The Specter of Chaos in New York
Could a Mayor Mamdani keep the city safe during Luigi Mangione’s trial?
By Michael Toth
Luigi Mangione supporters and healthcare insurance protesters gather outside a federal court in New York, April 25. Photo: Andrea Renault/Zuma PressTwo successive events in New York are about to create a perfect storm that will wreak havoc on the city’s reputation as the epicenter of American business.
Already business leaders are terrified of a fiscal blowout if the city elects self-described “democratic socialist” Zohran Mamdani mayor in November.
They should be equally concerned about the trial of Luigi Mangione, who is charged with gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan last December, blocks away from the site of Monday’s horrific shooting in a Park Avenue office building.
The Mangione case is expected to take place in a New York courtroom in 2026.
Like the O.J. Simpson murder trial, Mr. Mangione’s case is already being framed as a morality tale, not a straightforward question of innocence or guilt based on evidence.
His lawyers have lashed out at federal prosecutors for “defending the broken, immoral, and murderous healthcare industry that continues to terrorize the American people.”
Supporters waving signs with slogans such as “Health Care Is a Human Right,” “Murder for Profit Is Terror” and “Luigi Before Fascists” have flocked to his pretrial hearings.
The defendant’s good looks, Ivy League education and family wealth have captivated supporters and elicited online sales of “Mama, I’m in love with a criminal” merchandise, Mr. Mangione’s nomination to a “hot criminal” list, and “Free Luigi” online communities with thousands of members.
A legal-defense fund has raised more than $1 million, and more than 40% of U.S. voters under 30 have told pollsters that Thompson’s killing was “acceptable.”
New Yorkers should brace for an acquittal.
Public safety is a primary responsibility of any mayor, and Mr. Mamdani’s campaign raises doubts about whether he can keep the city safe during what could be the trial of the century.
His primary campaign’s political director, Julian Gerson, has gone as far as praising Mr. Mangione for “daring to target a leader of one of the most vile, self-enriching industries darkening our society today” and concluding, that “the question is not whether he was right or wrong.
It’s how many others he has shaken loose.”
Shaken loose for what?
Mr. Gerson doesn’t elucidate.
Mr. Mangione’s writings advance no vision or outline for improving healthcare.
He notes in a letter explaining his conduct that the problems of the healthcare system are “more complex” and that he is not “the most qualified person” to pick them apart.
What he offers instead is a chilling endorsement of violence.
“What do you do,” he asks.
“You wack the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention.”
Six weeks after Mr. Mangione wrote this journal entry, Mr. Thompson was shot dead as he walked into an annual investor conference.
New York needs a mayor who will stand up to intimidation of executives, institutional investors and business travelers, who generated nearly $700 million in tourism tax revenue for the city last year.
Mr. Mangione’s vitriolic rhetoric against insurance companies is part of a disturbing trend toward normalizing ideologically minded violence, including assassination.
After Thompson’s killing, posters threatening the CEO of EmblemHealth popped up, and UnitedHealthcare employees received death threats.
Soon online provocateurs began calling for a new Mangione “for Tesla showrooms.”
The gunman responsible for this week’s shooting explained in a suicide note that he was targeting the National Football League’s Park Avenue headquarters because the league concealed brain injuries to “maximize profits.”
The public-safety concern with Mr. Mamdani and the Mangione trial stems from the candidate’s beliefs that billionaires shouldn’t exist, private assets should be seized, the phrase “globalize the intifada” is defensible, and his alignment with the city’s restive young voters.
If a Mayor Mamdani isn’t willing to denounce the extremist views held by some of the economic rebels who propelled him to a primary victory last month, or resists collaboration with law enforcement, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to bring to justice anyone who commits violence, New York’s business community will continue to be the target of vitriol and worse.
The city’s leadership has so far responded to the Mangione case with resolve.
Credit Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch for denouncing the online celebration of a “cold-blooded murder” and the district attorney’s office for charging Mr. Thompson’s murder as an act of terrorism.
But it’s a long time until a New York jury decides Mr. Mangione’s fate, and the next mayor had better be ready.
Mr. Toth is a research fellow with the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin.
0 comments:
Publicar un comentario