Well I have been watching the news about the murder of Brian Thompson , CEO of United Health Care with some interest probably much like you have.
I have a bit of a background with murder investigations, (30 years with a fed agency and being in charge of all violent crimes and death cases world wide for 4 of those years.) So I watch media news with a more than jaundiced eye. They want the sensationalism part first- the truth, ahhhh, not so much. The public of course expects full TV grade forensics to kick in immediately.
This murder was rather unique in a couple of ways to me since it seemed to be motivated by some vengeance towards the CEO of a major health care company and it was committed on high quality high def video cameras.
I have watched for a few days now and have been bowled over by the idiots reporting their “considered opinions” about the shooter, his tradecraft and weapon. I have also been pretty stunned by the fact young liberals are now holding this murderer up as some type of cultural hero or Robin Hood. Stunned.
Well I guess the liberals saw their Faux-hero Kamala Harris beaten badly just a couple of weeks ago and with their belief systems smashed to bits may have seized upon this criminal as their new cultural underdog hero. According to the libs nobody likes corporations and even though Obama Care “fixed” healthcare in America the big corps are obvious bad guys to those of a socialist or Marxist mind set.
One psychologist in Harrisburg PA, Amy Marshal told Channel 21 news people are infatuated with the shooter because they would not expect this behavior from him.
The purported shooter (name omitted intentionally) has led quite an entitled life with a successful family and possesses a high IQ and college degrees
“A lot of people in this country don’t feel heard when they’re taken advantage of by large industries, and that might be what some of the rallying behind him and some of the support is about. Individuals just feel like they are being heard via his actions.”
All the media outlets have been flooded with support-for assassination and leaving a widow and two small children behind. X, Tik Tok, and Reddit are awash in comments from people who are frustrated purportedly with U.S. Healthcare.
Most of what I saw when his picture hit the press was young people saying he was hot. Quite the measured and moral response I guess from the fresh from election downtrodden.
He’s not hot. He is a murderer. Groundswell of counter culture support or not he stalked a man he did not know, carried out elaborate escape and evasion plans and committed a cold blooded murder in public for his own twisted ideas.
Today’s news said Macy’s has sold out of the jacket the shooter was wearing. T-shirts have popped up in the last five days. Etsy has been selling “Luigi” from Mario Brothers hats at an alarming rate. Amazon had to take down Christmas ornaments with the purported shooter’s name on it. Unbelievable.
“Oh he was just frustrated” seems to be the undertone in the media- no, he was deranged. He carried his own manifesto with him. Not many of us still carry a manifesto in a notebook around in our daily lives recording our crazy thoughts. Handwritten nutty notes? Well that’s just plain crazy! You could talk your notes into an AI on your phone and have it police up the grammar!
In my experiences I have seen a number of High IQ people who have developed mental illnesses and enacted criminal acts or had planned out criminal acts before they were stopped. That’s the Zen beauty of it- If you are crazy enough, in the end, they are after you!
Looks like this young man has some of those attributes going on, but I rely only on media reports like you do.
Oh and how the media gets it wrong! The first 48 hours are a frenzy of outlets trying to top the other with sensationalism. Remember seeing the talking heads sitting there and talking about this being a “professional hitman”?
Like professional hitmen are a real thing and not just in movies and novels? It was swept up in people’s imaginations immediately!
OK he had some moves, but professional grade? The very first thing we saw was the shooting video. He wore a Covid mask to keep his identity a secret (that whole Covid thing just keeps on giving doesn’t it?). Then he had the deliberate shooting of the victim and hand cycling the suppressed pistol. Brass casings left at the scene had meaningful words written on them and were obviously meant to be found- not really a professional move there!
I saw absolute idiots from retired police and FBI talking about the gun. They were all wrong. One “expert” said it was a single shot pistol. Another said it was a bolt action pistol and was possibly a WWII Welrod OSS assassin’s pistol! Puh-lease. Any local gun range fan could tell you immediately it was a Glock pattern pistol with a big honking suppressor hanging off the end.
Why did he keep hand cycling the gun- media people had opinions about this too, but the obvious truth is the combination of pistol, suppressor and cartridge did not work well together and had to be cleared after each of the shots. Unfortunately, it worked enough to hit the victim and kill him. Not a pro grade weapons platform, but it did show me the shooter was familiar with the gun and ammo and knew it was going to short cycle or fail to eject. His immediate action drill after each shot shows he had practiced with the outfit ahead of time and did not go brain dead after the first shot jammed.
Speaking of the whole professional thing- yesterday we are told person of suspicion nabbed in Altoona, PA McDonalds happened to have a suppressed Glock type Ghost Gun and manifesto with him. Even in cheesy murder mysteries the bad assassin never hangs on to the gun! Amateur move there crazy guy.
We are told the subject had four fake ID’s with him and paid cash at the Hostel in NYC and with the Greyhound bus. This seems well thought out, but you still have to show ID to ride the bus or check in to a hotel. Where do you get fake ID’s these days? Turns out AI is the new way to go! AI can jet up a darn good looking fake ID and you just have to laminate it and not get your picture all crooked! Texas, SC, AZ, Wash DC, NM are the most faked of fake ID’s these days. Professional grade? Nah. High school drinking age grade.
Pro shooter? Not even close. High IQ demented individual who made a lot of plans…well yes, but like all criminals before him did not anticipate getting caught and left him with blind spots. This is America. You can’t assassinate someone like this without all the assets of the U.S. Law Enforcement and forensics being brought to bear, all the media attention, and oh yeah those unsung and barely noticed heroes- the minimum wage workers.
Yes as of two days ago NYPD admitted they did not have the shooter’s name. They had national media coverage and somehow identified his fake IDs used in two locations and recovered his backpack in Central Park, handwriting on the expended brass and even his fingerprints on a Starbucks cup. But no name.
Our heroes tripped him up. The woman who worked at the Hostel where the shooter checked in got him to take his mask off at check in and that now famous photo was taken. A few days later, our other hero, minimum wage crime buster behind the counter of a McDonalds in Altoona, PA recognized him from the media pictures plastered world wide and called the police.
They like the woman who tailed Trump’s second potential assassin are real heroes. Ordinary people who can clearly see right and wrong and are willing to do something about it. Heroes, not this counter culture loony murderer.