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Assassination of United Healthcare CEO

acbytesla said:
Wouldn't it be interesting if we all got it wrong and this killing had nothing to do with health insurance. Like maybe the wife hired a hit man. Or it was a mob hit and he has cheated some mobster.
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Or maybe it was a spurned lover. The human imagination is excellent and we can invent stories that are much more interesting than reality if we want to. But I think there's a difference between discussing a current event on a (soft) skeptics messageboard and treating everything as a creative writing prompt.
 
Roger Ramjets said:
If they do then they should be punished for it.
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They should be punished within the law, which currently does not consider what they do to be illegal.

Which is why a vigilante assassin is not contributing to solving the problem. Another CEO will take Thompson's place and nothing will change. America needs to fix its health care system, not murder those who profit from the broken system.
 
arthwollipot said:
They should be punished within the law, which currently does not consider what they do to be illegal.

Which is why a vigilante assassin is not contributing to solving the problem. Another CEO will take Thompson's place and nothing will change. America needs to fix its health care system, not murder those who profit from the broken system.
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Yeah...but it's been broken for decades and it's only gotten worse, every attempt to fix it has failed, and those keeping it broken are getting more and more powerful each passing year. It's entirely possible that slaughtering a number of executives might just be a more effective impetus for reform. Unpleasant, I admit, but as healthcare insurance industry itself would definitely tell you: sometimes hard decisions have to be made and sometimes people just have to die. But of course we don't have to commit fully to this particular course, it would be wisest to continue to pursue multiple avenues of reform and observe the results for empirical analysis as to their effectiveness. We'll have more data to make a proper conclusion from after more insurance CEOs have been rendered into data points.
 
TragicMonkey said:
Yeah...but it's been broken for decades and it's only gotten worse, every attempt to fix it has failed, and those keeping it broken are getting more and more powerful each passing year. It's entirely possible that slaughtering a number of executives might just be a more effective impetus for reform. Unpleasant, I admit, but as healthcare insurance industry itself would definitely tell you: sometimes hard decisions have to be made and sometimes people just have to die. But of course we don't have to commit fully to this particular course, it would be wisest to continue to pursue multiple avenues of reform and observe the results for empirical analysis as to their effectiveness. We'll have more data to make a proper conclusion from after more insurance CEOs have been rendered into data points.
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The problem is that this murderer is being celebrated as a literal national hero (yes, those words have been used), which might well encourage others to also become murderers to "fix" this problem.

Don't celebrate murder. Don't make murder a tool of reform. That's the wrong way to go.
 
arthwollipot said:
The problem is that this murderer is being celebrated as a literal national hero (yes, those words have been used), which might well encourage others to also become murderers to "fix" this problem.

Don't celebrate murder. Don't make murder a tool of reform. That's the wrong way to go.
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We won't know that until we've collected more data.

This is a nation that was born of a violent revolution, after all. We wouldn't be here if it weren't for a certain willingness to entertain the dark side of the Force. Perhaps peace really is a lie.
 
TragicMonkey said:
We won't know that until we've collected more data.
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More murders?
TragicMonkey said:
This is a nation that was born of a violent revolution, after all. We wouldn't be here if it weren't for a certain willingness to entertain the dark side of the Force. Perhaps peace really is a lie.
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That's not the flex some Americans think it is.
 
This will only hurt those that pay insurance premiums. Other medical insurance CEOs are now going to have to increase their personal security, and they won't do that out of their own pocket so a few more millions will be needed to pay for this security. That means they'll need more profit, therefore premiums have to go up or less is paid out.
 
TragicMonkey said:
Yeah...but it's been broken for decades and it's only gotten worse, every attempt to fix it has failed, and those keeping it broken are getting more and more powerful each passing year. It's entirely possible that slaughtering a number of executives might just be a more effective impetus for reform. Unpleasant, I admit, but as healthcare insurance industry itself would definitely tell you: sometimes hard decisions have to be made and sometimes people just have to die. But of course we don't have to commit fully to this particular course, it would be wisest to continue to pursue multiple avenues of reform and observe the results for empirical analysis as to their effectiveness. We'll have more data to make a proper conclusion from after more insurance CEOs have been rendered into data points.
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I think I've recently seen estimates of the number of people in the USA who die because they can't access healthcare. It may even have been in this thread.
Are there any estimates of the number of people who die because health insurance companies reject their claims? I.e. how many people are killed by the deny, defend, depose tactics?

Romantic poet Heinrich Heine, lamented the acquiescence of the Germans, who, unlike the ancient Romans, put up with the many autocratic princes, counts and kings of his time and never resorted to tyrannicide.
 
