The UnitedHealthcare Gunman Understands the Surveillance State(theatlantic.com)
theatlantic.com
The UnitedHealthcare Gunman Understands the Surveillance State
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/12/unitedhealthcare-ceo-assassination-investigation/680903/
25 comments
Or perhaps the dude liked westerns. Wearing a mask to commit a crime and having a getaway vehicle is not exactly a new idea.
Just because he wasn't caught right away doesn't mean he won't get caught. https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/09/us/unitedhealthcare-ceo-brian...
It looks like he may have just been caught.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/12/09/nyregion/uhc-ceo-mur...
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/12/09/nyregion/uhc-ceo-mur...
Lisan al-Gaib!
I think we're also just experiencing the difference between the actual capabilities of police and the propaganda of post-9/11 police procedurals.
It's easy to forget that in previous generations american police were widely viewed and portrayed as incompetent and corrupt. Neither is completely true of course. Modern police are extremely well equipped and have an almost unfathomable surveillance apparatus at their disposal. But they are also incompetent and corrupt so it's kind of a wash.
It's easy to forget that in previous generations american police were widely viewed and portrayed as incompetent and corrupt. Neither is completely true of course. Modern police are extremely well equipped and have an almost unfathomable surveillance apparatus at their disposal. But they are also incompetent and corrupt so it's kind of a wash.
While we all live under constant surveillance and are treated as a suspect for crimes past and future by our government, in the end it's looking like it wasn't the spy drones, or facial recognition AI, or the internet data collection that caught this guy, and instead it was just some random dude at a McDonald's who recognized him and called the police. Same basic tactic that's worked for ages. No fancy spy stuff needed.
> it's looking like it wasn't the spy drones, or facial recognition AI, or the internet data collection that caught this guy, and instead it was just some random dude at a McDonald's who recognized him and called the police.
This is the official story.[1] Maybe he just had the cellphone with him all the time.
[1] unless he was dressed in the same way when he entered McDonalds.
This is the official story.[1] Maybe he just had the cellphone with him all the time.
[1] unless he was dressed in the same way when he entered McDonalds.
Well, (allegedly) he got caught due to not boycotting McDonalds, which as a seeming enemy of corporate greed is not the smartest of moves.
I hope he gets away. If only because the resources wasted on this murder investigation are a waste of taxpayer money. After all the other 100 NYC murders every year don’t get any resources. Why should this ordinary citizen?
I am rather amazed by the how the general public is supporting the gunman.
I don’t live in the US and in a perfect world I wish such event restart the conversation of how to build a less treacherous health care system.
I don’t live in the US and in a perfect world I wish such event restart the conversation of how to build a less treacherous health care system.
My feeling is this isn’t just about healthcare. It’s bigger than that. Sure, people have zero sympathy for United Healthcare given high denial rates, likely illegal AI based denials, the breach of subsidiary Change Healthcare where they leaked everyone’s private medical details, the insider trading from the murdered CEO, etc.
But some of these issues aren’t health specific. Like the CEO’s insider trading - wealthy people often get away with financial crimes. And the context of the insider trading is that they were under antitrust investigation from the DOJ but didn’t reveal it to shareholders for months. And before they let the public know these executives sold their shares at a higher price. But the antitrust issue is one of big companies being safe from competition solely due to their size. And now we see massive amounts of resources spent on investigating this single murder when thousands across the country every year get no investigation.
All this highlights a massive unified appetite (across the political spectrum) to create a fair system for everyone, to bring megacorps under control, to treat different citizens equally. And that’s bigger than healthcare.
But some of these issues aren’t health specific. Like the CEO’s insider trading - wealthy people often get away with financial crimes. And the context of the insider trading is that they were under antitrust investigation from the DOJ but didn’t reveal it to shareholders for months. And before they let the public know these executives sold their shares at a higher price. But the antitrust issue is one of big companies being safe from competition solely due to their size. And now we see massive amounts of resources spent on investigating this single murder when thousands across the country every year get no investigation.
All this highlights a massive unified appetite (across the political spectrum) to create a fair system for everyone, to bring megacorps under control, to treat different citizens equally. And that’s bigger than healthcare.
If you are a CEO who is making money on torturing and killing its customers by denying them what they prepaid for, it is going to make you a lot of enemies. Absolute majority won't harm you, but will cheer up that one person who will.
The US presidential election was fundamentally about unadulterated anger with the current system.
