It appears America has a new folk here. Of course, we are a weird and violent lot. Which partially explains why we elected a convicted felon and known sexual predator as President. So, one can suppose it's understandable why the nation's newest celebrity du jour is currently sitting in a Pennsylvania prison awaiting extradition to New York on charges of murder.
At first glance, or maybe several, Luigi Mangione hardly seems like the type of guy who morphs into a champion of the lower and middle classes. He is the son of privilege, Baltimore, MD royalty as it were. He attended a prestigious, private, all boys prep school before attending Donald Trump's alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated from both institutions with honors and received a degree in computer engineering from Penn. Since then he held a job, or two, but has lived in places like Honolulu and San Francisco, presumably on his parent's dime. Some time in there, or maybe even before, he started having back problems which reputedly put him in a lot of pain almost constantly.
Although the pain didn't deter him from spending time surfing in Hawaii, it apparently really pissed young Mr. Mangione off. Unlike normal people, he didn't start eating opioids like M&Ms on a daily basis. Instead, on the morning of December 4th Luigi Mangione opened fire on UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson who was entering a mid-town Manhattan hotel. When Mangione pulled the trigger of his 3-D printed weapon, Thompson was walking away from him. In other words, he shot the CEO--a husband and father of two--in the back.
Ah yes, quite the hero.
At the scene police found three shell casings, each bearing a one-word message. Reports differ some, but most say the words were, "delay, depose, deny." Even before his name became public it was clear had a cause and a message to send. That message was equally clear. Fuck big heath care providers!
Indeed, Luigi Mangione might not be a Joe the plumber type, but he certainly hit one of Joe's exposed and raw nerves. No one, except health care provider employees, and perhaps their stockholders, like the corporations in control of American's health insurance. The commonly held opinion, which too many times is correct, being if it comes down to either your health care, or their bottom line, you will become expendable. So, while Brian Thompson might have personally been a decent man the business he was running is not. For many, no matter if their grievances are real, or imagined, his murder was not a heinous crime, but rather cold-blooded payback, pure and simple.
As of yesterday, a web site collecting donations to help pay for Mangione's legal defense team had collected right at $50,000. Most of the contributions are under $100. Some are accompanied by messages, such as, "As someone who has lost abilities and opportunities due to medical issues I support Luigi 100%. People are stripped of voices and failed by systems that are meant to support us. From the bottom of my heart, thank you." Another read in part, "Karma comes in different ways, sometimes you have to speed up the process. You are not a villain. Keep your head up, kid." The same sort of stories and comments are currently popping up all over social media.
Since this is the United States it didn't take long for any number of people to figure out there was and is a buck to be made off of the murder of Brian Thompson. All over the internet different sites and companies have begun hawking hoodies, tee-shirts, car decals, coffee mugs and other items which read things like, "Deny, Defend, Depose." Not an exact quote from the shell casings, but then you never know if someone already owns the rights to them--hey, stuff happens fast in this country. Some of the goods have a knockoff of the UnitedHealthcare logo and some of it has the words, "Free Luigi." Amazon had a variety of the merchandise for a while, but has since suspended their sales of it. Other sites are, presumably, doing a brisk business selling frustration, rage, and murderous hatred.
Reports today are that Luigi Mangione never had health insurance through UnitedHealthcare. Brian Thompson's company never, "delayed, deposed, or denied," him anything. The corporate CEO was assassinated because, well, United is really big and the odds are they actually have screwed somebody over lately. Or, as a WWII movie character once said, "There are no good Germans."
That's what someone will say. Right now there is ample evidence there are plenty of volunteer witnesses willing to testify just that.
CBS reports that when Mangione was taken into a Pennsylvania courthouse for his first appearance he shouted to the cameras that his arrest was, "an insult to the intelligence of the American people."
Sorry pal, but you can't insult something that doesn't exist. As soon as one of those coffee mugs, or hoodies sold we proved it.
sic vita est
12-13-24
One of the weaknesses of our open society is that people like this receive too much attention from the national media.
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