Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) posted a haunting image of Iryna Zarutska on the first anniversary of her murder and wrote two words: "Never forget."
Never forget pic.twitter.com/ks4g4YT1Mn
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) August 23, 2026
Naturally, somebody objected.
The complaint was that Lee had taken the worst moment of Zarutska's life and used it for political attention. Will Chamberlain, senior counsel at the Article III Project, immediately spotted the hypocrisy. The same political culture that spent years turning George Floyd into a national symbol and sainthood was suddenly scandalized because a conservative senator publicly remembered a murder victim.
The people who made a secular religion out of George Floyd’s death are here to tell you that you shouldn’t dare politicize Iryna Zarutska’s murder pic.twitter.com/zfc4onMCID
— Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) August 24, 2026
Zarutska was 23, fled from war in Ukraine, came to America, and was stabbed to death aboard a Charlotte light-rail train on Aug. 22, 2025. Decarlos Brown Jr. was charged with first-degree murder.
One year later, Zarutska's family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Charlotte and its transit security contractor, alleging security failures contributed to her death.
From WBTV:
The lawsuit also names Professional Security Services (PSS), the private security contractor for the Charlotte Area Transit System, as a defendant.
The lawsuit claims negligence from Charlotte and Professional Security Services led to the wrongful death of Zarutska. It condemns the lack of security, fare enforcement and physical barriers around Charlotte’s light rail the day that Zarutska was killed. Those issues were also heavily cited in a recent report released by North Carolina State Auditor Dave Boliek.
“What it shows is the systemic failures that have been within the CATS system for years that the city has been aware of,” attorney Lauren Newton said, who represents the Zarutska family and Iryna’s estate.
“Number one, there’s no physical barriers to prevent a non-ticketed individual from getting on the light rail or bus. Number two, there’s no fare enforcement.”
WBTV Investigates has reported on how the man charged with murdering Zarutska, Decarlos Brown Jr., accessed Charlotte’s transit system without paying or being questioned by CATS operators or security personnel. Video shows Brown boarding a CATS bus hours before the stabbing, getting off at the transit center in Uptown, and riding the light rail for more than an hour before attacking Zarutska on the rail car.
“There’s been literally no fare enforcement and those things, at a basic level, are what’s necessary for safety. And there’s been none of that,” Newton said.
The lawsuit also claims that CATS bus drivers had been previously instructed not to confront riders over not paying a fare, something past WBTV Investigations have also confirmed. The lawsuit also points to four homicides and other assaults near Blue Line stops over the past few years as evidence that what happened to Zarutska could have been predicted.
“Violent crime was absolutely foreseeable,” Newton said. “Violent crime and attacks on CATS workers were one of the main reasons there was no fare enforcement.”
Why shouldn't Americans remember her?
Nobody on the left required permission to make Floyd a permanent part of America's political vocabulary.
From the George Floyd Global Memorial:
On May 25, 2020, George Perry Floyd was lynched by the Minneapolis Police Department just steps away from the intersection of 38th Street East and Chicago Avenue South. In response to this atrocity, people came from across the world to pay their respects, lay expressions of pain and hope as offerings, and grieve the ongoing violence against black bodies.
The memorial started out simple, with circles of flowers and a few distinct locations to lay offerings. It has now expanded to encompass offerings in every direction, both large and small. It would take a museum several years to build a collection of the magnitude to which the memorial has grown. Since the 2020 uprising, caretakers have built a greenhouse for the plants and delicate offerings and developed a temporary conservation room kindly provided by the Pillsbury House & Theater and supported by the Midwest Arts Conservation Center. They continue to tend to the offerings at the intersection of 38th & Chicago laid in memory of George Floyd and other black lives lost in this community and across the nation.
His name appeared on murals, signs, shirts, streets, memorials, and political platforms.
Trayvon Martin's death remains publicly commemorated 14 years later. His foundation held another annual peace walk in January and remembrance gala in February.
People are of course free to remember Floyd and Martin. Their families are free to honor them. Activists are free to attach political meaning to their deaths.
Conservatives possess the same freedom.
Zarutska's name reminds Americans about violent crime, repeat offenders, public safety, and a justice system that too often gives dangerous people chance after chance. Those subjects make progressives uncomfortable, which helps explain why "Never forget" suddenly becomes offensive when her photograph appears.
The next test is already coming.
Charlie Kirk was assassinated on Sept. 10, 2025, while speaking at Utah Valley University. Prosecutors contend he was targeted because of his political views.
His widow, Erika Kirk, is now CEO and chair of Turning Point USA and has continued the organization her husband built.
When Sept. 10 arrives, Erika Kirk will remember her husband, conservatives will remember him, and his murder will be discussed politically because his assassination was political.
Watch what happens next.
Some of the same people who spent years insisting that Americans "say their names" will suddenly discover grave concerns about exploiting death, inflaming division, and turning tragedy into politics.
They've spent years insisting public remembrance can carry political meaning. Conservatives don't surrender that right because the victim tells a story progressives would rather avoid.
Iryna Zarutska deserves to be remembered.
Charlie Kirk also deserves to be remembered.
The left doesn't get a veto.
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