🚨 “IF BETHANY WERE BLACK, SHED BE THE NEW GEORGE FLOYD” – Conservative Pundit UNLOADS on Media’s Sick Double Standard After Chicago Train Horror 😡🔥

Picture this nightmare: 26-year-old Bethany MaGee, Purdue honors grad, cat-loving Christian sweetheart, minding her own on a Blue Line train… when a 50-year-old thug with 72 ARRESTS douses her in GAS and lights her up like a bonfire. Flames eat 60% of her body as she screams and rolls. Bystanders beat back the fire – but she’s left charred, fighting for life in a burn ward.

Her first words waking up? “Is this… Heaven?” Heart. Shattered.

Now conservative firebrand Victor Joecks drops a BOMBSHELL op-ed: “If races flipped – Black victim, white perp – Bethany’s face would be on EVERY screen, protests raging, George Floyd 2.0.” But because she’s white and Lawrence Reed’s Black? Crickets from CNN, NYT, WaPo. Zero mentions. “Media’s narrative machine only whirs for one side,” he roars.

Chicago’s exploding: Soft judges freed Reed despite curfew violations THAT DAY. Trump blasts “liberal lunacy,” White House calls it “failing policies.” GoFundMe’s at $1.2M, prayers pouring – but where’s the outrage? Duffy IDs her publicly, demands answers.

Full op-ed excerpts + surveillance stills below. This double standard? It’s burning hotter than Bethany’s wounds. Who’s with her? Who’s silencing her story? 👇💥

The searing image of Bethany MaGee, a 26-year-old Purdue University graduate, engulfed in flames on a Chicago Blue Line train has seared itself into the public’s conscience. But as the young woman fights for her life in a burn unit, enduring a grueling gauntlet of skin grafts and infection battles, a pointed critique from conservative commentator Victor Joecks has thrust the case into a broader firestorm: Why has this horrific attack not ignited the same national fury as other high-profile incidents, and does race play a role in the media’s muted response?

Joecks, a columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, penned a scathing opinion piece published on November 29 titled “When a Crime Burns Up the Narrative,” arguing that MaGee’s story would be “as well-known as George Floyd” if the races of victim and assailant were reversed. “Imagine the headlines if a white man with a history of violence had set a Black woman ablaze on public transit,” Joecks wrote. “Protests would rage from Chicago to California. Late-night hosts would monologue for weeks. But because MaGee is white and her accused attacker, Lawrence Reed, is Black, the story simmers on the back burner.” He pointed to a stark disparity: As of late November, searches for “Bethany MaGee” on The New York Times and Washington Post websites yielded zero results, while conservative outlets like Fox News and the Daily Mail have covered the case extensively.

The attack unfolded on November 17, 2025, around 9:25 p.m., aboard a northbound Blue Line train near the Clark/Lake station in the heart of the Loop. Surveillance footage, released in edited clips by federal prosecutors and the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), captures the unprovoked brutality in chilling detail. MaGee, seated with her back to the aisle and engrossed in her phone, becomes the target of Reed, 50, who approaches stealthily with a small plastic bottle containing gasoline purchased earlier that evening at a Shell station in Garfield Park. Without warning, he pours the accelerant over her head and shoulders. As MaGee leaps up in horror and attempts to flee down the car, Reed pursues, igniting the liquid with a lighter. Flames erupt, consuming her clothing and searing over 60% of her body — primarily her face, neck, arms, and torso — in third-degree burns.

Passengers, frozen in initial shock, spring into action as the train screeches to a halt at the platform. Bystanders, including a nurse who used her jacket to smother the fire, rush to MaGee’s aid, patting out the blaze with water bottles and bare hands. “It was chaos — the smell of burning flesh, her screams echoing off the metal walls,” recounted eyewitness Elena Vasquez, 34, to ABC7 Chicago on November 20. Chicago Fire Department paramedics arrive within four minutes, airlifting MaGee to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital’s burn unit in critical condition. Reed, lightly singed on his hand, flees the scene but is arrested the next morning at a West Side boarding house, remnants of the bottle still in his possession.

MaGee’s awakening days later added a layer of profound poignancy to her ordeal. Under heavy sedation, as monitors beeped and bandages swathed her fragile frame, her first lucid words to attending nurses were a whispered query born of her deep Christian faith: “Is this… Heaven? Am I with Jesus now?” Her family, including father Dr. Gregory MaGee, a Biblical studies professor at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana, shared the moment in a November 26 statement to Fox News, framing it as a testament to her unyielding spirit. “Even amid unimaginable pain, Bethany’s heart turns to hope and eternity,” Dr. MaGee said, his voice steady but eyes red-rimmed. Raised in a close-knit, faith-centered home in the small town of Upland — population under 4,000 — MaGee was remembered by classmates as an honors student, avid reader of C.S. Lewis, and volunteer at local animal shelters. “She was the girl who tutored kids after school and adopted strays without a second thought,” said former classmate Ethan Riley to the New York Post on November 25.

