DA says 40 UnitedHealthcare execs got bodyguards, and one dyed her hair after Luigi Mangione killed CEO Brian Thompson
Paywall removed: https://archive.is/bItmD
https://www.businessinsider.com/da-says-luigi-mangione-terrorist-because-unitedhealthcare-execs-felt-terrorized-2025-6Open linkView original on lemmy.world705
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Oof he isn’t convicted but the media isn’t saying “allegedly” in headlines for him. Shows how they’re trying to sway public opinion.
Defense has brought it up multiple times already, it's biasing the jury pool
Was it supposed to be a direct quote from the DA? Even if so, it shouldn’t be in the headline.
Public opinion is already swayed. Luigi Mangione has become a symbol to a lot of people and as such the super-rich want to punish him.
I bet they are more scared of the symbol than they are of the thought that Mangione is innocent and the real shooter might still be free and plotting another hit.
The "real shooter" would only be one person, but a symbol has the power to create 10 or 100 more or to spark a violent rebellion and that they can't let happen.
Innocent or not, it's unfortunately Luigi Mangione they need punished in the most horrific and exemplar way possible.
I guess he's not getting a fair trial, they'll have to jury nullify the shit out of it.
That's actually very surprising - it starts with "DA says" which is presumably their defamation defense, but usually the lawyers wouldn't let that pass.
Maybe there are no editors left working at BI. This was three days ago
https://pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/digital-journalism/business-insider-cuts/
Well, I'm sure their new AI editors will protect them against defamation lawsuits going forward...
He can sue them for defamation if he wants. Legally he is innocent right now.
When the public makes you a meme for assassination and substitutes your first name for the word "assassinate", I'm going to give them a pass on dropping the "allegedly".
If the public were swayable, they wouldn't be talking about "luigiing" people.
Your pass is worthless
Has he already been convicted?
Terrible headline, but I can only guess that "Business insider" would rather defend a corrupt CEO than the victim of insurance hell.
There's no question the general public already believes he killed the guy, if people didn't, we wouldn't have all the Luigi memes and people using "Luigi" as a substitute for assassination.
that is indeed the goal, and theyve achieved it. doesn't change the fact that it immedietly should lead to a mistrial. emphasis on should, because we all know theyre not gonna let their black sheep get away
I think they'll end up getting a conviction on murder, they can prove the planning and pre-meditation.
The terrorism charge is BS, the general public weren't terrorized, if anything, they cheered it. That's going to be way harder to prove.
Yeah, the executives were scared, reaction from the public was "Well, yeah, they should be!"
"DA says"
A little misleading without the quotation marks
I would contribute to a GoFundMe if he wanted to sue for libel.
Youre skipping the first two words where it says “DA says”. Obviously its the opinion of the DA prosecuting him for murder that he is in fact the killer.
Yet another case of “bad headline” is just people not reading the headline
Again, the headline makes it sound as if Luigi has already been found to be the killer, which he has not.
The article could most certainly directly quote the DA saying that "Luigi is a murder", but the headline really needs to be accurate by saying:
"DA says 40 UnitedHealthcare execs got bodyguards, and one dyed her hair after the accused, Luigi Mangione, allegedly killed CEO Brian Thompson"
Journalistic integrity matters.
Sounds like the DA is going to get sued along with many others if/when the accused is found not guilty.
The media is doing this intentionally
"Luigi Mangione killed CEO Brian Thompson"
Objection, baseless speculation.
This post either needs to be removed or retitled. Luigi is not convicted and this perpetuates a huge problem in the US of assigning guilt to people through public opinion.
There is nothing here stating Mangione has been convicted of anything.
"after Luigi Mangione killed CEO Brian Thompson" is the problem - he allegedly killed that guy
"DA says..." This is not the author making that assessment, it's the DA. Naturally the DA is going to say he killed the guy, same as I do, or anyone making Luigi memes does.
There's no obligation for a reporter to insert "allegedly" where it was not stated.
