Man Accused of Setting Woman on Fire on Chicago Train Has 49 Previous Arrests, 10 Felonies

Breaking: Criminals commit crimes.

I know, sometimes they don’t end up being recidivists, and sometimes it’s newbie criminals committing crime. However, when you have almost 50 arrests, including 10 felonies, the signs are there that, yes, you may reoffend.

In Chicago, they pay those in the criminal justice system not to pay attention to these signs. That’s why 50-year-old Lawrence Reed was out and able to set fire to a 26-year-old woman aboard a CTA train on Monday.

WLS-TV reported that after being arrested Tuesday, Reid shuffled into a courtroom and insisted he would represent himself, saying, “I plead guilty, I plead guilty” numerous times.

Now he faces a federal charge of terrorism, although it’s not clear the man who told a judge “I don’t want an attorney,” and, “I’ll be my own attorney” understood it.

“Terrorism? What is this all about?” he said when informed of the charges, according to CBS News.

The victim remained in critical condition as of Wednesday night, with burns over 50 percent of her body.

U.S. Attorney Andrew S. Boutros said that Reed’s victim was watching her phone and “minding her business” when the attack occurred.

“This young woman was on her phone, minding her business when Mr. Reed approached her and began throwing gasoline on her,” Boutros said.

“Perhaps people were afraid to get involved. But what we can say is, even as she was on the ground trying to put herself out, and is rolling on the ground desperately trying to put out the fire, no one came to aid until she was able to get on the platform, get off the train and to the platform and she she finally stumbled down, two [good] Samaritans came and put out all the blaze.”

CBS News said the footage “showed the victim sitting on a seat in the middle of the train car, according to a federal court affidavit. Reed was sitting in the back of the same train car.”

From CBS’ report:

The surveillance footage showed Reed standing up with a bottle in hand, walking up to the victim — who was seated with her back toward him — and pouring a liquid from the bottle all over her body. Reed then tried to ignite the liquid, the affidavit said.

Reed then picked up the bottle, which was now on fire, the affidavit said. He approached the victim, set her on fire using the bottle, and stood and watched as he body was engulfed in flames, the affidavit said.

The woman, who was almost fully engulfed in flames, tried to put out the fire by rolling on the floor of the train car, the affidavit said. When the train stopped at Clark/Lake, the woman was still on fire.

The woman exited the train at the station and collapsed on the platform.

Of Reed’s prior 49 arrests, some of have been dismissed while some have ended in terms of up to two years in prison.

As local outlets noted, an August arrest involved allegations that he knocked someone unconscious:

And, as many also pointed out, this had eerie echoes of the August murder of Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, North Carolina — especially given the fact that a judge allowed the alleged attacker free despite a long criminal history, a pending charge against him, and clear mental issues.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Reed was arrested Tuesday while on pretrial release for an aggravated battery case stemming from charges that he allegedly hit a social worker in the face in a Berwyn hospital so hard the alleged victim lost consciousness. Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez denied prosecutors’ petition to have Reed held in jail pending trial, instead ordering him released on electronic monitoring with regular check-ins with a probation officer. Reed pleaded not guilty to the charge Oct. 21, records show, and was supposed to return to court Dec. 4.

Imagine that.

Chicago has endured not one but two leftist mayors in a row — Lori Lightfoot and Brandon Johnson — along with a preternaturally woke governor who wants to be president in J.B. Pritzker. Thus, expect nothing to change. Meanwhile, a guy who (if we had any sense) would be spending more than two years behind bars for his crimes was allowed to allegedly commit another one by a judge.

Once upon a time, we settled upon a decent system: Three strikes and you’re out. In this case, 49 strikes and they still couldn’t keep this guy detained for an aggravated battery case against a social worker, much less decide that he wasn’t fit to live among the civilized with 49 arrests. I guess when you’re paid not to notice that criminals commit crime, things happen that way.

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C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.

C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014. Aside from politics, he enjoys spending time with his wife, literature (especially British comic novels and modern Japanese lit), indie rock, coffee, Formula One and football (of both American and world varieties).

Birthplace

Morristown, New Jersey

Education

Catholic University of America

Languages Spoken

English, Spanish

Topics of Expertise

American Politics, World Politics, Culture

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