Charlotte is the target of the outrage machine
Conservative influencers want to change the conversation.
Charlotte is about to become the latest target of the conservative media outrage machine. On social media this weekend, conservative influencers suddenly focused on the horrific murder of a young Ukrainian refugee on the Charlotte light rail. A deranged man with a long criminal history stabbed Iryna Zarutska for no apparent reason.
To hear the MAGA social media warriors tell it, there’s been a media cover up. The New York Post has a headline that reads “Horrid video of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska’s slaughter on Charlotte train is met with deafening silence from Dem leaders, media.” The lede reads, “Liberal media and politicians have been accused of staying silent on the savage murder of a young Ukrainian refugee on a North Carolina train — after a career criminal with no fewer than 14 arrests was charged with her murder.”
The only people accusing Democrats of being silent are right-wing social media warriors and Rupert Murdoch toadies trying to exploit a tragic death. In Charlotte, the story has been top of the news with excellent coverage by local outlets including the Charlotte Observer, WSOC, and WBTV. Democratic politicians have been outraged and the murder has refocused the mayor’s race on crime.
A murder on public transportation should cause concern and increase debates about public safety, our criminal justice system, and our mental health system, but it’s not something that has been covered up and its not something Democrats have either ignored or condoned. The Republican outrage machine is politicizing the tragedy to further exploit fears about violent crime and to distract from the scandals plaguing the Trump administration.
Republicans have successfully made crime a top issue. A recent poll shows that 66% of people believe crime in the United States is a major problem and 81% believe it’s a big problem in cities, but only 24% believe its bad where they live. In other words, people believe that crime is big problem, just not for them. The people they know and interact with every day aren’t victims of crime. It’s just the people they’re watching on whatever media they are consuming.
I also wonder why MAGA wasn’t more upset about other crimes. Last week, a “charismatic” man in Phoenix beat to death the man who had taken him in. The perpetrator was on probation for robbery and had a conviction for dismembering another roommates dogs. Is the national media covering that one up? Or is just not outrageous enough?
If anybody is covering anything up, it’s Republicans who don’t want to talk about Jeffrey Epstein or RFK, Jr., any more. They’re the party of sexual abusers and childhood diseases. They aren’t offering any answers to crime. They’re just assigning blame and hoping to distract from the failures the Trump administration and Republican Congress.
Of course, the conservative MAGA machine would spread the word about the murder of a Ukrainian woman in a Democrat run city, but they are silent about Trump's refusal to continue the aid the Biden Administration gave to help Ukraine defend itself. My wife and I visited. the country in 2018, We know what the Ukrainians think of the Russian government and Putin
You'd think the right wing would be celebrating. After all it was an immigrant that was killed. Doesn't that just save them the time and energy and expense of rounding her up and deporting her???