And the DA is wrong for saying that, alongside the reporter for not correcting them.
You sound like the type of person Brandolini's Law is based on.
If you ever created, shared, or upvoted a Luigi meme, then you agree with the sentiment.
Do you have some evidence to suggest that they've created shared or upvoted such a meme?
Nope, I'm saying it's been prevalent on Lemmy and that everyone who created, shared or upvoted that content has absolutely no basis for going "Presumed innocent!"
If you think Luigi's a hero, you have no basis for saying he didn't shoot and kill thr guy.
It's apparently too hard to have proper journalism I guess.
"DA alleges...". There fixed it
It's saying he murdered the CEO, when he has not been proven/convicted of doing so. How are you a moderator making decisions like that?
If nobody believes he killed the CEO then everyone needs to immediately retract all the Luigi memes.
It's clear he shot the guy, the only question is how justified it is.
Innocent until some guy on Lemmy says otherwise?
Oh wait, no, it still has to be proven.
Unless you were present at the time, you've seen some videos. Perhaps it's not likely, but videos can be faked, more easily now than ever before.
Proof first.
Lemmy isn't a court of law, neither is the Internet. It's pretty much universally accepted he killed the guy, if it wasn't, we wouldn't have the hero worship.
What the court is going to decide is if he's justified or not.
Proceeds to cite general Internet opinion as proof of guilt.
Again, this isn't about "guilt". Guilt implies some level of wrongdoing, and the court is still out on that.
The question they will determine is "was he justified", not "did he do it."
The court is also going to need to decide if the cops planted the evidence he conveniently carried with him several days later.
Any conspiracy theory is going to do some heavy lifting explaining how the highly custom pistol in the video is not the same highly custom pistol found on Luigi.
I agree that "DA says..." is equal to "alleged," but you lost the thread with "it's clear he shot the guy."
There are two groups of people:
People who think Luigi's a criminal who needs to be imprisoned or executed.
People who think Lugi's a hero who was fully justified in his actions.
Both groups agree he killed the guy. There is no argument outside tin-foil-hattery that he didn't.
The only question remaining is if it's justified or not.
Mangione has not admitted to the act nor has he been convicted. He has a right to the presumption of innocence. The state must prove his guilt. Trial by public opinion in the media is not a replacement for a jury of his peers. That is an elementary democratic principle, not a conspiracy theory.
Of course he's not going to admit anything, he's not a dummy. But it should be obvious to anyone with 1/2 a brain he's the shooter, the only question is "was it justified?"
In that regard, he seems to be winning the battle for public opinion and has been even before he was ID'd.
I keep half expecting this moment at trial:
https://youtu.be/mCjBspxuUmU
It's really not...
You cant say for sure it's him in the video, and while cops say he had a bunch of evidence on him, they also say they didn't find that evidence till after the chain of custody was violated. Nothing in his backpack is admissible.
Like, this is America bro, corrupt cops isn't anything new. They lie all the time, you can't fault the majority of Americans for not caring what they say as a result.
It's not up to you or me to say what's admissable or not. The gun in the video is the gun in the backpack. If you want to argue the cops planted it, then you have to explain how they got it.
Occams Razor - Luigi failed to ditch the gun.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/12/us/unitedhealthcare-ceo-shooting-suspect-thursday-hnk
"Marked shell casings from the assassination scene match the gun found on the suspect. His fingerprints match some key items investigators found nearby. And he was arrested this week – after going silent from his mom and friends for months – with a fake ID and a handwritten “claim of responsibility” referencing the crime site."
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/28/us/luigi-mangione-evidence-illegal-search
It might be the gun.
It might even have been in the backpack and Luigi just had it on him.
But it doesn't matter, the cops pulled a Mark Furhman. They're not used to having to follow the law, so they fuck up high profile shit.
Nothing in the backpack will be admissable. And all the evidence was from the backpack.
Ideally. Fruit of the poison tree and all that.
Shell casings from the crime scene match the gun found in the backpack. It's the same gun. See the cited article above.
