WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Ed Tarnowski: Why America’s Cities Are Dying—and How One Refugee’s Murder Explains It All

Episode Date: October 6, 2025

Across American cities, a ferocious debate is escalating over the “revolving door” of repeat offenders. With pressure mounting, Ed Tarnowski, a writer for Young Voices, Policy and Advocacy Director at EdChoice, and host of the State of Choice Podcast, joins WRFH to discuss his latest Real Clear Politics article. 

This is Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm Emma Verini, and here with me today is Ed Ternowski, a writer for Young Voices, Policy and Advocacy Director at Ed Choice, and host of the State of Choice podcast. Today, we will discuss his piece. The American City cannot blossom in lawlessness for real clear politics. How are you today, Ed? Thanks for having me. I'm doing very well. Thanks for having me on the show.

Yeah, of course. Happy to have you. So my first question is for listeners who have not read your article, would you mind telling us what it is about? Absolutely. So the idea of the piece is, hey, like, I'm a person, you know, I'm from a small town, but I'm a city dwelling now. I live in D.C. and I love what cities are supposed to offer, you know, rich culture, innovation, exciting things.

And I want to see policies to help cities thrive, like zoning reform. We want to see more robust. trans-bit policies. However, the idea is none of that matters if people don't feel safe and comfortable in our cities. If there's crime and anti-social behavior plaguing our public spaces, then you're not going to see our cities bloom in the way that they truly can. So the idea is like

if we want to see, you know, American cities blossom and truly realize their full potential, we have to get serious about addressing these problems. Yeah, and so you actually open, your lead is about Irina Zerutska, who was, you say, savagely stabbed to death by another passenger on the Charlotte, North Carolina light rail line, which, you know, nobody is going to disagree that that was a brutal killing. I guess my next question is, why would you say that this piece that you've written is a very timely piece? Absolutely. Well, I think this has been relevant for some time now. And this just, this sparked a much needed conversation about how we're dealing with people like this because her alleged killer had been arrested 14 times. He had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. He became so erratic that his mother had to kick him out, which left him on the street. And I think one of the things that I think one of the takeaways from this is, you know, we shouldn't be waiting for that. It shouldn't have taken that 15th time for him to be put behind bars or or perhaps

put in a facility for long-term treatment. So I think this overall, this kind of re-engage and brought out that conversation, a much-needed conversation that it needs to be had. and it kind of shocked a lot of people to see something so savagely on camera. Yeah, definitely. So, you know, sort of going off of that, that seemed to, you know, strike a court with a lot of Americans. Do you think that the American people are ready to see a change in terms of, you know, finally bringing these repeat offenders to justice?

Well, I certainly hope so. And I think that, I think people have wanted it for a long time. I think what we need to get through to people because a lot of times what we're seeing is the same types of people being elected in cities over and over and over again. I think that there is an awakening among a lot of people of what's going on

and realizing that this stuff is a choice. We've seen in places where repeat offenders are being held accountable and you do see vast declines in these types of crimes being committed with the restoration deterrence. People aren't just getting back on the streets and becoming repeat offenders.

So I think the takeaway here is people are realizing increasingly and I hope that this continues that this type of thing happening in our cities is a choice and it's a policy choice and it can be stopped. Yeah. And so some of the instances you cite, I'll just read some of these off for the audience.

In New York City in 2022, 30% of the city's 22,000 shoplifting arrests were committed by just 327 people, together racking up more than 6,600 busts. And in Philadelphia, of more than 2,200 people arrested for shootings between 2015 and 2021, 76% had prior arrests and 51% had been arrested for three or more times. So why are U.S. cities terrorized by repeat offenders? This seems to be just a recurring thing in a lot of major cities. Right. Well, I think what it comes down to, those in charge of, in charge of prosecution, and too many of our cities are a prioritizing those repeat offenders over society more broadly. What happened to, you know, the law,

the caring for and prioritizing policies that will help and encourage the prosperity of society and the community as a whole over just focusing on, you know, coddling. People who are repeat offenders. And of course, there's a conversation to be had about true criminal justice reform, but true justice is not, it's not what we're seeing with these prosecutors. Because the community's all suffer is people who are law abiding in the case in North Carolina

it costs a woman in her life. What we're seeing is, again, a small group of repeat offenders committing an oversized number of the crimes. And if these people were to be held accountable, we'd see drastic decreases in these type of crimes and vastly increased quality of life among a law. citizens. This is Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm Emma Verini, and I'm talking with Ed Ternowski.

