The fatal stabbing of a Ukrainian refugee in the United States has taken on sweeping political dimensions, with the American right denouncing Democrats’ supposed lack of action on crime as US President Donald Trump seeks to expand a crackdown.
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Iryna Zarutska, 23, was sitting quietly on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina on August 22 when she was attacked with no warning by a man sitting behind her, security video shows.
Her murder made little national news last month but it recently surged into the spotlight after Republican lawmakers and far-right influencers promoted the graphic CCTV video last weekend.
Now it appears to be serving as fuel to support Trump’s plans for sending troops into Democratic-run cities such as Chicago. The operations, which Trump opponents see as an authoritarian takeover, are defended by Republicans as needed for fighting crime.
“They’re evil people,” Trump said on Monday.
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The president swiftly politicised the murder, taking to his Truth Social platform to slam the attacker as a “career criminal” with 14 prior arrests and saying Zarutska’s “blood is on the hands of the Democrats who refuse to put bad people in jail”.