It's clear he shot the guy because people make memes??
No, people make memes because it's clear he shot the guy.
I should add too... nothing in the headline is saying Luigi "murdered" anyone. The word is "killed" and that's not the crime.
The act of homicide on it's own isn't a crime. The circumstances will determine if it's murder, manslaughter, etc. etc.
You don't need a conviction to say someone killed someone else, that part is self evident.
Was it justified? Was it murder? That's what the courts will determine.
He was dead the moment he got caught. Nevermind guilty. I don't care how many technicalities or strategies his lawyer might have. There's no way in hell the powers that be will let him have anything other than being made a harsh example for all of us plebs.
This isn't about him commiting the crime of murder. This about scaring us into submission so we don't get any ideas. Even if he's actually innocent because of they don't catch the killer they can't use it as an example, so they need someone.
He's not walking. Get ready for the inevitable. Even if the word of the law is on his side they'll pull something last moment. It's really naive to think they'd ever allow themselves being made a joke by us.
He didn't kill anyone though. He's innocent.
I know it's uncooth to dehumanize anyone, but CEOs like Brian murdered (and the rest continuing to murder all day every day) more people than any serial killer in history because they oversaw automating the process of selling the confidence scheme and then murdering the marks when they threatened the profits of the confidence scheme when they got sick.
People like Jack the Ripper and Ted kaczynski were pathetic, inept hobbyists at mass murder next to an American "healthcare" ceo, and it isn't close.
And we don't hold them in even lower regard solely because they do it to get ever richer, which is the only practiced American religion.
As humans go, Brian was somewhere between a serial killer and an even larger scale mass murderer like Adolf Hitler in terms of his practiced inhumanity, maybe he should be dehumanized a little.
Serial killers need patterns, process, and specific situations tailored to their individual neuroses. They are driven or compelled to kill to create or recreate certain events. That’s one thing that separates them from mass murderers or spree killers.
This guy was just in it for money. Mass murderer, yes, but there have been mafia hitmen with more morals than this fuck.
The scale of this, and the callousness of it, are far closer to Hitler and other genocidal maniacs because none of them wanted to get their hands dirty; they’d never kill anyone, personally. At least serial killers are into DIY and often are quite proud of their fucked up accomplishments.
It really says something about this guy’s absolute depravity when a comparison to a serial killer makes someone say “you know, that’s offensive to serial killers.”
I’m not disagreeing with what you said, I’m just frustrated because this guy was worse than serial killers and that is really something else.
Maybe more like an Eichmann. He ran the Nazi trains on time and didn't actually kill anyone. He facilitated the process and was happy to a part of the murderous system
He took out the trash. I agree.
If that's terrorism then what do we call the death and pain caused by pursuit of profits?
If they want to have a discussion about labels, it's not gonna go well in front of a jury.
At every step defense should be asking the jury:
The term I've heard for this is social murder:
That's a really long way to say Capitalism.
Free enterprise, just like the Atlantic slave trade and the genocide of the Indians.
Social murder. It's a term originally used by Friedrich Engels nearly 200 years ago, yet still relevant today. Essentially it's indirect deaths caused by capitalism. Gives some plausible deniability to the likes of United Healthcare because it's much easier to obfuscate the reason behind somebody's death when the cause was neglect or denial of life saving care.
So how many of the execs said, “This job isn’t worth risking my life for” and quit? How many of them said, “Maybe we should examine how we do business and change.”? How many of them said, “My God. We’re killing people. I’m out.”?
Nah if literally murdering people for profit didn't stop them then really nothing will. These people are sociopaths that only see the career ladder.
Exec: Hey Claude, are we killing people?
ClaudeAI: Yes.
Exec: Are you sure? I think were doing great things for them, i don't see it as killing
ClaudeAI: Of course you aren't, you're doing great things!
Sounds like Luigi's perceived actions created jobs and fostered better health for the community at large.
Someone put this man in government
Luigi Mangione allegedly killed CEO????? Are we just dropping that now????