So, Ed, what motivates public officials to release violent criminals and repeat offenders so many times? I think in many cases, it does come from a place of good intentions. However, as the famous line goes, the Road to Hellel is paid for good intentions. I think there's an idea that by releasing people and not holding them back from the street, it's a sort of, they think it's a social justice type of thing. And again, I think it is well-intentioned, but it's incredibly misguided because it's truly compassionate to have let someone who obviously very troubled, he had been, again, diagnosed in the case of Charlotte,

The alleged killer had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. It had become very erratic. He had been arrested 14 times. I don't believe it to be compassionate to have left him out, left him to the streets where he's clearly an unstable individual. And leaving into the streets is certainly not a compassionate way of handling the situation. I think there needs to be a real conversation about, and the two different veins here, of course,

there's the crimes that were committed and there's the mental health aspect of this. So I think we need to have a larger conversation about what it looks like, you know, to ensure that, you know, violent people aren't just strolling the streets. It's kind of walking the streets aimlessly. And I certainly don't think it's compassionate

for that to be the policy. Yeah. Do you think that public officials, district attorneys, who sort of let these kids, cases slide time and time again should be held accountable? Oh, I guess that's up to the voters. I think, and that's why I think it's so important to highlight what we are seeing when the policies are different.

When you are actually holding people accountable for their own actions, when you are restoring deterrence and people know their consequences to committing crimes like these, we see crime go down. So I think that the accountability has come in the form of, obviously, from the voters. And I think it's, and that's why it continues to be so important to highlight the stark difference of what things could be. And that we shouldn't just be accepting that this is just that cities are. I think the Illinois governor said recently, it's a part of living in a city. I think we should reject that because we've seen that this can change with the regulations.

policies. Yeah. So going off of that, how can we actually reduce crime in our cities? What are some solid steps that we can take to do that? Right. I think the number one they need to come down to actually prosecuting individuals for the crimes that they've committed individually and and holding individuals accountable as individuals. I think we need to get back to the idea of, you know, of holding people responsible for their own decisions. And that doesn't mean there isn't

a conversation to be had about criminal justice reform and if certain things are that we should maybe look differently at the punishment for certain crimes. But this idea of just

of lawlessness and just choosing on arbitrarily letting people off based on their background or so on and so forth. I think we need to get away from that and more toward holding individuals accountable for their own actions. I think that's going to restart deterrence. I think that's going to get

the small number of repeat offenders off the street. And I think it'll lead to much safer cities. This is Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm Emma Varene and I'm talking with Ed Ternowski. So would you say that there are any cities that serve as a example for crime reduction cities that have done this and have improved? Absolutely. Well, and while

there is certainly a conversation to be had about what this should look like and what the long-term solution might look like, but what we do see in Washington, D.C., for example, is

in the first week of of when from administration decided to nationalize DC police you know the involvement of the National Guard we saw for example

I think in the first week or our first 10 days or so we saw an 87% reduction in carjackings I mean that's massive we saw I think we went DC went 10 or 11 days without a murder which is remarkable for DC

so what we saw there and again whether that's the right whether that's the right driver is a whole different conversation, whether the National Guard should be a decent long term is a different conversation. I think the jury is still out on that. However, what we have seen is when people are being held accountable, when now that we're seeing the change in how people are being prosecuted, we did see reductions of crime and increases in safety. You say that at the end of your article, if the American city is to blossom, we must prioritize the rights of individuals.

over the coddling of criminals and the tolerance of social decay. By restoring basic order and justice, our cities can be places where innovation thrives, culture flourishes, and the human spirit realizes its full potential. So how specifically will cities improve if we manage to reduce crime? Well, great question. And here I think what it comes down to is cities are so much of history. and then the centers for the greatest human, you know, human progress,

innovation, invention, for culture because there are so many, you have so many of the brightest finds being attracted to one place and, and they're working on, people are working off each other. If we want to have thriving cities like this again, there's a, especially a conversation right now about the cost of housing, for example.

