Every time I read a murder mystery or an action/adventure book in which some clever murderer or terrorist kills a bunch of people before being caught by the books redoubtable hero, I think about how few public, graphic murders and attacks of that type happen outside the books and movies. Yet last week we had a very public execution by a handsome, smiling killer who thumbed his nose at the police by filling his backpack with Monopoly money.
I felt like they should have played the “Law and Order” theme music before every televised update on the search for the assassin who killed Brian Thomson, the UnitedHealthcare CEO.
In the end, the alleged killer was not as crafty or smart as everyone suspected. He was caught five days later, still carrying the gun and using the same the fake ID, because a customer at a McDonald’s thought he looked like the killer. I guess they don’t teach you street smarts at those Ivy League schools.
And why is it mass shooters and crazy killers always have manifestos? Is there a chapter on manifestos in the “How to be an Extremist Killer” handbook?
Had he ditched the gun and ID, used the drive through, kept the manifesto in secure online storage instead of on his laptop, shaved his head or at least his eyebrows, rented an Airbnb for a week and laid low while growing a beard, the alleged assassin would still be in the wind in Pennsylvania while the police searched for him in Atlanta. He may have planned the killing, but he didn’t plan how to survive afterwards as a wanted man.
NYPD Goes into Overdrive
Am I the only one surprised at the amount of manpower, resources, and effort the NYPD used to track the movements of the assassin who killed the CEO or United Healthcare last week? As of the first of December, 347 people have been murdered in New York City in 2024. Did the police give the same level of effort to finding their killers? Or is the level of response only because the victim was a wealthy, suit-wearing, middle-aged white guy with an important job?
I think the police and politicians were afraid if they didn’t catch the killer, there would be more public killings. My guess is targeted killings by crime families, syndicates, or drug cartels are done more quietly in less public venues, so they don’t attract as much attention. Besides, why should the police care as much when the bad guys kill each other? But to have the CEO of a publicly traded company gunned down on the street is worse than having a mafia don shot in a restaurant. It makes other CEOs think twice about doing business in New York.
Seeing the police effort is a good reminder of how easily you can be tracked in today’s camera-rich environment. Add in license plate readers and cell phone tracking technology, and it’s clear we have no privacy.
A Lack of Protection
I saw lots of questions about the killer and what gun he used, but none about why Brian Thompson, the CEO of a company with billions in earnings, didn’t have security. Why was he out alone? He was, in effect, unprepared for his SHTF moment.
Back in the 1990s, I worked for a short stint in Corporate America. The corporation’s head of security was a former secret service agent. Our CEO had a driver and armed security that brought him to work every day. If his wife traveled with him, she had her own security, too. Their home was gated and fortified. He probably had a safe room inside. They flew on one of the company’s private aircraft.
Even though that company wasn’t as hated as UnitedHealthcare, I doubt our CEO would have walked unaccompanied across a street in New York or any other major city. He would have been driven into the hotel’s basement and gone into an elevator that was cleared and held for him. He would not have needed to walk in the front door and through the lobby unless they wanted a photo op or there was another public relations reason for doing so.
Also in New York
The same day the suspect was arrested, Daniel Penny, who choked out an unstable man who was threatening to kill people on the subway, was found not guilty by a jury. Immediately following his release, Black Lives Matter threatened him with death and the city with protests and riots. Why they are not upset at the city for not providing sufficient services to keep the mentally ill Jordan Neely from being a danger to himself and others is another unanswered question.
In my opinion, this is a case where a prosecutor prosecuted a case that in another jurisdiction might not have been prosecuted. This is the same city where a store owner who was assaulted and robbed was arrested for defending himself with a knife. It’s the same city where drug-addicted and mentally ill homeless people line the streets, where criminals are coddled and released without bail, where illegal immigrants are given debit cards and housing, where a judge has declared the Second Amendment “doesn’t exist here,” and where people who defend themselves are seen as the bad guys. A jury made it clear what the average New Yorker thinks about that.
I lived and worked in NYC 35 years ago, but I don’t recognize it today. I won’t go back, even to visit.
Unfortunately, too many other cities are like New York. Too many other prosecutors are like Alvin Bragg, willing to prosecute people for political reasons. Too many people end up like Penny, on an ignoble list that also includes Kyle Rittenhouse and George Zimmerman.
Leave the Cities
When I lived in New York, my car was broken into or stolen three times and my apartment was burglarized once. That’s an average of one serious crime every other year. Why put up with that for another 30 years? I moved to a smaller city, and then to the exburbs of an even smaller city, and finally to my current location well outside a tiny town.
Both the assassin and the Penny case are examples of why people who wish to be safe should live outside large cities, preferably in small towns or rural areas in red states where there is little or no homelessness, where people who get arrested are given bail and often stay in jail. Happily, this is the same environment where you will want to be if the SHTF.