Well, the quote is from a district attorney, so they are pushing their narrative.
Not everyone knows this, but everyone should suspect it.
Many people are saying it.
I believe that Luigi himself does not refute the act currently.I might be wrong, but if Luigi isn’t refuting what he allegedly did then 🤷I misremembered, he did plead not-guilty. I’d thought I read a legal theory of justified self defense as the strategy.
Where did you get that info? Or do you just hold water for healthcare CEO prosecutions for fun?
I was misremembering something I’d read before, but obviously yes it’s the other thing you’re saying.
40x~$75$/hr = $3000/hr they're willing to spend instead of giving you insurance you paid for
Apparently they did start approving more right after it. And now they are getting sued by blackrock, a majority shareholder, for hurting profits. As much as I dislike these CEOs, the system breeds them to be this way. And there will always be more to take thier place. But holding them accountable will also mean that doing the right thing becomes good for the shareholders.
Alls I'm saying is you'd probably save more money paying out claims over hiring full time security for 40 different executives who cant help but deny claims
Its that thing, you know? You caused a problem and instead of fixing that problem you fix the next problem.
The issue is for profit healthcare. Instead of making the choice which would remove the executives from the crosshair, they decide adding bodies between us and them is the best option. Id assume those people care about their lives not ending, and the cheapest way to do that is to provide coverage to the people paying for it. $3000/hr is not just a throwaway expense, and that was a rough estimate erring on the extremely low end of private security.
I was simply spelling out how much they're willing to pay just for the privilege of denying healthcare to Americans. That's your money (hypothetically.) They would rather spend that money on defense forces than do their fucking jobs. I understand they are being sued by blackrock, but blackrock isn't the one creating a need for private security. Interesting choice is all I can say.
When you get to silly levels of wealth, it's less about the money and more about power. You're right that £3000/hr is an absurd amount to spend, and that suggests that they value the power they have within this inhumane system more than the monetary cost of private security.
Exactly, its more a flex than even an actual security measure. They're making it clear: your life is worth less than this. "We will spend more than you make in a year to keep our executives safe from people, like you, who are sacrificed to keep us rich"
I think you underestimate how much the "save" from denying claims the way they do. Thier net income is about $2.25 million per hour. I don't know where the $3000/hour came from, but that is a drop in the ocean to them
I just pulled a number out of my ass lol reality is that they're spending significantly more for this security, I just wanted to give an example of what it costs to have one security guard getting paid $75/hr (guesstimate hourly rate for mid level security) for each of these 40 executives.
Scale that as far as you want $3000/hr is just the bare minimum for something like this
I dont disagree with your point though. They could pay to send a monkey into the sun. Its not a matter of what they can afford; it's about sending a message.
And not a single one of them paused and went "wait, maybe the choices we're making are the problem here?" Instead, it was "keep being evil, but now with bodyguards!"
They know exactly what they are doing and the choice to gun-up says everything about them. There is no other word but "evil".
Right? I was hoping more for a "16 people have quite their roles and chilled the fuck out, taking a new job where they don't have to be evil daily to maintain their positions."
But I guess they might have trouble sleeping at night, so that's alright.....
That sounds like a "Them" problem and has no bearing on the case Mr. DA
I mean, what are they, then?
Parasites who deserve to be tossed in a vat of acid?
Every individual word is true, that is the dystopian reality we live in, but even when true they're depending on it sounding too conspiratorial and therefore not credible. The nerve of these people.
weeird that they felt comfortable nkt having them in the first place, society is healing
Have you ever tried not being an asshole?
Not once.
If your job requires armed professionals and costumes,you shouldn't be in business
Good. They should live in constant fear.
Industrialized social murder should be a dangerous profession.
Did they consider not being evil shitbags?
But the profits!!! Won't anyone think about the profits!
I mean the easiest solution is not to work for a hostile company and a public enemy/threat.
