On Sept. 25, we pause as a nation to honor the National Day of Remembrance for Murder Victims. It is a solemn day – a day to reflect on the lives stolen, the families shattered and the communities forever scarred by violent crime. 

But remembrance without action is hollow. If we truly honor victims, we must also face the uncomfortable truth: for too long, policies masquerading as "social justice" advocates have placed criminals above victims, and elections have become quite literally a matter of life and death.

We warned about this in 2017, when progressive prosecutors funded by George Soros began reshaping justice systems across America under the banner of "reform." They promised fairness. What they delivered was bloodshed. The American people now see the devastating cost of these reckless experiments: families burying loved ones who should still be alive.

Look no further than Charlotte, North Carolina, when the world witnessed pure horror and the murder of Iryna Zarutska. Or to the tragic murder of Laken Riley, a young nursing student whose promising life was stolen. These names join a long list of victims who paid the price for policies that coddle criminals instead of protecting the innocent.

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We’ve seen the consequences up close. We have worked with grieving families across the country who were robbed not just of their loved ones, but of justice. In New York, we walked alongside Victor Maldonado after the senseless killing of his son, Jonathan. 

Jonathan was a ride-share driver, doing honest work to provide for his family while making sure others returned home safely to theirs. His life was cut short by a repeat drunken driver who had been arrested multiple times, and released again and again under bail reform, even after he tampered with his monitoring device. Despite every warning sign, the system let him walk free – and Jonathan paid with his life just days after New York’s bail reform took effect.

Jonathan’s story is not unique. It’s part of a disturbing pattern. From coast to coast, families are suffering because politicians chose ideology over safety. They gamble with public security by dismantling accountability, emptying jails and excusing repeat offenders. Every release, every "second chance" given to a predator is another victim waiting to happen.

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Some of the victims and families we work with have been in this fight for over 40 years. Take Barbara Connelly, executive director of Long Island NY Metro Area Parents and Other Survivors of Murdered Victims Outreach support group, for example. 

Barbara became a pioneer in the victims’ rights movement after her 15-year-old son, Jimmy, was murdered. His killer was released not only from prison, but also from parole supervision. Can you imagine? Someone can murder a child in cold blood and then one day walk free, living life as though nothing happened – while a mother like Barbara is left to pick up the pieces. 

Barbara buried her baby and then had to fight for the most basic rights, rights anyone with common sense would assume victims already had. And now, after decades of progress, Barbara finds herself fighting the same fight all over again.

What makes this moment even sadder is the depraved indifference toward human life that has infected our society. People actually take to the streets to protest for the release of cold-blooded killers like Luigi Mangione. We see crowds rallying not for victims, not for grieving families, but for terrorists, rapists and murderers – even cheering on organizations like Hamas. 

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How did we lose our way so badly that evil is celebrated while innocence is forgotten? This moral inversion is tearing at the soul of our nation.

Now as a nation, we are grieving together once again. We are watching in real time the agony of Erika Kirk after witnessing the assassination of her husband, Charlie Kirk. She is not alone in her grief. Millions of Americans who have followed Charlie’s work feel this loss deeply, because we know it didn’t have to happen. The pain of his family is now a national wound, and it underscores with horrifying clarity the price we all pay when society refuses to take evil seriously.

President Donald Trump has been one of the few leaders willing to call this crisis what it is: a preventable tragedy caused by failed policies. He has shown a commitment to stopping the bloodshed with the most basic, commonsense principle: lock up the bad guys. Secure communities start with accountability. Justice cannot exist if criminals know they will face no real consequences.

To Congress, to state legislatures and to every governor in America: victims and survivors are pleading with you. Adopt our agenda built not on ideology, but on the lived experiences of families who have buried their loved ones. We are not speaking from theory – we are speaking from the gravesides of our children, spouses and parents. Survivors of homicide victims know the cost of failure, and we know what must be done.

I know this pain personally. In 2005, my boyfriend and his best friend were murdered. They did not receive the justice they deserved, and that wound has never healed. Decades later, every time I hear about another senseless murder, another family joining this unwanted fraternity of grief, I am taken back to that cold January of loss and heartbreak. The pain is compounded when I learn that the killer was someone the government chose to release – someone who should have been behind bars.

That is why this day matters. The National Day of Remembrance for Murder Victims must be more than symbolic. It must be a turning point. We owe it to Iryna Zarutska, to Laken Riley, to Jonathan Maldonado, to Barbara Connelly’s Jimmy, to Charlie Kirk, and to every victim whose name has been etched into a headstone too soon. We owe it to their families, who will never be the same.

It is time to choose victims over criminals. It is time to listen to survivors. It is time to reject the failed social experiments that have turned our cities into danger zones. And it is time for leaders at every level to follow President Trump’s lead and take the commonsense step that could save countless lives: lock up the predators and protect the innocent.

Because remembrance means nothing if we keep repeating the same mistakes.