The US is getting closer to the guillotine.
The US is getting closer to the guillotine.
> The US is getting closer to the guillotine.
Sorry to say that but, the US has the _best_ propaganda system ever created.
Sorry to say that but, the US has the _best_ propaganda system ever created.
> I am rather amazed by the how the general public is supporting the gunman.
I'm more surprised by the number of people phoning in tips and helping the police by trying to play internet sleuth.
I also hope that this event results in changes, but I think it would take a lot more than one killing. So far, instead of stopping the killing of people for profit, companies have decided that the best way to protect themselves from their victims is by removing photos of their CEOs from websites and increasing security.
I'm more surprised by the number of people phoning in tips and helping the police by trying to play internet sleuth.
I also hope that this event results in changes, but I think it would take a lot more than one killing. So far, instead of stopping the killing of people for profit, companies have decided that the best way to protect themselves from their victims is by removing photos of their CEOs from websites and increasing security.
I, too, am disappointed with the unabashed bad takes on this incident, but you aren't quite responding to the comment that you posted your reply to.
You cannot have a conversation when you're trying to get rid of or reform a system worth $14,500,000,000,000 and the people through whose hands those fourteen trillion five hundred billion dollars are passing skim a bit off the top to buy off (sorry, "support") politicians.
The only option is Medicare for All, with decades of it slowly chipping away at private insurance and surviving endless challenges by the combined might of the insurance, pharmaceutical, banking, private equity, and medical device manufacturer industries who are willing to spend trillions of dollars and fight endlessly to protect their revenue streams-- so that's a long shot, to say the least.
edit: also, all of the people running the industries with which we need to have "a conversation" are narcissists and/or sociopaths who would kill, dehydrate, and grind up the general public for resale to the masses as protein powder if they could get away with it.
The only option is Medicare for All, with decades of it slowly chipping away at private insurance and surviving endless challenges by the combined might of the insurance, pharmaceutical, banking, private equity, and medical device manufacturer industries who are willing to spend trillions of dollars and fight endlessly to protect their revenue streams-- so that's a long shot, to say the least.
edit: also, all of the people running the industries with which we need to have "a conversation" are narcissists and/or sociopaths who would kill, dehydrate, and grind up the general public for resale to the masses as protein powder if they could get away with it.
I keep telling people to support/join the PNHP. They're working in the struggle to move healthcare in a more affordable direction by educating docs, med students, and legislators.
The PNHP is like the ACLU or EFF but for healthcare.
The PNHP is like the ACLU or EFF but for healthcare.
The USA was a "middle class" society not long ago. Now it's increasingly just "class" and soon "ass".
New York reported an arrest clearance rate of 39% for murders last year, nearer 48% last quarter.
Well that's not good, at all. https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/crime-without-punishmen...
For comparison in western Europe it's 77% to 98%
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/147737081876484...
For comparison in western Europe it's 77% to 98%
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/147737081876484...
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> As the hours have passed and the manhunt has continued to come up short, some commentators have started creating a mythology about the killer, who has stayed ahead of the NYPD and all its cameras. The victim ran a business that effectively decides which medical care its customers can and cannot get. Commentators who dislike the American health-insurance system are using Thompson’s death as an occasion to condemn the industry’s conduct, as if the assassin were a modern-day Robin Hood.
Ah, and now it's time for settling into that good old corporate media management of the Overton window. The reaction to this event definitely isn't an immediate society-wide outpouring of energy from everyone being thoroughly frustrated with the healthcare racket specifically, and the utter lack of corporate accountability in general. No, it's just a small faction of "some commentators" who "dislike the American health-insurance system" creating a "mythology" only after "the hours have passed". Everyday upstanding people all believe that it's downright shocking how a member of the corporate class that has managed to except themselves from every other form of accountability has suffered this escalated attempt at accountability. He had a family, don't you know!
Ah, and now it's time for settling into that good old corporate media management of the Overton window. The reaction to this event definitely isn't an immediate society-wide outpouring of energy from everyone being thoroughly frustrated with the healthcare racket specifically, and the utter lack of corporate accountability in general. No, it's just a small faction of "some commentators" who "dislike the American health-insurance system" creating a "mythology" only after "the hours have passed". Everyday upstanding people all believe that it's downright shocking how a member of the corporate class that has managed to except themselves from every other form of accountability has suffered this escalated attempt at accountability. He had a family, don't you know!