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:
She is right. And she has the receipts.
Basham’s screenshots show Mecklenburg County boasting about its participation in MacArthur’s “Safety and Justice Challenge,” which aims to reduce jail populations in the name of racial equity.
Mecklenburg merrily cashed the $3.3 million check—cheerful about the grant money, indifferent to the blood price.
Now I must ask: Did “racial equity” guide who walked free? If so, it’s not equity at all—it’s a civil rights issue begging for discovery.
And let’s be clear. The MacArthur Foundation doesn’t build safer communities. It creates ideological networks that push municipalities into soft-on-crime experiments while cleverly dressing it all up as “justice reform.”
Real-time data tells the story. According to the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s population report dated September 11, 2025 (available on the Sheriff’s public site, which updates daily), the jail was operating at just 49% of its design capacity—less than half the beds physically built and available.
The rest of the “capacity” numbers are inventions of budgeting and staffing. “Operational capacity” is defined by how many beds the sheriff chooses to staff, and “functional capacity” is pegged at 85% of that.
In other words, the political class can dial those numbers up or down while pretending the jail is “full.” The churn tells the real story: 57 booked, 53 released in a single day—justice reduced to a revolving door.
This isn’t about overcrowding. It’s about politicians in Charlotte-Mecklenburg who have chosen progressive priorities over public safety—clinging to fuzzy math and empty cells while their citizens pay the price.
And the irony is unmistakable: the MacArthur Foundation’s $3.3 million grant was explicitly aimed at reducing the jail population, even as the county runs at less than half its design capacity.
Unlike sheriffs in most North Carolina counties, Mecklenburg’s doesn’t even carry the whole law enforcement burden—the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department already has countywide authority for policing and traffic enforcement.
The consequences of these experiments are no mystery. As ZeroHedge reported, Decarlos Brown had been arrested 14 times in North Carolina for crimes ranging from assault to firearms possession. His own mother admitted he had schizophrenia and should never have been allowed back on the streets. Yet just months before Zarutska’s murder, Brown was released on cashless bail by a Mecklenburg County magistrate.
Court records show Magistrate Teresa Stokes released Brown on nothing more than a promise to appear in January 2025. For Brown, it was a Monopoly™ get-out-of-jail-free card. For Iryna Zarutska, it may have been a death sentence in waiting.
Stokes is not listed as a licensed attorney in the North Carolina State Bar directory because magistrates in North Carolina are not required to be lawyers. And they aren’t elected, either.
They are nominated by the senior resident Superior Court judge and formally appointed by the Clerk of Superior Court in each county.
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 system can elevate ideologues or the unqualified into positions where they make life-and-death decisions about public safety.
The legislature would be wise to revisit this structure as part of a comprehensive reform effort. North Carolinians deserve transparency and accountability in how magistrates are selected, not a backroom process that produces tragedies in the name of 14th chances cloaked in woke equity.
The Tar Heel State’s criminal-justice framework was built in an era when Democrats still styled themselves as the party of law and order. Those days are gone. And too often, chances for reform have been squandered as politicians protected their turf and fiefdom.
Make no mistake: Mecklenburg County is not unique. The MacArthur “Safety and Justice Challenge” has tentacles in areas across the country.
From coast to coast, jail populations are slashed in the name of “equity.” And when the progressive class crows crime rates are “down,” remember this: the same jiggery-pokery that cooks jail numbers cooks local crime statistics too.
With the urban left’s war on police and policing, it should surprise no one that statistics can be massaged lower while the streets grow more dangerous.
The real question is whether anyone outside the progressive bubble honestly believes our cities are safer because of these policies. To be sure, some crime numbers may show declines this year—but that will owe less to progressive “reform” than to the federal policies of the Trump administration beginning to take hold.
Conservatives must take note. These programs must be found, audited, and exposed. There must be accountability and transparency. When elected officials chase NGO grant money, the strings attached must be dragged into the open. Woke policies have a body count.
Iryna Zarutska fled a war zone only to be murdered on a Charlotte train. Her killer was no accident of fate—he was delivered by a system funded by outside foundations and blessed by progressive officials who prize empty cells over public safety.
Zarutska did not fall victim to chance. She fell victim to a rigged system—engineered by NGOs, indulged by politicians, and enabled by magistrates unfit for the bench. Unless that system is dismantled, more innocent lives will be fed to the altar of “equity,” and the blood will be on their hands.
Charlton Allen is an attorney, former chief executive officer and chief judicial officer of the North Carolina Industrial Commission, and founder of the Madison Center for Law & Liberty, Inc. He is editor of The American Salient, and host of the Modern Federalist podcast. X: @CharltonAllenNC.
Image from Grok.