While senior citizens died in nursing homes, the media howled that we had to free all the criminals to protect them from the virus.

Despite the media’s best efforts to manufacture a prison coronavirus crisis, there never was much of one, but the release of massive amounts of criminals, combined with a refusal to arrest, convict, and imprison new offenders, helped kick off a massive crime wave.

While the authorities insisted on freeing criminals from prison to protect them, no one was protecting society from them.

A New Jersey inmate who was freed early because of the COVID-19 pandemic has been charged with murdering a teenager just two days after his release.

Jerry Crawford, 25, was serving time for burglary when he was let out on “public health emergency credits” to parole supervision on Nov. 4, prison officials confirmed to NJ.com Wednesday.

He has since been charged with the murder of Davion Scarbrough, 18, who was gunned down in Bridgeton on Nov. 6 — just two days after Crawford got out of South Woods State Prison, the outlet said.

He was charged alongside Yusuf Waites — who had also just gotten out of custody less than a month before the shooting.

Saving lives means keeping criminals in prison. More young black men have died because of coronavirus criminal releases and criminal justice reform than from the actual virus.

Never mind any of that nonsense about police shootings.

Waites was also indicted for attempting to kill two other men in a sweeping indictment involving eight other defendants, another killing, a drive-by shooting and a daylight gun battle, NJ.com said.

Black Lives Matter.