In the wake of the stabbing death of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte, North Carolina light rail train, the state legislature introduced a bill to crack down on bail for violent offenders, drawing praise from one crime expert.

“You know, when you’re talking about a response to a case like the murder of Iryna Zarutska in North Carolina, I think what you want to see first and foremost is that legislatures are going to be responsive to the public policy problems that have been revealed by such cases,” said Rafael Mangual, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a member of the Council on Criminal Justice.

“And so I think, before getting into the details, it’s just important to acknowledge and express some appreciation for the responsiveness of the North Carolina legislature in this case,” said Mangual.

Iryna Zarutska curls up in fear as a man looms over her during a disturbing attack on a Charlotte, N.C. light rail train. (NewsNation via Charlotte Area Transit System)

“My takeaway from that experience was that what’s at the root of this isn’t necessarily a desire to see crime increase, but what’s really at the root of it is a very, almost unimaginable level of hubris,” he said. “These people who advocate for these policies advocate for them because they truly believe that crime is a function of things like socioeconomic inequality, poverty, unequal wealth distribution, unemployment and disinvestment in things like public education and other social safety net programs.” 

Mangual doesn’t subscribe to that school of thought, and noted that every society in human history has had inequality and poverty. While he does not think opponents of crime crackdowns are evil, he does think activists are out of touch. 

A photo of lit buildings forming the skyline of Charlotte, North Carolina. (Andrea Evangelo-Giamou / EyeEm via Getty Images)

“These are people who are sort of ensconced in an academic ivory tower where they are consistently told that they are the smartest people in the world,” he said. “And so they reject solutions that they see as unsophisticated or simple or brutish in favor of these imaginary and theoretical solutions that frankly are never going to work.”