Vigilantes, and Other Issues

Spectator

By Stephen Tuttle | March 1, 2025

So many issues have arisen as the new administration lays waste to chunks of the federal government that are pretty valuable in a pinch. We’ll have to try and sort all that out another time; other issues occupy today’s space.

Let’s start today in New York City, where one Luigi Mangione is on trial for the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Since Mr. Mangione is presumed innocent, the word “alleged” and its variations will feature prominently in what follows.

The story goes that Mangione had a bad back, some surgery that he found less than satisfactory, and what he believed was poor service from United Healthcare, his insurance carrier. Unable to get his back or insurance issues resolved, Magione allegedly went to New York where he allegedly knew Mr. Thompson would be attending United Healthcare meetings and allegedly stalked Thompson and then allegedly lay in wait for Thompson and then allegedly shot Thompson in the back and killed him.

Mangione has a significant disadvantage in that the alleged shooting was captured in its entirety on local security cameras. Also detrimental to his case, he allegedly offered a sort of confession when caught and presented a short but allegedly incriminating “manifesto” regarding his treatment and justification for his alleged actions.

What is especially troubling (other than the obvious, that a man with two children doing his job was murdered) is that Mangione now has a cult-like fan club, as if this is somehow an excellent solution to whatever issues he was having.

Is this our new reality, that we approve of the killing of a leader of a business we don’t like? Should we also kill the claims adjuster who denies the claims, that person’s supervisor, that person’s manager, and then that company’s CEO? That will improve our experience how? This could be bad news for lots of organizations.

There is a company called the Temkin Group that does research on customer experiences and then ranks trustworthiness based on those results. The least trusted folks? No surprise it’s politicians, followed by cable/communications companies Comcast and Charter, followed by nearly all social media companies. (The most trusted are credit unions and a Texas-based grocery chain called H-E-B.)

The least trusted companies had best increase their management’s security if those now idolizing Mangione go beyond their hero worship. The Thompson killing was an obscenity and those gleeful about it should spend a long time in front of a mirror.

Meanwhile, down in Mississippi, Chancery Judge Crystal Wise Martin issued a restraining order requiring the Clarksdale Press Register to remove their editorial complaining about the city government’s lack of transparency. City leaders complained, making the usual charges about unfairness and inaccuracy. There was nothing at all unusual about a local newspaper running a critical editorial local leaders didn’t like right up until Judge Martin decided to ignore the First Amendment altogether. (The city subsequently dropped their complaint but the judge has not lifted her order.)

In fact, she probably violated both the paper’s First Amendment speech rights and certainly their freedom of press rights. The Supreme Court has ruled on this sort of thing multiple times in the past, and surely the decision will be overturned if it hasn’t been already. But it’s chilling that almost out of nowhere we have a judge who believes she has the right to tell a newspaper what they can print in an editorial.

Much closer to home, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he misspoke or was misquoted or something. We’re talking about Traverse City’s Downtown Development Authority (DDA) outgoing chair Scott Hardy, who recently was complaining about the city using so-called DDA money by saying, “...we once again become the city’s piggy bank...” Umm, you mean the city used some taxpayer money that would have gone to their general fund anyway had it not been captured by the DDA? That “piggy bank?”

It’s all taxpayer money regardless of which city entity is using it. Maybe the DDA would have more voter support if they sounded like a part of, rather than apart from, the rest of the city.

Last but not least, while Emperor Musk and his band of marauders are feverishly cutting, laying off, and firing in the name of saving money and ending fraud and waste, the feds have quietly found an extra $200 million for an international ad campaign discouraging people from coming here illegally.

The ad will start with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem thanking Donald Trump for securing the border and blah, blah, blah. Ms. Noem will be the ad narrator, though it is not clear if they’ve bothered to translate the copy for the non-English speaking countries in which this will run. Two hundred million dollars to praise Trump internationally. Hey, Elon, I think we found some fraud and waste.