From Newsgroup: alt.law-enforcement

from
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr4drle9k12o

Chicago man accused of setting train passenger on fire had 72 prior arrests
7 hours ago

Brandon Drenon
The suspect is seen holding a flaming bottle aboard Chicago's public train United States District Court Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division
The suspect is seen holding a flaming bottle aboard Chicago's public train
A Chicago man who allegedly doused a woman in gasoline and lit her on
fire on 17 November was a "career criminal", the White House has said.

Lawrence Reed who was arrested for the crime had 72 prior arrests that
include eight felony convictions and seven misdemeanours, according to
the White House.

The victim, 26-year-old Bethany MaGee, survived the attack but is "now fighting for her life with horrific burns", the White house said in a statement.

In court on Monday, Mr Reed yelled three times in succession "I'm
guilty", after the judge warned he could receive a life sentence for
charges that include committing a terrorist attack, according to reports
from inside the courtroom.

The White House has sought to blame the incident on Democrats' policies
on crime, casting them as "soft".

Both the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago are led by Democrats,
and President Donald Trump is currently seeking to withhold federal
funds from Illinois over its elimination of "cash bail", where an
arrested person posts a sum of money to be released from jail before trial.

The suspect "was walking free because of the radical, dangerous 'no cash
bail' law proudly signed by Governor JB Pritzker and celebrated by
Chicago's defund-the-police Mayor Brandon Johnson", the White House said
in a statement it released on Tuesday.

Mayor Johnson said in a statement that the attack "was a tragic
incident, and the Mayor's prayers are with the victim and her family."

Mr Reed, 50, has a history of mental illness and has been arrested 72
times since he turned 18, according to a Chicago affiliate of the BBC's partner CBS News.

In August, he was charged with aggravated battery for allegedly hitting
a social worker and after his arrest was released with electronic
monitoring against prosecutors' objections.

The attack against Ms MaGee happened while she was "minding her own
business and reading her phone", prosecutors said.

According to the criminal complaint, she was approached by Mr Reed
arriving from the back of the train car who then doused her with
gasoline before she ran.

As he chased her, the complaint said, Mr Reed ignited the rest of the
liquid in the bottle and set Ms MaGee on fire.

Footage of the incident appeared to show Mr Reed watching Ms MaGee as
she rolled on the floor engulfed in flames attempting to extinguish the
fire.

Last week, Mayor Johnson said the attack "should have never happened", characterising it as "an absolute failure of our criminal justice as
well as our mental health institutions".

He said the suspect clearly faced mental health challenges and presented
a danger to himself and the community.

As a county commissioner, Johnson in 2020 introduced a nonbinding
resolution to redirect funds from police and jails to other public
services, but while running for mayor in 2023 he promised not to cut
police spending.


--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.law-enforcement

a425couple wrote:

from
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr4drle9k12o

Chicago man accused of setting train passenger on fire had 72 prior arrests
7 hours ago

Brandon Drenon
The suspect is seen holding a flaming bottle aboard Chicago's public train United States District Court Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division The suspect is seen holding a flaming bottle aboard Chicago's public train
A Chicago man who allegedly doused a woman in gasoline and lit her on
fire on 17 November was a "career criminal", the White House has said.

Lawrence Reed who was arrested for the crime had 72 prior arrests that include eight felony convictions and seven misdemeanours, according to
the White House.

The victim, 26-year-old Bethany MaGee, survived the attack but is "now fighting for her life with horrific burns", the White house said in a statement.

In court on Monday, Mr Reed yelled three times in succession "I'm
guilty", after the judge warned he could receive a life sentence for
charges that include committing a terrorist attack, according to reports from inside the courtroom.

The White House has sought to blame the incident on Democrats' policies
on crime, casting them as "soft".

Both the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago are led by Democrats,
and President Donald Trump is currently seeking to withhold federal
funds from Illinois over its elimination of "cash bail", where an
arrested person posts a sum of money to be released from jail before trial.

The suspect "was walking free because of the radical, dangerous 'no cash bail' law proudly signed by Governor JB Pritzker and celebrated by
Chicago's defund-the-police Mayor Brandon Johnson", the White House said
in a statement it released on Tuesday.

Mayor Johnson said in a statement that the attack "was a tragic
incident, and the Mayor's prayers are with the victim and her family."

Mr Reed, 50, has a history of mental illness and has been arrested 72
times since he turned 18, according to a Chicago affiliate of the BBC's partner CBS News.

In August, he was charged with aggravated battery for allegedly hitting
a social worker and after his arrest was released with electronic
monitoring against prosecutors' objections.

The attack against Ms MaGee happened while she was "minding her own
business and reading her phone", prosecutors said.

According to the criminal complaint, she was approached by Mr Reed
arriving from the back of the train car who then doused her with
gasoline before she ran.

As he chased her, the complaint said, Mr Reed ignited the rest of the
liquid in the bottle and set Ms MaGee on fire.

Footage of the incident appeared to show Mr Reed watching Ms MaGee as
she rolled on the floor engulfed in flames attempting to extinguish the fire.

Last week, Mayor Johnson said the attack "should have never happened", characterising it as "an absolute failure of our criminal justice as
well as our mental health institutions".

He said the suspect clearly faced mental health challenges and presented
a danger to himself and the community.

As a county commissioner, Johnson in 2020 introduced a nonbinding
resolution to redirect funds from police and jails to other public
services, but while running for mayor in 2023 he promised not to cut
police spending.

Okay, I agree Illinois is soft on crime, but is that a sufficient cause
to send in the fucking National Guard?

Along this line,

The guy who lives next door was getting irritated with me and started
babbling about how many people get away with murder in Illinois. That's
a scary statistic, and he may very well be telling the truth. I lived
among murderers and rapists in the mental hospital after aggravated
battery, and they were fairly nonchalant, just "I want to get out of here."
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2