Alleged shooter Luigi Mangione has created a shockwave of opinions across social media after he was accused of killing UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, Brian Thompson in New York City. Much of the contention surrounding Mangione has to do with the morality of the murder and society’s reactions to his rapidly expanding persona.
On Dec. 4, at roughly 7:00 a.m., fifty-year-old Thompson was shot outside of the hotel he was staying at in Manhattan. The healthcare CEO was in the city to attend an investors meeting for the company when Luigi Mangione allegedly killed him and fled immediately after.
Mangione, 26, is a recent ivy league graduate who grew up in Maryland and attended many prestigious schools like Gilman School in Baltimore, where he was valedictorian, before attending the University of Pennsylvania. His traditional path to success was interrupted when he allegedly gunned down Thompson, publically and perhaps permanently altering his life and civil discourse for the long term.
It wasn’t just the murder itself that garnered attention from the masses, but more of the small hints he left behind. For example, the words “delay,” “deny” and “depose,” were engraved on the fallen bullet casings, AP News states. The words, which are a reference to a 2010 book written by Jay Feinman that goes into how insurance companies deal with claims, were supposedly used by Mangione in order to highlight large insurers’ shortcomings and lack of responsibility, something that has been increasingly upsetting Americans over the years.
By making this statement, Mangione seemingly won the favor of many to the point where some have begun wearing the words carved into the bullets on pieces of clothing or even on themselves, with one person going as far as to get a tattoo of the words.
People’s sporting of these words, along with numerous videos and comments on social platforms, highlighted the general dissatisfaction towards not just Thompson, but the entire healthcare industry.
This unsympathetic sentiment toward death is one that is generally uncommon for the weight of the situation, but is ultimately coming from a place of pent-up anger in middle and lower-class groups who are disappointed by the actions of UnitedHealthcare in response to their claims. The New Yorker also stated in its article that, “UnitedHealthcare has the highest claim-denial rate of any private insurance company: at thirty-two per cent, it is double the industry average.” This denial rate represents both the number of cases denied and the number of people’s lives who were affected by this denial.
The situation is one that shows the true shortcomings of many aspects of American society where there are those that feel the only way to have their voice heard is through violent acts. The situation is one that shows the true shortcomings of many aspects of American society where there are those that feel the only way to have their voice heard is through violent acts. While these acts do make an impact, it ultimately only ends up causing more problems and doesn’t resolve the previously standing ones.
The most recent update concerning Mangione’s case was his indictment of murder as an act of terrorism, which was served on Dec. 17 along with a few other charges of multiple counts of murder, criminal possession of a weapon, possession of forged documents, interstate stalking resulting in death, and stalking through use of interstate facilities resulting in death. Mangione has pleaded ‘not guilty’ to the 11-count indictment he received. There is undoubtedly much more to come from this case and how it will be regarded as an act of activism through its impact on all levels of society.
