Lawbreaking is an acid that dissolves civic life. Those of us who love New York need to say: No more.
If there is an image that will define this anxious moment in the history of New York City, it will surely be of the burning woman on the train.
This week, we finally learned her name—Debrina Kawam of Toms River, New Jersey—and the circumstances of her murder. On an otherwise quiet Sunday morning, an illegal immigrant allegedly approached Kawam while she was sitting motionless on an idling F train. For reasons that are as yet unclear, he then used a lighter to set her on fire. Rather than leave the scene, he reportedly watched her burn, even fanning the flames as onlookers screamed.
It took a week to identify her. That’s how severe her burns were.
When I first saw the horrific news pop up on my phone, I was with my small children on the 2 train heading uptown. As the images came through—not long after the flames finally died down—we were on another subway heading to the American Museum of Natural History, one of the most celebrated museums not just in this city, but in any city.
Continue reading the entire piece here at The Free Press (paywall)
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Reihan Salam is the president of the Manhattan Institute. Follow him on Twitter here.
Photo by LeoPatrizi/Getty Images