Other View: Mangione an accused assassin, not a hero

The cold-blooded killing of Brian Thompson allegedly at the hands of Luigi Mangione is being spun by way too many people as some sort of courageous blow against corporate greed by a handsome folk hero whose shirtless picture went viral online.

Let’s be clear here: Mangione isn’t a champion of the people. He isn’t Robin Hood. What he is accused of is being a cowardly murderer, plain and simple — shooting an unsuspecting person in the back.

He would also be an assassin and a terrorist, fitting the FBI’s definition of “the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.” The victim here, Thompson, is the person who should be getting sympathy.

You want to strike a blow against the greed of the health insurance industry? Run for office. File a lawsuit. Elect those willing to stand up to the industry. Don’t argue that picking up a gun and blowing someone away is the answer.

On Dec. 4, Thompson was walking into the Hilton Hotel on Sixth Avenue in New York City to speak before the annual investors meeting for the parent firm of UnitedHealthcare, where he was CEO. He had no security and no reason to fear for his safety.

Thompson was shot in the back and taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Mangione did not attack ruthless insurance companies, which “delay, deny, defend,” as was written on the ammo left at the murder scene. He did not strike a blow for consumers or patients. He did not effect change. What he did, if proved, was murder an unarmed, unguarded, middle-aged man, with a wife, now a widow, and two teenage sons, now fatherless.

UnitedHealthcare, like all insurers, is hated by more than a few. That’s understandable, as we’ve all had beefs with insurers, but it doesn’t call for premeditated murder.

Their practices can be objected to, they can be fought, legislation can be sought. But we cannot, must not, ever condone the law of the jungle, where someone with a grudge — justified or not — acts as judge, jury and executioner.

What would be next, after health insurance employees? There are plenty of occupations that someone or other objects to. Should these jobs now also come with the risk of murder? Or should personal disputes likewise be handled with a ghost gun and a 9mm slug in the back?

To root for Mangione as he fled the scene of the murder as the NYPD published the security-camera photos from the Upper West Side youth hostel and the yellow taxi sides with savage violence. And then to rue his capture at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s sides with lawlessness.

This murder should not commence a debate about insurance practices, but rather a debate about the lionization of a horrible, horrible act and the criminal mind that planned it so meticulously. Mangione is a very smart young man who has now destroyed two lives, his own and Brian Thompson’s, devastating their families.

That’s not Robin Hood fighting against evil King John for the people.

— New York Daily News Editorial Board (nydailynews.com)