A Barbaric Assault That Shocks the Conscience
In the grim underbelly of Chicago’s public transport system, another innocent life hangs by a thread, courtesy of the city’s revolving-door justice. On 17 November 2025, 26-year-old Bethany MaGee, a petite, gentle business analyst from the quiet California town of Upland, boarded a Blue Line train for what should have been an ordinary commute. Instead, she became the latest victim in a string of unspeakable atrocities: doused with flammable liquid and set ablaze by Lawrence Reed, a 50-year-old black serial offender with a rap sheet longer than his years of freedom.
MaGee, described by friends and family as a “very gentle soul” from a “wonderful small-town family,” fought desperately for her life. She clawed at her attacker, fleeing to the front of the carriage as flames engulfed her clothing and seared her skin. Bystanders and emergency services rushed to her aid, but the young woman now battles horrific burns in hospital, her future uncertain. This was no random spark of madness; it was the calculated savagery of a man who has terrorised Chicago for decades, unleashed by a system more concerned with offender “rights” than public safety.
The Savage Predator: Lawrence Reed’s Trail of Destruction
Lawrence Reed is no stranger to violence – he is its embodiment. At 50 years old, he boasts 72 arrests and at least 15 convictions, a litany of felonies spanning arson, aggravated battery, drug possession, and criminal damage. His 2020 arson conviction – for igniting a blaze outside a city building – earned him mere probation, no jail time. Diagnosed with severe mental illness, Reed has cycled through psychiatric wards and courtrooms for over three decades, yet time and again, he has been spat back onto the streets.
Just weeks before torching MaGee, Reed viciously assaulted a social worker in a MacNeal Hospital psychiatric unit on 19 August 2025, slapping her with such force that she suffered a corneal laceration, possible optic nerve damage, concussion, nausea, memory loss, and a chipped tooth. Charged initially with misdemeanor battery – later upgraded to felony aggravated battery – he was released on electronic monitoring a mere three days later, on 22 August. In the months that followed, Reed flouted his curfew repeatedly: on 9, 12, 13, 14, and 15 November, with “escalated alerts” flashing warnings to authorities. On the day of the attack, he was out roaming free, in blatant violation.
Now facing federal terrorism charges for his assault on a mass transit system, Reed sits detained – but not before his handiwork left MaGee fighting for survival. This is the man Chicago’s “progressive” overlords deemed fit to wander among the vulnerable.
Naming and Shaming: The Judges Who Unleashed the Monster
The blood of Bethany MaGee stains the robes of those who prioritised ideology over innocence. Chief among them is Cook County Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez, who on 22 August greenlit Reed’s release despite blistering warnings from prosecutor Jerrilyn Gumila. “Electronic monitoring would be wholly insufficient,” Gumila argued, labelling Reed a “real and present threat” to victims, hospital staff, and the wider community. She detailed his history of “vicious, random, and spontaneous attacks,” pleading that no ankle bracelet could shield the public from such a powder keg.
Molina-Gonzalez ignored her. She not only freed him but imposed a laughably lax regime: 40 hours a week outside his home – double the 16 hours allowed under Illinois’s infamous SAFE-T Act – with orders to avoid the hospital except in emergencies. Compounding the folly, another judge, Ralph Meczyk, later approved even more liberties on 12 September, granting extra time for “church activities.” These far-left jurists, ensconced in Chicago’s woke echo chamber, chose offender clemency over citizen protection. Their decisions didn’t just fail MaGee; they enabled her near-murder. It’s time to name and shame: Molina-Gonzalez and Meczyk bear direct responsibility for this inferno. When will the public demand their accountability?
Echoes of Horror: Parallels with the Murder of Iryna Zarutska
MaGee’s nightmare isn’t isolated – it’s a grotesque rerun. Just months earlier, on 22 August 2025, 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska met a fatal end on a Charlotte commuter train. Decarlos Brown Jr., a black career criminal with a violent history, stabbed the defenceless young woman to death in a frenzied attack. Like Reed, Brown had been repeatedly released by lenient judges, most notably Magistrate Judge Teresa Stokes, who set him free in January 2025 on a mere “written promise” to behave – despite prior arrests for assault and theft.
Zarutska, a wide-eyed immigrant fleeing war in Ukraine, was small, vulnerable, and white – much like MaGee. Both women, symbols of quiet aspiration, were set upon by black savages with endless second chances. Both assaults unfolded on public transit, those supposed sanctuaries of urban life turned hunting grounds. And both trace back to the same poisonous root: woke policies that prioritise “equity” for criminals over justice for victims. Zarutska didn’t survive to tell her story; MaGee clings to life, a living indictment of the system that failed them both.
The Obvious Epidemic: Black-on-White Barbarism in Woke America
These aren’t anomalies; they are symptoms of a raging epidemic. In leftist bastions like Chicago – a city strangled by progressive prosecutors and judges – black-on-white violent crime surges unchecked, a taboo truth the mainstream media dare not utter. While overall violent crime dipped slightly in 2025, aggravated batteries hit a five-year high, with repeat offenders like Reed embodying the chaos. Chicago’s homicide victims remain overwhelmingly young black males, but cross-racial savagery – particularly against white women – exposes the lie of “systemic” excuses.
Data underscores the disparity: black Chicagoans suffer disproportionately as victims, invariably at the hands of black criminals, yet the release of serial black offenders endangers all, with white innocents like MaGee paying the price. Illinois’s SAFE-T Act and Cook County’s electronic monitoring farce have flooded streets with career criminals, their felonies – from arson to battery – waved away in the name of “reform.” This isn’t justice; it’s a war on the law-abiding, where small, defenceless white women become collateral in the crusade against “mass incarceration.” The result? Barbaric, sadistic attacks that shock even hardened souls. Until America confronts this plague – and the ideologues fuelling it – more blood will spill on their rails and roads.
A Call to Reckoning: Enough Is Enough
Bethany MaGee’s survival is a miracle, but her suffering indicts a nation asleep at the wheel. Woke policies aren’t reforming criminals; they’re arming them for slaughter. Demand better: pressure your lawmakers to scrap cashless bail, tighten monitoring, and hold judges like Molina-Gonzalez and Meczyk to account. The lives of innocent women – white, black, or otherwise – depend on it. Share this story, amplify the truth, and fight back against the leftist machine that’s turning US cities into slaughterhouses.
What do you think – is it time to end the insanity? Comment below and join the conversation on holding these monsters – and their enablers – to justice.
Please use the link below if you would like to donate to the GoFundMe set up for Bethany to help support her in her recovery:
