In August, the Trump White House released an article titled, Yes, Chicago Has a Crime Problem — Just Ask its Residents, which pointedly noted that for “13 consecutive years, Chicago has had the most murders of any U.S. city,” yet “Democrat politicians seem far more upset about the offer of [federal] assistance than the crime epidemic in their own backyards.”
In a horrifying example of an apparently random and unprovoked violent crime, last week a 26-year-old female passenger was set on fire on the Chicago subway. Information now available alleges that the man suspected of the attack purchased gasoline approximately 20 minutes before he approached the victim from behind, poured the liquid over her head and body, and “stood watching … as her body was engulfed in flames.” None of the other passengers, it is claimed, “stepped in to help after the woman was set on fire.”
According to local news source CWB Chicago, the suspect allegedly “has had 53 criminal cases filed against him in Cook County since 1993, including nine felonies;” all of the felonies “ended with guilty pleas, but only two resulted in jail sentences.” Lately, he was reportedly released on electronic monitoring (despite his extensive criminal history and the prosecutors’ request to keep him in custody) pending trial for aggravated battery causing great bodily harm after he allegedly beat a female social worker unconscious in August. CWB Chicago notes he “is the 19th person accused of killing or trying to kill someone in Chicago this year while on felony pretrial release.”
This is far from an isolated incident. The White House article lists many of the city’s carjackings, “smash and grab” burglaries, shootings and other crimes, and CWB Chicago runs a separate section dedicated to offenses committed in and around Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) property. Over the last several weeks these have included “three men who robbed a 15-year-old boy at gunpoint aboard a Green Line train,” two men “wearing ankle monitors for pending cases” who “teamed up to mug a passenger aboard a Red Line train, a pregnant woman who was “violently attacked and robbed” in a CTA pedestrian tunnel, and a man “shot and critically injured during a robbery aboard a Red Line train.”
The state concealed carry law forbids licensees from carrying firearms on public transit unless the firearm is unloaded and stored so it is not immediately accessible, and the CTA code of conduct prohibits “[p]ossessing or carrying any weapon including, but not limited to, guns, clubs, knives, stun guns, tasers and explosive devices.” In September, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld the prohibition on licensees carrying within CTA facilities as constitutional under the precedent set in Bruen, despite there being no historical tradition of banning firearms on public transit. A petition seeking review by the U.S. Supreme Court has since been filed.
There is one hopeful sign for Chicago’s beleaguered residents. U.S. Attorney Andrew S. Boutros, the top federal law enforcement official for the Northern District of Illinois, has stepped up prosecutions against violent criminals and firearm offenders under the “Project Safe Neighborhoods” (PSN) program. The program “is a federally funded, nationwide initiative that brings together federal, state, and local law enforcement and other stakeholders to identify the most pressing violent crime problems and develop comprehensive solutions to address them.”
Under Boutros, who was appointed to the position in April, there’s been an emphasis on increased enforcement and prosecutions: “Overall, federal criminal indictments in all program areas in the Northern District of Illinois in 2025 are up 45% (366 versus 252) compared to last year,” and the “number of defendants charged in all program areas in 2025 is up 52% (494 versus 325) compared to last year.” Boutros is clear that addressing illegal gun offenses and violent crimes “is a national priority for this Department of Justice, and it is a top priority of mine as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.”
As part of the federal Department of Justice’s crime reduction strategy, Boutros had earlier declared the entire rail system operated by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), “including all train lines operating in every neighborhood from every part of the city,” to be part of a newly established PSN zone. The announcement marked the first time “anywhere in the country that the program will be deployed on mass transit.” The press release on the expansion warned that enforcement efforts in the zone would focus on illegal firearm possession, drug trafficking, robberies, carjackings, and other violent crimes. “For violent offenders arrested downtown or aboard CTA trains, criminal prosecutors will bring appropriate charges to achieve maximum deterrence and will seek pretrial detention and substantial prison sentences for defendants who pose a danger to the community.”
These were not just empty political promises, as on November 19, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago charged Lawrence Reed, the man suspected of setting the CTA passenger on fire, with the federal offense of committing a terrorist attack against a mass transportation system. The crime, a violation of 18 U.S.C. 1992, is punishable by a maximum sentence of life in federal prison.
While a complaint is not evidence of guilt and the defendant is presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt, the prosecution is a welcome indication that regardless of state and civic officials’ hitherto soft-on-crime, “defund the police” and anti-victim policies, the future for residents might not be one of perpetual lawlessness.
Prosecutions, though, are after-the-fact responses to criminal acts that have, in most cases, already occurred. A proactive crime prevention strategy would recognize that the need for self-defense is particularly acute on public transportation and allow responsible citizens to possess firearms in such public places where they are more vulnerable to attack. The state carry law and the CTA weapon ban only expose the folly of assuming that a gun-free zone means a crime-free zone, and ensure that when the need arises, law abiding passengers remain easy pickings for Chicago’s crooks and thugs.
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