Free Republic

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has said that imprisoning violent criminals is racist and immoral.

THE ROAD TO THE CHICAGO TRAIN FIRE ATTACK. On April 23, 2020, a man poured gasoline around the Illinois state government building in Chicago and set it on fire. The man, identified as Lawrence Reed, 44, was said to be angry because he had not received his monthly government Supplemental Security Income check. According to the Chicago news site CWB Chicago, Reed went inside the building, known as the Thompson Center, and asked a worker at a train kiosk where his check was. Reed left and came back about an hour later, asking the same thing. Then, according to CWB...

Liberal judges who decide not to jail violent career criminals and sadistic psychopaths ought to be held liable when the felons attack innocent citizens.Two horrendous, unprovoked attacks on helpless young women on public transit in recent weeks would never have happened if the legal system had done what it’s designed to do. Instead, BLM-inspired reparatory justice has endangered the most vulnerable among us — women, children, the elderly and disabled. We pay police and judges to keep evil and dangerous predators away from weak and defenseless innocents. Yet radical Democrats who have taken over blue cities are hellbent on a...

s Metro Long Island Politics World News Search Type to Search Search US News Bethany MaGee, 26, is identified as Chicago victim set on fire on CTA train by serial thug with 72 arrests By Chris Nesi Published Nov. 23, 2025, 3:53 p.m. ET 1.8K Comments Man faces terrorism charge after allegedly lighting woman on fire on Chicago train 01:41 / 01:57 The 26-year-old woman who cops said was set on fire by a lunatic with a lengthy rap sheet on a Chicago L train earlier this month has been identified as Bethany MaGee. “It is devastating that a career...

A man with a 30-year criminal record, reportedly at least 72 arrests, and around 15 convictions, lit a 26-year-old woman on fire on a train in Chicago Monday night. She is fighting for her life in critical condition. Mayor Brandon Johnson on Thursday called it an “isolated incident.” The “isolated incident” highlights everything that is wrong with progressive politics and Democrat leadership in all too many of our cities: let the criminals run free, forget about the victims, and vilify the police. But it only got worse for the Windy City Friday night, as the rampant violence and death the...

*** These are the hideous progressive sounds of Chicago political corruption: The jails are opened as the Cook County Democrats congratulate themselves …. And there is another sound that defines it. “Burn alive B****!” That is what a career violent predator with more than 50 arrests–at least 10 of them for violent felonies–is alleged to have shouted the other night in Chicago after dousing a female ... with gasoline on the Blue Line CTA train and setting her on fire. She is reportedly in critical condition. *** Lawrence Reed, 50, was out on pre-trial release for allegedly knocking a psychiatric...

A federal judge on Thursday dismissed federal charges against a woman shot by a Customs and Border Protection agent in Chicago after allegedly ramming into his car. The ruling from US District Judge Georgia Alexakis came hours after prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss the charges in a striking reversal by the US government, court documents show. Marimar Martinez, a 30-year-old American citizen, and her co-defendant, Anthony Ruiz – who was driving a different vehicle – had entered not guilty pleas to a federal charge of assaulting, resisting or impeding federal officers.

Voices across Chicago and the nation expressed alarm on Saturday after two shootings in the Loop following the city’s annual Christmas tree lighting left a 14-year-old boy dead and eight other people, nearly all juveniles, wounded. Officials said officers arrested 18 people and recovered five firearms during what authorities described as widespread mayhem in the downtown area after the ceremony. Video circulating on social media showed a group of young people beating and robbing an apparent teenage victim in the Loop during Friday’s mayhem. As the boy curled up on the ground, someone pulled off his winter coat. Moments later,...

A 29-year-old male accused in a fatal stabbing in Boston over the weekend was facing weapons and drug charges less than a month ago but walked free. Court records indicate that Javonte Robinson's previous weapons and drug charges were dismissed when an attorney could not be found after 45 days, WCVB-TV reported. Robinson's case was dropped amid a work stoppage involving private attorneys who normally defend suspects who can't afford lawyers, the station said, adding that the attorneys in question stopped accepting new cases in May in an attempt to force the state to pay them more. WCVB said Robinson...

Multiple police officers were attacked, including one who was injured, while responding to a shooting in Chicago on Friday in which at least five victims were shot. The incident happened near State and Randolph streets at about 10 p.m., just hours after a Christmas tree lighting ceremony, according to Fox 32. Ald. Brian Hopkins of Chicago's 2nd Ward said at least five people were shot, including one person in critical condition. "300 juveniles rioting in the Loop now, at least 5 victims shot, one critical with life threatening gunshot wound to torso," he wrote on X. "Multiple police officers attacked...

An Algerian national allegedly assaulted two women in the back of his New York taxi in separate incidents but is still snagging fares after getting a sweetheart deal from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the New York Post reported Saturday. Records show that Mohammed Bellebia, 34, was allowed to plead guilty to lesser charges in at least one of the incidents, according to the newspaper. According to the tabloid’s detailed reporting, the cabbie’s first alleged victim was 23-year-old Maile Bartow who entered Bellebia’s yellow cab minivan around 2 a.m. in November of last year after a night on the town...