Joecks’ piece, which has garnered over 150,000 views on the Review-Journal’s site and sparked heated debates on X (formerly Twitter), situates MaGee’s case within a narrative of selective outrage. He contrasts it with the 2020 killing of George Floyd, whose death at the hands of a white Minneapolis police officer sparked global Black Lives Matter protests, and more recent transit attacks like the August 2025 stabbing of Ukrainian immigrant Iryna Zarutska by Decarlos Brown Jr. in Charlotte, North Carolina — a case that drew fleeting coverage despite its brutality. “MaGee’s skin color didn’t shield her from the flames, just as it hasn’t shielded her from obscurity in the national conversation,” Joecks wrote. “The media’s silence isn’t accidental; it’s editorial calculus.”

The commentary has amplified calls from conservative figures for accountability. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who first publicly identified MaGee on X on November 23, reposted Joecks’ piece with the caption: “Victor’s spot on — this double standard endangers us all. #JusticeForBethany.” Former President Donald Trump, at a November 25 rally in Palm Beach, Florida, thundered against “woke media and soft-on-crime DAs” in cities like Chicago, vowing to “make transit safe again” if re-elected. The White House echoed the sentiment on November 26, posting on X: “Liberal soft-on-crime policies are FAILING American communities… A career criminal with 72 arrests should never have been free. Pray for Bethany.”

At the heart of the outrage lies Lawrence Reed’s extensive criminal history, a litany of failures in Cook County’s justice system. Since 1993, Reed has amassed 72 arrests, including eight felonies such as a 2003 drug trafficking conviction that earned him two years at Stateville Correctional Center, and multiple misdemeanors for theft, assault, and disorderly conduct. Diagnosed with schizophrenia in his 20s, he has endured repeated mental health commitments, but compliance with treatment has been inconsistent. In August 2025, Reed allegedly battered a social worker at a West Loop clinic, leaving her hospitalized — a charge that should have triggered detention. Instead, Cook County Circuit Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez released him on electronic monitoring (EM), citing “mitigating factors” like his lack of recent violent convictions, over prosecutors’ vehement objections.

That EM program, privatized in 2024 and managed by vendor SecureAlert under the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, emerges as a key point of contention. Court documents reveal Reed violated curfew and movement restrictions six times in the two months following his release, including a midday alert on November 17 — just hours before the attack. A leaked internal audit, obtained by the Chicago Tribune on November 28, exposed systemic breakdowns: Over 1,200 violation alerts went unaddressed citywide in 2025, with SecureAlert operating at 40% understaffing. Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling addressed the media on November 27, his tone measured but firm: “This was a catastrophic failure across our criminal justice and mental health pipelines. No one — victim or accused — deserves this outcome.” Mayor Brandon Johnson, facing mounting criticism, convened an emergency task force on transit safety, pledging $50 million in federal grants for enhanced monitoring and mental health patrols.

Federal charges against Reed, unsealed on November 20 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, frame the assault as an act of domestic terrorism: Attempted first-degree murder with a destructive device, aggravated hate crime (citing Reed’s post-arrest mutterings about “demons in her light”), and interstate threats. Video evidence shows him pacing the car beforehand, bottle in hand, and standing impassive as MaGee writhes in agony. His public defender, Maria Gonzalez, entered a not-guilty plea on November 24, invoking mental incapacity, but U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Gilbert denied bail, citing flight risk and public safety. If convicted, Reed faces life in federal prison.

MaGee’s recovery remains a marathon of pain and perseverance. As of December 1, she has endured four debridement procedures and two skin grafts, with her unburned lower legs serving as donor sites. Sepsis threats loom large; mobility is limited to a wheelchair. Yet milestones offer hope: On November 29, she shared a brief FaceTime with her sister, mustering a faint smile and quip: “Tell Whiskers I’m coming home to scratch his ears.” A GoFundMe launched by family friends, “Bethany’s Burn to Blessing,” has surpassed $1.2 million, earmarked for rehabilitation at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and adaptive equipment to revive her journalism ambitions.

Her family’s November 26 statement, issued through Taylor University, weaves faith with fortitude: “Bethany’s query from the ashes — ‘Is this Heaven?’ — reminds us that even in the valley, grace endures. She’s not there yet; her mission here presses on. We pray for her mending, for Reed’s reckoning, and for a media that amplifies all cries for justice.” In Upland, a November 28 prayer vigil at Taylor drew 1,500, with students forming a human chain around a bonfire — a symbolic rebuke to the flames that scarred her.

Joecks’ op-ed has polarized responses. Supporters on X hail it as a “wake-up call to biased coverage,” with #RacesReversed amassing 2 million impressions. Critics, including NAACP Chicago branch president Reverend Jesse Jackson III, counter that the case underscores systemic racism in criminal justice, not media neglect: “Reed’s 72 arrests reflect a cycle of poverty and untreated illness that traps Black men — that’s the real narrative.” Media watchdogs like FAIR argue both sides overlook nuance, with coverage gaps tied more to urban fatigue than explicit bias.

The CTA reports an 8% ridership dip post-attack, fueling demands for metal detectors, AI surveillance, and on-board social workers. Nationally, it joins 2025’s transit terror tally: Zarutska’s stabbing, a July NYC subway slashing. Duffy’s DOT unveiled a $500 million security grant on November 30, targeting “vulnerable hubs” like Chicago’s L system.

As winter grips the Windy City, MaGee’s story simmers — a flicker amid the chill. Joecks’ words fan the debate: In an era of selective spotlights, does justice depend on the lens? For Bethany, bandaged but unbroken, the answer burns eternal: Her fight, like her faith, demands to be seen.