And in cities, it is through the roof. And I want to see things like zoning reform and more robust transit, as I mentioned, to really get more of a, so American cities can have more of an urbanist feel and have more of those, and build that rich culture. But, and I think that's something that we can accomplish. But for that, to even get to that conversation about, about those types of policies, you have to address the issues of, so like I said, social decay,

anti-social behavior of not holding people accountable because as long as people aren't feeling safe, safe in cities, safe living in cities, spending time in downtowns, or are comfortable, or they're worried that they're going to be harassed just for riding transit or using our green spaces.

And none of that other stuff matters because you're not going to have people of being attracted to families, you're not going to have new people being attracted to cities. So I think it's a vision of what can be. Our cities can be centers and should be where America is the wealthiest nation and history of the world. Our cities can and should be centers for these for culture innovation,

for invention, for human potential. But as long as people are fearing and uncomfortable and using, you know, enjoying our cities and not of that other stuff, we can't get to the other stuff and our cities will not realize their full potential and we can't even get to the conversation about the type of pro-urban reforms that ought to be happening in cities to make them more livable and affordable. Right, right. So to clarify, our first priority should be reducing crime.

And then we can address some of the other less pressing issues like public transportation, housing and zoning and stuff like that. Well, I certainly think we could do both at the same time. I just think that as even if you are addressing those things without addressing the antisocial behavior and the crime, then you're not going to see the true fruits of those, what those policies, the full potential of those policies realize, because you're not going to have new people being attracted to cities, feeling safe living in downtown, spending time there. I do think they can happen at the same time, but I don't think that those, you know, the city

reforms can happen. and the urbanist reforms can go without the other, without changing course on how we handle crime and disorder. So you touched on this earlier, but I actually want to go back to it. There are some people who say cities are just always going to have high crime rates. And you did mention this in a small amount of detail. But what would you say in more depth to those people?

All right. I'd say that I think America's degree to the country to say that we have to settle for these things. I mean, if we have seen, as I mentioned, that when cities do change course on prosecutions, on antisocial behavior, on not tolerating those types of things, especially like, for example,

drug use in public spaces and public transit, how can a mother feel comfortable with taking her child on public transit if she's worried about someone's fucking crack on the seat and on the seat in the same transit car. So I think it comes down to, we shouldn't be settling for that.

And I think it's nonsense that this is just that crime is just something that has to be accepted within cities. It is absolutely a policy choice. And we know that because we have seen that when you do change course on these things, that you can see reductions in crime and antisocial behaviors and

public green spaces and transit and those things can flourish again when people feel comfortable using the services, those amenities. So I know I think it's sometimes. I think this country is too great for us to settle for just this is just an inevitable

part of life in cities. I don't accept that at all. And finally, is there anything else that you want to add? This has been a very interesting interview. So I'm wondering if you have anything else you would like to give your perspective on for this last little bit. I'll just end on the note in saying that, you know,

America is like I mentioned, it's the wealthiest nation in the history of all. I think it's also the greatest in history. And our city should be attracting the greatest minds. Like we should see, we want to have a talent in our cities. We don't want people fearing. And it's just so much lost potential of, and letting our cities go in this direction.

And I think the main takeaway is it is absolutely a policy choice for our city to be this way. And we can absolutely change course if we refocus on, you know, law-abiding, the law-abiding community. And, of course, address these things with equal justice, with human dignity, but it is not the it is not the compassionate thing

to just leave people to the streets who are who may be mentally unwell or struggling and it is certainly not compassionate to let these repeat offenders terrorize their communities keep letting them back out so the takeaway is the quality of our city the quality of life in our cities is a policy choice

and we can absolutely change course Our guest has been Ed Ternowski, and I'm Emma Verini on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Thank you for listening.