One would think that the stabbing murder of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska back in August and the national backlash that ensued after it was learned the suspect, 34-year-old homeless man Decarlos Brown Jr., was a repeat offender with a violent history, would have brought about a political reckoning of sorts for social justice-minded Charlotte city leaders.
While there was a lot of talk about “accountability” and “change” in the aftermath of what happened to Zarutska, woke Democrats, the kind who advocate for the very soft-on-crime policies that enable violent tragedies to happen, remain in control of the city council after the November elections.
One month after the elections, there was another stabbing on Charlotte’s light rail system, where, fortunately, the victim is recovering. But this time, not only is the suspect, 33-year-old Oscar Solarzano, a violent repeat offender, he is also a twice-deported illegal immigrant who never should have been here.
Not surprisingly, the same Democrats and left-wing activists who complained loudly about the federal “Charlotte’s Web” immigration sweep have had little to nothing to say regarding that inconvenient fact.
But while both cases have gotten a lot of attention, there are other instances that don’t get as much of a spotlight as people go about their daily business on the light rail and the buses. This includes incidents where riders were made to feel unsafe by what was going on around them, the stories of passengers witnessing concerning and erratic behavior, drug exchanges, and, in some cases, being harassed, bullied or assaulted.
After Zarutska was murdered, we heard a lot more about such instances as crime reports were pulled and analyzed. Some people also stepped forth to describe what they had experienced.
WCNC, for instance, reported that “Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department records show other light rail riders reported getting bitten, hit in the face, robbed at gunpoint and forced to touch a person’s genitals on and around the light rail.”
And all of these were crimes that took place within the roughly two weeks after the brutal attack on Zarutska.
In a report from WSOC-TV, we learned about an almost-victim who, along with a co-worker, was “confronted by a stranger with a knife on the light rail in December 2023. The stranger threatened to kill people,” but both the woman and her co-worker, fortunately, got away without being hurt. The woman said the incident and another she experienced scared her so much that she hasn’t ridden on the light rail system since.
Another commuter told the news outlet, “People have harassed other people; you can tell that they’re probably not mentally well.”
Someone very close to me was once nearly victimized on the Charlotte trolley system many years ago, being followed by four young guys who sat close to her on the trolley, with one positioning himself right next to her and periodically bumping her side, commenting about how she must be “rich” considering the type of purse she was carrying and the clothes she was wearing.
When she got off at her stop, the guys followed behind her. Fortunately, there was a group of police officers standing nearby, so she went and stood next to them. Once that happened, the guys who had been following her switched gears and went in a different direction.
In the debate over crime, safety and security in Charlotte, the stories of the victims matter, and the stories of the near-victims also matter. It’s just a shame that there are members of Charlotte’s city council who don’t appear to agree.
North Carolina native Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym Sister Toldjah and is a media analyst and regular contributor to RedState and Legal Insurrection.
