CNN’s Van Jones offered a striking defense this week that highlights why so many Americans feel disconnected from the media establishment. On Monday, while discussing the brutal killing of a young Ukrainian woman on a Charlotte train, Jones dismissed concerns about soft-on-crime policies and instead suggested the real issue was society’s inability to handle mental illness.
“What happened to that young woman was horrible, and it’s everybody’s nightmare,” Jones admitted, acknowledging the universal fear of random violence in public spaces. But instead of addressing the real policy failures that put violent offenders back on the streets, he shifted the blame away from the justice system.
Jones argued, “The other thing is…cashless bail. I think this is a big challenge that we have. Would you have felt better if there had been cash bail and the mom had come and put down a thousand dollars to let him out? It’s not about cashless bail or no cashless bail. It’s about the fact that we don’t know how to deal with people who were hurting in the way this man was hurting. Hurt people, hurt people.”
This framing ignores a hard truth: repeat offenders, many with lengthy criminal records, are being cycled in and out of jail under progressive policies like cashless bail. These aren’t harmless individuals who just need more therapy—they’re dangerous criminals who pose real threats to innocent citizens. In this case, the suspect had more than a dozen convictions and was repeatedly released. That isn’t a failure of compassion; it’s a failure of accountability.
The left’s tendency to excuse violent behavior under the guise of mental health reform sidesteps the actual crisis: a justice system that refuses to prioritize public safety. Ordinary Americans riding subways, buses, and trains deserve the basic guarantee that violent criminals will be kept off the streets. Instead, they are left to wonder whether their government values ideology over their safety.
The murder in Charlotte wasn’t an abstract policy debate—it was a real, preventable tragedy. And when media figures use it as a chance to lecture about “hurt people” rather than demand real consequences for violent offenders, it shows just how far removed they are from the everyday reality of crime in America.
