"The random and unprovoked killing of a young woman in North Carolina several weeks ago has become a viral video, a political football, and a powerful rightwing talking point even as the horror and anger her death has provoked obscures what experts say is a vital story about the failures of the American mental health system. The alleged perpetrator, Decarlos Brown Jr, 34, has a long history of problems with the law and mental health issues."
"He had been arrested 14 times and served a five-year stint for armed robbery. Brown had also come to believe that there was something alien and malevolent inside him a man-made material, he told people, possibly a computer chip implanted by the government that was fighting him for control of his body. Brown was riding a light rail in Charlotte, North Carolina, last month when he allegedly stood up with a pocket knife, abruptly stabbed a nearby woman, then walked away."
"Initially a tragedy covered by mostly local news outlets, Zarutska's death has grown in recent days into a cause celebre on the American right. In more centrist conservative accounts, Zarutska's killing is a symbol and symptom of a lax criminal justice system that should never have allowed Brown to freely walk the streets. In more inflammatory, far-right discourse, the story of a formerly incarcerated Black man's killing of a defenseless blond woman has become racist fodder for sinister theories about white persecution and Black criminality."
A young Ukrainian refugee, Iryna Zarutska, was fatally stabbed while working in Charlotte, North Carolina. The alleged attacker, Decarlos Brown Jr., has a lengthy arrest record, previous imprisonment, and documented mental-health issues, including paranoid delusions about an implanted device. Security footage captured the sudden assault and her bleeding collapse. The case has prompted debate over criminal-justice decisions and mental-health care gaps, while also being amplified and polarized across political and social media channels. Far-right narratives have racialized the event, and mainstream conservatives have framed it as symptomatic of lax public-safety policies.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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