Those companies, and that one notoriously, kill 1000's so they are a hostile enemy, actively attacking the populace.
Now I know legalese will fancy it up, but shit smells. Can't hide it.
There was actually a huge increase in approved claims immediately after.
Not sure how long it happened, but I remember hearing about it
Blackrock is now suing because of that. Shareholder value is not maximized. We need more people dying.
I they got sued by shareholders for doing so. I guess CEOs aren't the only ones that need to be on the list...
Fiduciary duty laws have caused more harm planetwide than any other set of laws.
Why should 40 assholes hiding from someone who is already in custody gave any bearing on his case?
My gf dyed her hair last week, must be a criminal in chains somewhere!
It's so the news media can continue to keep up this "story" of how billionaire CEOs are the real victims.....
early in the news of luigi, most of the execs were named/doxxed who control what in UHG. includes witty, hemesly and some of the bod.
So you're saying that whoever Luigi is taking the wrap for is a job creator?
Keep them afraid.
They'll do anything to save themselves except for stop being evil.
Sometimes I wonder if those second-tier execs are even more culpable than the CEOs. Like, we expect CEOs to be psychopaths. But those second-tier guys that got a seat further down the table, off the back of a good degree and a few decades of hard work? They know what they're doing is wrong but choose to go along with it anyway because they're just following orders.
those golden parachutes awaiting them is just too addicting.
The sad thing is that I am sure they will pass the cost onto the customers.
Good. Something to consider when you're making life and death decisions for other people in the future.
Job creator.
I wonder if they allowed those bodyguards access to the executive health plan for cheap, or if they hired them as contract employees so as to stiff them on any employee benefits.
usually its private company that are hired at security details like these. they do pay good for personal security guards though
They systematically made millions of people fear for their lives. I'm glad shared that for a moment.
So, the options are "not milking the sick for profit" or "getting bodyguards"
Scared CEOs—finally, a guilt-free fetish.
All these news reports saying that Luigi killed a guy or used a 3D printed gun. As far as I know, Luigi did none of those things and that that is for the courts to decide. Further, I’ve seen plenty of posts online of people saying that he was at the bar with them when the whole thing happened.
I live in Belfast and I'm positive I seen him buying drinks in the red devil pub at that exact time. Right gerry?
He was with me shooting skeet at that time.
Allegedly killed
Why the hell do they need 40 execs? Sounds like the herd needs thinning.
Did any of them repent of their sins against humanity?
Why? Have they done something to make them feel like they were a target?
I couldn’t figure out what was noteworthy about a bodyguard dying their hair…
allegedly killed CEO Brian Thompson. Let's not forget that rather important bit.
I like how they say this as if it was a bad thing. As if the general public would have sympathy.
Imagine how bad a bodyguard you are to take that job.
I also needed a bodyguard after i murdered a bunch of people's loved ones and got richly rewarded for it. Please feel bad for me.
Pfft! Hahaha! Good! Better be scared with how many people THEY murder all the time!
I hope they live in fear. What a racket.
Why is no one asking what they have to hide for if they're innocent and nothing to hide.
Much like the cosplaying ICE contractors masked while carrying out their illegal & immoral orders against women , children, the disabled, the elderly & others simply because the GOP overlords don’t like their country of origin
It’s easier and cheaper to do your job to actually help people. Then there’s no worry. Or vote for Medicare for all.
So it worked? Cool.
They will do anything but stop destroying lives and killing people to maximize their profits.
Fear must be new to them. Good.
Donald Glover Good.gif
Not sure they need all the cloak and dagger. It's looking more and more like whoever took out one of their piece of shit asses out was one of a kind.
I am totally down for this jobs program.
Oh her hair! Dyed her hair! Got it.
From The Blues Brothers movie
One more reason this system shouldn't be private.
“You better run, you better run to the City of Refuge…you stand before your maker in a state of shame…” —Nick Cave
Actor Brian Thompson must be worried a little too?
They had a "Guy Incognito" moment. Didn't change nothing, they are still horrible people.