EDITORIAL - Not a heroic act

Something strange is happening in a murder case in the US.

Last December 4, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot dead in a New York Street by 26-year-old Ivy League graduate Luigi Mangione.

Mangione’s motive was later determined as his extreme stand regarding expensive healthcare in the US, allegedly driven by his chronic back pain, for which he has struggled to pay.

In his anti-medical insurance manifesto, Mangione talks about how insurance companies only focus on profit-making and nothing else.

“These parasites had it coming,” he says in his manifesto.

But the sentiment that is coming out online isn’t condemnation for the actions of Mangione; rather it is an appreciation of his actions against what is perceived to be widespread disgruntlement against healthcare in the US.

"Luigi, you are an Icon. You did what we all felt about these insurance executives," an X user wrote.

We are aware that the world isn’t black and white, and that life isn’t fair, and that huge corporations, firms, conglomerates, and even governments are abusing or taking advantage of common folk who cannot fight back. But murder is murder, no matter what the killer cites as his “justifiable” cause. Being angry doesn’t give someone license to take a life. Not even to call attention to an all-important issue like health insurance.

Sympathy for Mangione and praise for his actions are horribly misplaced. Both are a sad sign of how warped the values of some of us have already become. It is also a sad sign of how radicalized some people have become and how they are now more willing to act on their beliefs, whether reasonably or otherwise.

What Mangione did in killing Thompson can never be justified, defended, or portrayed as a heroic act. Even if some sectors say what he did was something many of them wanted to do, even if it calls attention to important issues.