I began my career with Allegheny County Pretrial Services in April 2008. I was sworn in by a judge, issued a badge, and placed into a system built on neutrality and public safety. Our job was simple: interview defendants, verify information, review police reports, pull complete criminal histories, and present magistrates with fact-based recommendations. We weren’t advocates for release or detention. We were there to present facts. And for a long time, the system worked because facts were the only thing that mattered. Failures to appear happened, but they were usually honest mistakes. Multiple pending cases were rare. Dangerous charges...

Let’s say you paid top dollar to go to a fancy, five-star restaurant, and the waiter served you warmed-over McDonald’s. Would you ever go back? Maybe, if you didn’t know any better. I started thinking about that after I recently changed my residency from Virginia to California (for reasons I won’t go into) and noticed that my state income taxes had gone up by more than 33%. Over the course of the year, I will pay California $2,115 more than I’d been paying in Virginia, which is hardly a low-tax state (Virginia has the 14th highest income tax burden in...

Philadelphia’s George Soros-backed District Attorney Larry Krasner is facing mounting backlash after a repeat offender — previously released on low bail and freed when Krasner’s office dropped kidnapping and assault charges — was charged in the disappearance of Miss USA hopeful Kada Scott, 23, whose remains were found over the weekend. At a tense Friday news conference, Krasner blamed "systemic issues" for the suspect’s earlier release on bail — a defense that drew immediate rebuke from victims’ advocates and court officials, who accused the DA of dodging responsibility. Prosecutors have now filed additional charges against 21-year-old Keon King, escalating the...

A Charlotte, North Carolina, teenager with 111 arrests in just two years has once again been released, as the blue city wrestles with repeat offenders. During a Wednesday news conference, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) discussed the city’s latest crime stats. The city, according to the CMPD, experienced a 20% reduction in violent crime, which includes homicides, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults, which encompass shootings. But amid the positivity, there is reason for alarm, with more than half of those arrested for violent crimes having prior arrests — including teens. One example is an unnamed 15-year-old with an astounding 111...

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff apologized on Friday for making comments in support of President Donald Trump potentially sending federal troops to San Francisco, where his company is based. “Having listened closely to my fellow San Franciscans and our local officials, and after the largest and safest Dreamforce in our history, I do not believe the National Guard is needed to address safety in San Francisco,” Benioff wrote in a post on X. The Trump administration recently deployed the National Guard to Portland, Oregon and Chicago, sparking protests and lawsuits and resulting in citizens and immigrants being detained without legal representation....

One of New York City's most violent neighborhoods has banned uniformed police officers - all in the name of safety. A two-block corridor in a crime-plagued stretch of Brownsville, along Mother Gaston Boulevard, where shootings and robberies have long terrified residents, was declared a 'police-free zone' for five days earlier this month. Instead of officers, community patrols moved in under an arrangement funded by the city itself under a controversial initiative known as the Brownsville Safety Alliance (BSA). The project, once a twice-yearly pilot under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, now runs four times a year and aims to prove...

I’ve got some absolutely wonderful news for all the liberals who think it’s wrong to lock up serial criminals who are under 18 years old.This 15-year-old has been arrested and released 111 times.Charlotte has given him permission to steal as many cars as he wants.He also had multiple guns, and did internet searches on committing murder.The ABC News affiliate of Charlotte, North Carolina, just reported the following:https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/no-accountability-residents-demand-action-repeat-offenders-drive-up-crime-charlotte/NTJDQ7ARVZBYRKHYHTOCU4VY4U/‘No accountability’: Residents demand action as repeat offenders drive up crime in CharlotteBy Eli BrandOctober 16, 2025CHARLOTTE — In their quarterly report made this week, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department mentioned repeat offenders as one...

CBO’s review of the 2025 fiscal year shows Republicans have every reason to reject Democrats’ demands to end the ‘Schumer Shutdown.’Are you the kind of person who likes to spend $4 for every $3 you take in? If so, your financial management “skills” might qualify you to run for Congress. With people like that running the show, is it any wonder that interest costs on our national debt surpassed $1 trillion last year for the first time ever?The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) review of the fiscal year that just concluded on Sept. 30 provides one of many reasons why Republicans...

It was the perfect coda to my visit to Portland, Oregon, when my phone lit up as I sat at the airport. Lyft was letting me know that my driver, who had spent 20 minutes lecturing me about how President Trump has laundered money for Russia for decades and that Antifa doesn’t exist, had registered a complaint claiming I had discriminated against him — presumably because I disagreed with his hectoring screed. The most amazing thing about Portland isn’t actually how far left-wing it is. Everyone has seen episodes or clips from the TV show "Portlandia." It’s how sure the...