Compassion for criminals is cruelty for their past and future victims.

Officials in North Carolina recently released a video showing the cold-blooded killing of Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian immigrant. The disturbing footage shows Zarutska sitting on a light rail train. She’s absorbed in her phone and appears to be unwinding while wearing her work uniform. Sitting behind her was Decarlos Brown Jr. Police believe Brown pulled out a knife and stabbed her three times.

The video shows Zarutska looking up in horror as Brown towers over her and then walks away. She covered her mouth and then looked down. She appears to be in shock before collapsing on the ground. Even though there are five other people in her section of the train, they didn’t come to help her. As Brown walked away, the video shows, he left a trail of blood throughout the train.

As Zarutska bled to death, most of her fellow passengers sat or stood around. Finally, after about 90 seconds, a man who appeared to have come from a different part of the train saw her and sprang into action. He administered what aid he could. Eventually another woman tried to help as well. Sadly, it was too late.

Brown isn’t a first-time offender. North Carolina law enforcement had arrested him at least 14 times. He spent five years in prison for armed robbery, but most of his arrests didn’t result in jail time. In 2022, police arrested him on assault allegations, but court records show he wasn’t charged.

In January, police arrested him for misusing 911. This was the third time he had been arrested for this over the previous year. Brown told officers that a “man-made” substance controlled his behavior. Despite his obvious delusions and violent past, Magistrate Teresa Stokes soon released him from jail on a “written promise to appear.”

Brown is the murder suspect, but the left’s ideological fingerprints are all over this crime scene.

Leftist prosecutors and judges frequently seek to minimize prison time and quickly return repeat offenders to the streets. The district attorney for Mecklenburg County, which includes Charlotte, is Spencer Merriweather. During his tenure, he has prioritized racial equity and started a “Diversity and Inclusion Team.” In 2022, he bragged about reducing his office’s use of a law that increased penalties on repeat offenders.

Notice the contrast to when a progressive prosecutor goes after someone like Daniel Penny. Penny risked his own life to protect his fellow subway passengers, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg finally found someone he wanted to throw the book at.

Many Democrats have called for the end of cash bail, which quickly returns criminals to the streets. They seek to reduce or functionally eliminate meaningful penalties for crimes deemed nonviolent. The problem is that many criminals commit scores of “nonviolent” offenses before engaging in violent ones. For instance, Brown was on the train without paying a fare.

These aren’t just problems in North Carolina. In 2019, Attorney General Aaron Ford sent a memo to his staff.

“It is clear simply incarcerating people will not keep Nevada safer and we must use the criminal justice system to rehabilitate offenders so they may rejoin society as productive members,” he wrote.

Ford advocated “incorporating restorative justice as much as possible.” He said his office’s “presumptive bail request for misdemeanors will be ‘release on own recognizance’ (ROR) or unsecured bail,” with only a few exceptions. He also pushed for “consideration of alternatives to pretrial incarceration.”

Ford’s pro-criminal stances make Nevadans less safe. It’s the same philosophy that allowed Brown to be sitting on a train behind Zarutska, instead of being behind bars.

It’s time for Nevada and the nation to prioritize the safety of the public over the freedom of criminals. It’s hard for a criminal to stab someone to death on a train when he’s in jail.

©2025 Las Vegas Review-Journal. Visit reviewjournal.com.. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.