what demands exposure, is how those misplaced priorities were funded and incentivized by outside money.
As Daily Wire’s Megan Basham noted on X:
Megan Basham @megbasham
Another factor in the death of Iryna Zarutska on Charlotte's light rail--the left-wing MacArthur Foundation giving Mecklenburg county a $3.3 million grant to reduce the jail population. Specifically as part of "racial equity aims.
Like Soros' Open Society, the MacArthur Foundation incentivizes local municipalities to make residents less safe by leaving threats like Decarlos Brown on the streets.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
These NGOs need to be sued out of existence.
We had here in SC a policeman with a career-ending injury, his assailant’s penalty was so inept that I couldn’t believe it.
He got all the time he served awaiting trial. Effectively no time.
Should have been worse.
There are LOTS of people cashing in on that sham!
If the “NGO” is funded with taxpayer money... does that make it a “GO”?
USAID funded many of these groups - here and abroad. Tens of thousands of illegals flooding our country and Europe courtesy of U.S. tax dollars.
Don’t forget Iryna Zarutska. She, too, lost her precious life at the hands of lunatic Democrats. It’s not just the usual hate-spewing politicians on the left; it’s the activist judges they planted in our justice system as well. pic.twitter.com/gGDIkLR3wS— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) September 13, 2025
There is so much Democrat-approved violent crime now, I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to know how the victim voted before I can allow myself to care.
“in 1641 the Massachusetts General Council adopted the Body of Liberties...The bail clause appeared in Liberty 18:
‘No mans person shall be restrained or imprisoned by any Authority whatsoever, before the law hath sentenced him thereto, If he can put in sufficient securitie, bayle, or mainprise, for his appearance, and good behaviour in the meane time, unlesse it be in Crimes Capitall, and Contempts in open Court, and in such cases where some expresse act of Court doth allow it.’”
“The entry for Commonwealth v. Sarah Ludley on January 16, 1800, is typical. It reads: ‘Charged on the oath of Susanah Weaver with commiting an assault & battery on her.’ Sarah was ‘bound in 30£ for her appearance.’ Her surety, James Bodin, was ‘bound in 30£ for the Defendant’s good behavior and appearance.’”
“As the recognizance language makes clear, the bonds were pledges only — conditional debts. If the principal on the bond violated its terms, the state could seek to enforce the default through a debt action. But no cash or other collateral secured the bond upfront.”
“Ferguson did not set carefully individualized bond amounts. He set bonds quite uniformly: the vast majority of defendants and their sureties were required to pledge £30 each. It is difficult to ascertain the value of that amount in real terms, but it was probably the equivalent of around $3,000 today.”
“A second wrinkle is that, contrary to the conventional academic wisdom, bail clearly served a public safety function as well as the purpose of guaranteeing appearance at trial. The majority of bonds that Ferguson issued to defendants and their sureties were to guarantee a defendant’s “good behavior” as well as their appearance.”
https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5467&context=faculty_scholarship
‘it was the inevitable result of a national agenda of progressive “justice reform,”’
Seems like justice reform now means the perpetrator of a crime is now the victim and the real victim of the crime is now the criminal
When Prosecuting Attorneys and Judges go easy on criminals with Plea Deals, the Justice System gets plugged up.
These criminals become a revolving door, in and out of court.
This article fails to explain the underlying motive for the DemocRATS insane policies regarding crime. Keeping blacks out of jail and voting Dem. Just like their insane policies on abortion are to keep women voting Democrat. Not to mention their insane policies on immigration and letting immigrants register to vote. Their insane lust for power.
WIKI
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 117 countries around the world.
It has an endowment of $7.6 billion and provides approximately $260 million annually in grants and impact investments.
It is based in Chicago, and in 2014 it was the 12th-largest private foundation in the United States. It has awarded more than US$8.27 billion since its first grants in 1978.
The foundation’s stated purpose is to support “creative people, effective institutions, and influential networks building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world”.
MacArthur’s grant-making priorities include mitigating climate change, reducing jail populations, decreasing nuclear threats, supporting nonprofit journalism, and funding local needs in its hometown of Chicago.
According to the OECD, the foundation’s financing for 2019 development increased by 27% to US$109 million.
The MacArthur Fellows Program, commonly referred to as the “genius” award, annually gives $800,000 no-strings-attached grants to around two dozen creative individuals in diverse fields “who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits”.
The foundation’s 100&Change competition awards a $100 million grant every three years to a single proposal.
John D. MacArthur owned Bankers Life and Casualty and other businesses, as well as considerable property holdings in Florida and New York. His wife, Catherine, held positions in many of these companies. Their attorney, William T. Kirby, and Paul Doolen, their chief financial officer, suggested that the family create a foundation to be endowed by their vast fortune.
When MacArthur died on January 6, 1978, he was worth in excess of a billion dollars. He left 92 percent of his estate to found the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
In May 2022, The MacArthur Foundation, partnered with the Urban Institute announced the launch of a housing stability program designed to break the links between housing instability and jail incarceration. The Just Home Project will provide the communities of Charleston County, South Carolina; Minnehaha County, South Dakota; the city and county of San Francisco; and Tulsa County, Oklahoma with $5 million in grant funding to create a unique plan to bring together government officials, non-profit partners, and impacted communities members to develop innovative approaches to this issue. MacArthur has awarded $3.2 million in support of the work in the selected communities and an additional $1.8 million will support the Urban Institute’s technical assistance work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacArthur_Foundation
Trump should put Charlotte on THE LIST.
The word "cangue" is French, from the Portuguese "canga" ... Frequently translated as pillory, it was similar to that European punishment except that the movement of the prisoner's hands was not as rigorously restricted and that the board of the cangue was not fixed to a base and had to be carried around by the prisoner.
I have proposed a penalty time room system. Shoplifters might choose to sit 100 hours in a penalty time room in 40 days rather than facing prison. Penalty time rooms would allow criminals to retain/work a regular job. There would be no need to provide taxpayer-funded meals, medical care or public defenders to participants. Criminals would have to spend say 20 hours in the first seven whole days after arrest to enroll in the system.
Imprisonment is expensive. Democrat-run cities are overflowing with criminals.
It's an insider's game—where political connections to a judge or clerk routinely outweigh public safety—and it's insulated from voters, accountability, and daylight.That's the whole of it, in a nutshell.That system can elevate ideologues or the unqualified into positions where they make life-and-death decisions about public safety.
As other comments has noted, this is about attaining power -- not equity of any sort -- through the strategy.
Why the inclusion of the word and concept of ‘cangue’ to this thread? The word and notion doesn’t appear in the American Thinker article, nor in the OP’s post. Yours are the only mentions in this thread to the moment.
When I used to watch NOVA on the Chicago PBS affiliate, WTTW, the John D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation was always mentioned during the end credits, for bestowing grants to PBS or NOVA. I forgot which.
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