CNN’s NewsNight panel on Tuesday got heated when the conversation turned to the murder of Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, N.C., which video evidence shows was committed by Decarlos Brown Jr. What should have been a frank discussion about crime, repeat offenders, mental health, and public safety instead devolved into disbelief and scorn directed at anyone who dared suggest Brown should not have on the streets a free man.
Host Abby Phillip framed the issue around mental health care, saying, “There are some people who do need long-term care, and they need wraparound services, not just piecemeal stuff. If someone is seriously mentally ill, maybe on the verge of violence, where do they go?”
Caroline Downey of National Review stepped in to correct Phillip, noting that Brown wasn’t just “on the verge” of violence, but that he “actually demonstrated violence in the past and nobody flagged it.”
She added, “The police, to your point, said, we’re going to refer you to more resources, and that went nowhere.”
Phillip pushed back: “What do you mean, ‘Nobody flagged it?’ He served time for his violent offenses in the past.”
“Yes, but he was a career criminal, a repeat offender who was let back onto our streets despite a really bad criminal record that suggests he should have been locked away for life because he was threatening the public,” Downey argued. “He was a menace to society.”
That’s when the panel seemed to lose its collective mind. Phillip was, for some reason, shocked at the idea that Brown should not have been on the streets. “I’m sorry, he should have been locked away for life for what now?”
Former Clinton White House aide Keith Boykin snapped, “Schizophrenia — that’s not a crime.”
Downey clarified that she was calling for institutionalization, not throwing every schizophrenic person in prison. But the panel didn’t seem to care. “I can’t believe you actually said that,” Boykin shot back. “Somebody should be locked away in jail forever for schizophrenia? Did you really say that?”
Ana Navarro chimed in with outrage: “There’s thousands and thousands of people in America, more than tens, hundreds of thousands, who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia that are walking around and that are leading fairly normal lives because they are under treatment. So, are we going to lock up everybody with schizophrenia for life?”
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Downey again emphasized the point that seemed obvious: Brown wasn’t just mentally ill, he was dangerous. “He demonstrated violent proclivities repeatedly,” she said. “If you’re saying he should not be institutionalized, you are saying that young women like you and me are basically just lambs into the slaughter. You go on public transportation in this city — that could happen to any single one of us.”
But Kat Abughazaleh, a Democratic Congressional candidate from Illinois, brushed off the warning. “That is completely unhinged, frankly. People shouldn’t be locked away for mental illness. They should be treated for it.”
Yes, in an institution, where they can be treated for their illness without killing innocent people on subway trains. That’s common sense.
NEW: CNN panel is appalled that people think Decarlos Brown Jr. should have been locked away for life, which would have prevented him from slaying Iryna Zarutska.
Abby Phillips: “He did actually serve time… He should have been locked away for life?”
Keith Boykin: “You don’t… pic.twitter.com/uaJ8Xtk7ua
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 10, 2025
What’s truly jaw-dropping about this exchange isn’t just the sneering hostility the panel hurled at Caroline Downey for daring to say what any sane person is thinking — Brown should have been in an institution getting treatment. No, the real outrage is that even after this man brutally slaughtered an innocent woman on a train, the leftists on that panel still insisted he belonged on the streets. Instead of blaming the system that unleashed a violent, repeat offender on the public, they aimed their fury squarely at the notion that protecting innocent people should come first. That tells you everything about the left’s warped priorities and why these preventable tragedies keep happening again and again.
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