Major media outlets are giving wall-to-wall coverage to UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s murder while taking millions in health care industry advertising. They’re silent about the real story: how profit-driven health care kills 68,000 Americans every year.
You’re right in that the particular circumstances of this one is a fluke, but wrong in implicitly assuming that the circumstances have to be the same or similar, that the copycats will care about getting caught and therefore be locked behind a paywall.
The entire world just taught all the school shooter types that shooting a business exec will turn you into a folk hero. It will get you fame and admiration. It will get people trying to send you money for your legal defense. It will get you people spreading the word about jury nullification to use the system against itself. That’s everything they could ever want, and they only need one of the millions of guns floating around our country.
This month taught would be school shooters to instead go for board members, ceos, and billionaires. And it’s a far better lesson.
There are caveats to this. Stalking a business exec and being successful is harder. However security can’t mitigate ambushes very well. They can’t check every window in a city for rifles hanging out. They can’t shut down roads. And the bullet proof glass of their ride can’t help them once they step out to get into the hotel they have their 7am meeting at. There are limits, and a particularly motivated to get their name out there individual can always find an opening.
While I’m not in a situation like that myself, I can empathize because my fiancé has a laundry list of illnesses that leave her chronically ill as well. It’s awful, and it makes me hate the bastards running the show.
We should absolutely still vote, especially in the primaries. But it’s a mistake to think that there is no potential for copycats.