At the height of the 2024 Christmas season a premeditated murder carried out in cold blood occurred in New York City. The victim was not chosen because of whom he was but for what he represented. In this case the nation’s health insurance business. The murder approached the victim from the rear and shot him in the back in the early morning hours of Dec. 4, 2024, outside his hotel.

The victim was Iowa native Brian Thompson, 50, a graduate of the University of Iowa who joined UnitedHealthcare in 2004 and rose through the ranks becoming CEO in 2021. He was described by coworkers as “whip smart” yet affable, low key, and popular within the company. He was the father of two sons, ages 16 and 19 and while he and his wife Paulette were separated they remained close, and she described him in a statement as “an incredibly loving father to our two sons and will be greatly missed…”

The alleged murderer is Luigi Mangione, who was born on May 6, 1998, into a wealthy family. He attended the Gilman School, an all-boys private school in Baltimore which he graduated from in 2016. In 2020, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in computer engineering and later earned a Master of Science in Engineering in computer and information science.

At the time of his arrest police found in Mangione’s possession a 262 word document in which he described health insurance companies and executives as “parasites who had it coming.” This was because while the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, we rank 42nd in life expectancy.

After Mangione’s arrest the public reaction was shocking to many because it seemed similar to the 1930s when hoodlums like John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, and even Al Capone, all of whom despite being cold blooded killers, were seen as folk heroes and romanticized by both the public and press.

Following his arrest Mangione received support and praise for his action online. His fellow inmates at the jail where he was taken after his arrest were heard shouting “Free Luigi” from their cells and during his court hearings supporters gathered outside the courthouse to show their support for Mangione.

It is likely that the support Mangione received stemmed from the public’s often negative view of the health insurance industry fostered by rumors of denials of healthcare coverage and the high profits made by these companies. Early on wanted posters appeared in Manhattan with pictures of other corporate CEO’s and the names and salaries of health insurance executives were posted online.

Incredibly Professor Anthony Zenkus a Columbia University professor of social work who also runs a crime victims services agency posted on X that he would not mourn the death of Tompson because only certain favored victims may make a claim to safety. Not to be out done was Yolanda Wilson a St. Louis University bioethicist who claimed, in what seemed a very non-bioethicist manner, that she was not sad at health insurance CEO’s being shot down in the street. Not surprisingly, that senatorial master of the cliche, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said “People can only be pushed so far.”

A University of Chicago poll taken following the shooting found that the majority of Americans felt that because of health insurer service denials and profits these companies bore some responsibility for Thompson’s death. An Economist/YouGov poll found the greatest support for Mangione among respondents aged 18 to 29 who saw him in a favorable light by a margin of 39% to 29% and very liberal citizens who viewed him favorably by a margin of 47% to 31%.

Another indicator of the publics’ attitude was subscriber indignation at the Washington Post’s editorial decision condemning the assassination leading 12,000 subscribers to cancel. At the New York Times subscribers were incensed with the paper’s decision to take no stand on the killing and to concentrate on flaws in the healthcare system.

It was enlightening that young people who are the most recent products of our educational system are among Mangione’s most ardent supporters. To some degree this is likely a product of the Diversity Equity Inclusion indoctrination carried on in our high schools and universities. I still wonder how it was possible that DEI, which developed from the Marxist doctrine of Critical Race Theory which itself has the goal of defeating the west and capitalism by causing racial strife, could morph into DEI and be seen as a way of making us all more accepting and understanding of others.

In the current time moral absolutes like the Ten Commandments that are core moral values guiding Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, have been replaced in the minds of some by moral relativism, or the philosophical view that moral judgments are not based on universal, objective truths, but rather are relative to the individual, culture, or societal context. It’s almost like saying that what is right or wrong is what we think it is, whereas the Ten Commandments tell us that “Thou shall not kill” from a moral relativism point of view one could think that it is all right to murder someone who, in their mind, represents an industry that hurts people.

For me, Luigi Mangione is no hero and should not be treated as one. If convicted he should be punished to the full extent of the law.

Thomas Kirkpatrick Sr. is a Silver Creek resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com.