Sincerely, Saskia

After this week, I doubt I need to explain who Luigi Mangione is to you.

Since being arrested and charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Johnson, Mangione has been hailed as some kind of modern-day CEO assassinating hero – likened to Robin Hood or V – for killing a man who, granted, was at the root of a lot of unrest between the US healthcare system and its citizens. But Mangione is not Robin Hood taking from the rich to give to the poor, as Mangione is one of the rich Hood would be stealing from.

It’s no surprise to anyone that big corporations leave a line of disaster in their wake and it’s now no secret that UnitedHealthcare specifically was under-operating as an insurance company, with a worrying high rejection rate not paying out claims to clients in need. In fact, another thing to come out of this moment in America are all the disgruntled customers of UnitedHealthcare, going online to share their horror stories of claims denied by the corporation under Johnson. Unlike us in the UK, the US doesn’t have an NHS – I mean Christ, have you seen how much it costs to give birth there? Not only that, but poverty in the US is at an all time high, and to say people are struggling is a gross understatement – the cost of care being a huge part of that.

So, with that in mind and the growing unrest towards this broken healthcare system, in comes Luigi Mangione, the Ivy-league educated ‘heartthrob’ with a 3D printed ghost gun who guns down Johnson in the street outside the Hilton in Midtown. Because of everything Johnson represents, sympathy was never going to be the first item on the menu, and as much as I can understand everyone’s lack of give a fuck, Mangione is not a hero.

It should really go without saying but for those who seem to have gotten lost in Mangione’s six pack, murder is never the answer. Whether it is in war or murder-for-hire, for a cause or on a whim or whether you’re a person in power or a person with none, we should never be comfortable in championing it.

Are we ok as a society? Absolutely not.

I’m not saying we haven’t all made off handed comments about political leaders, tyrants, war criminals and colonisers, but there’s a difference between saying it and doing it. And then there’s even more of a difference when it comes to championing those that go ahead and pull the trigger, and in Mangione’s case, even make the gun.

Among those peddling the hashtag ‘freehim’ and claiming they could ‘fix him’ are Gen Z, Millennials, the same people very vocal about fighting for change, changing the system, social activism and the like – probably the same people who posted black squares to their Instagram in 2020. Why am I bringing this up? Isn’t it obvious? I find myself having to remind people that had Luigi Mangione been a Black man or any other dark-skinned minority that he would have been shot down in the street like a dog by the boys in blue before he even had a chance to flirt with the cashier or order a McFlurry.

As funny as you find memes might be, as harmless as you might think it is to joke about being able to ‘fix him’, the reality is that Mangione comes from a place of extreme privilege. Everything surrounding his coverage, the way he has been treated and the social media brigade rallying around him with countless fundraisers set up ever since his occupation in the Pennsylvania prison, is too much to bear.

In the last few years, we have seen countless Black people gunned down when a crime hasn’t even taken place – some for simply existing in their homes (Breonna Taylor), some for needing the help of the police (Sonya Massey). I cannot in good conscience laugh or joke about Mangione and claim to buy that this was part of a so-called crusade to liberate those who have fallen victim to Johnson, or the system, because I’m not convinced it is even about them.

Mangione comes from a prominent, wealthy family in Baltimore and the Mangione name rings loud in that community. I’m not saying because of this privilege that Mangione could not have also suffered under UnitedHealthcare – although there is no indication of this. What I am saying, however, is that there are people much worse off than him who have not resorted to murder, and even if they had done, would in no way be privy to the ‘pretty politics’ clearly at play here.

Since being a criminal is practically a factor needed to get ahead in US politics, I would not be surprised if he serves less than half of whatever sentence is handed down to him, gets a reality TV show upon release and ends up running to be president of the United States.

And yet, amongst the outpouring of misplaced love and support for this 26-year-old ‘patron saint’, the person who turned Mangione over to the police, a McDonalds worker, is receiving death threats. Where is everyone’s head at? Are we ok as a society? Absolutely not.

The killing of Johnson changes nothing, but it does reveal an ugly trajectory our society is taking. It would be all too easy if one man was the root of all the evil in the world and if his absence would fix everything. But the reality is that Johnson was a big fish in an even bigger system that will continue to operate the way it does because America had bred and supports a people-over-profit mentality.

Gun down all the Brian Johnsons you want (not literally), but until that philosophy changes, nothing else will.