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Darat said:
This will only hurt those that pay insurance premiums. Other medical insurance CEOs are now going to have to increase their personal security, and they won't do that out of their own pocket so a few more millions will be needed to pay for this security. That means they'll need more profit, therefore premiums have to go up or less is paid out.
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You can't seriously believe that the wages of CEOs are based on the amount required to make them safe and secure, can you?
 
dann said:
You can't seriously believe that the wages of CEOs are based on the amount required to make them safe and secure, can your?
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No idea how you get that from what I posted. I was talking about how the cost of additional security won't be paid for by the CEOs but by the customers.
 
rdwight said:
KFF did a survey on this not too long ago, 81% rates their insurance as excellent or good. Only 3% as poor. These are not numbers that convince me the industry is a hated leech that would lead to murdering a CEO in charge of one being understandable, let alone celebrated.
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Were these people who had claimed or tried to claim? Or people who just like the terms and conditions they'd paid for?
 
miatasport99 said:
Has anyone noticed that the handgun police believe was used is not an semi-auto, but a bolt action? Apparently a copy from WWII for covert missions (STATION SIX 9). I had been convinced it was misfiring as I saw a full cartridge on the ground during a news broadcast. Maybe that was left behind by hand if it was one of the ones with words printed on them. It sounds to me like it's inherently suppressed, even though the ABC news article that turned me onto it said no silencer, just a long barrel that renders it almost silent. From my understanding not even any kind of silencer can do that. Manufacturer showing a price of over $2000, and out of stock. This changes my perception of this being amateur hour.

abcnews.go.com

UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting suspect allegedly flashed smile while flirting with hostel worker

Police appear to be closing in on an identity of the man suspected of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan.
abcnews.go.com abcnews.go.com

STATION SIX 9 | B&T USA

The B&T Station SIX-9 is a modern 9mm covert pistol, blending classic design with advanced engineering for discreet and reliable performance.
bt-usa.com bt-usa.com
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It wasn't one of those. The shooter isn't operating it like one of those and it doesn't look like one.
 
More on the handgun used.
Sources told ABC that police believe the shooter used a B&T Station Six. The gun is marketed as a modernized version of the British Welrod, an integrally suppressed handgun designed during WWII and carried by special operations and resistance fighters. The Station Six, which is chambered in either 9 mm or .45-caliber, derives its name from the British weapons acquisition division that spawned the Welrod, according to its Swiss-based maker.
One firearms dealer expressed doubt, saying he was "almost 100 percent sure" that the weapon the gunman used was not a Station 6. The weapon seen in the video is much longer than a Station 6 and appears to be another type of handgun with a screw-on noise suppressor, said Travis Picci, owner of Zero Group Manufacturing, which recently relocated to New Fairfield CT from Norwalk CT. CT Insider news link
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As various news media have reported, police are now considering the shooter possibly using a veterinary handgun.
Joseph Kenny, the chief detective, said that investigators are looking into the possibility that the gunman used what’s known as a veterinary gun, a larger firearm used on farms and ranches. “If an animal has to get put down, the animal can be shot without” the weapon causing a large noise, Kenny said. New York Times news article link
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it doesn't sound like they're having a lot of success in figuring out who this guy was
 
Why top internet sleuths say they won't help find the UnitedHealthcare CEO killer

A high-profile violent crime typically sets social media abuzz with tips and theories from amateur internet sleuths, hunting for the alleged perpetrator.

But after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down in New York City this week without a primary suspect being identified, a rare occurrence happened in the thriving true-crime world: silence online from highly followed armchair detectives.

“I have yet to see a single video that’s pounding the drum of ‘we have to find him,’ and that is unique,” said Michael McWhorter, better known as TizzyEnt on TikTok, where he posts true crime and viral news content for his 6.7 million followers. “And in other situations of some kind of blatant violence, I would absolutely be seeing that.”
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Still, some of the most popular internet sleuths have sat out the investigation.

“We’re pretty apathetic towards that,” Savannah Sparks, who has 1.3 million followers on her TikTok account — where she tracks down and reveals the identities of people who do racist or seemingly criminal acts in viral videos — said about helping to identify the shooter. She added that, rather than sleuthing, her community has “concepts of thoughts and prayers. It’s, you know, claim denied on my prayers there,” referring to rote and unserious condolences.

Although Sparks, 34, has been tapped by law enforcement in the past to help train officers on how to find suspects online, according to emails seen by NBC News, she said this time she isn’t interested in helping police.

Sparks, who also works in health care as a lactation consultant and holds a doctorate of pharmacy, didn’t mince words when asked if her community was working to find the suspect in Thompson’s murder.

“Absolutely the f--- not,” she said.
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Guess the cops are gonna have to put down the donuts and do their own work for a change.
 
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