Catch-and-release is succeeding…or failing spectacularly in New York City depending on your perspective. Thanks to Democrat control in Gotham and Albany, the latest horror show demonstrates how the people who voted for soft-on-crime politicians are getting exactly what they voted for, good and hard.
Our latest poster child for ending progressive “catch and release” is Damon Johnson, 47, a one-man crime spree. He’s racked up a jaw-dropping 131 prior arrests in New York City since his first bust back in 1995 And those are just the crimes the cops caught him (allegedly) committing. Yet thanks to Team Soros prosecutors and suicidally compassionate politicians, Johnson was still roaming free, albeit on parole. His latest sociopathic offense: he allegedly crouched over a sleeping 37-year-old homeless man at Penn Station and set him on fire just for kicks.
Damon Johnson just set someone on fire in NY while on parole. 131 prior arrests. pic.twitter.com/sIeRukFR00
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 5, 2026
It should have been a defensive gun use, but welcome to Mamdami’s New York City. Guns are banned in Penn Station, but you can feel the warmth of collectivism, especially near the entrance of the Amtrak rotunda. The victim certainly did, receiving second-degree burns aplenty. The perps ran into the station crowd to elude capture. First responders doused the flames and rushed the man—with burns on his arm and back—to the closest burn unit.
Instead of a good guy shooting this psychopath down, Amtrak cops finally nabbed Johnson on Wednesday, slapping him with attempted murder, assault, and reckless endangerment charges. A second suspect, 33-year-old Lyla Najjar, got picked up later on assault charges. But let’s be real: Johnson’s rap sheet is a monument to soft-on-crime insanity.
NY Daily News has more via AOL . . .
The victim was dozing near a W. 33rd St. entrance to Penn Station’s Amtrak rotunda near Eighth Ave. when three men approached him and one of them set fire to the man’s clothes around 8:30 p.m., cops said.
First responders quickly put out the flames and rushed the victim to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell’s burn unit.
After the attack, the three men fled deeper into the station. Officers with the Amtrak Police Department arrested Johnson on Wednesday.
Johnson, who is currently on parole for robbery until 2027, has an extensive criminal record that includes a whopping 131 arrests since he was first busted for a Bronx assault in 1995, cops said.
How many more victims—homeless or otherwise— will suffer before “catch and release” is finally abandoned for the dangerous failure that it is? It isn’t compassion, it’s chaos, courtesy of the same people and policies that let career criminals run free until someone ends up in flames.