Police State Implications of “The Adjuster’s” Assassination of UnitedHealth’s CEO [with UPDATE]

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

I had started this post with a quest for a nickname: I couldn’t, after all, keep writing “the alleged assassin of Unitedhealth CEO Brian Thompson” over and over, and “CEO assassin” seemed too generic for the case. The internet, amusingly, settled on “The Claims Adjuster,” or “The Adjuster.” The earliest example I could find:

Memed immediately:

Memed again:

UPDATE Plot twist: Now we have a name. From the New York Post: “Suspect in fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson ID’d as Luigi Mangione, an ex-Ivy League student“:

Mangione was valedictorian of his 2016 high school graduating class at the Gilman School in Baltimore, where he played soccer, according to online sites. High school tuition at the all-boys school is nearly $40,000 a year.

He said at the time of graduation that he planned to seek a degree in artificial intelligence, focused on the areas of computer science and cognitive science at the University of Pennsylvania, according to an interview with the Baltimore Fishbowl.

The tech hotshot graduated cum laude from the private Ivy League institution in Philadelphia with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE), Computer and Information Science in 2020, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He also completed a Master of Science in Engineering (MSE), Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania, his profile states.

So it goes. (Since Mangione hasn’t been convicted, I’m going to continue to use “The Adjuster.”) From a Yahoo News live blog:

Mangione was detained by Altoona, Pa., police at a McDonald’s restaurant roughly 300 miles west of New York City at approximately 9:15 a.m. An employee at the fast food chain recognized Mangione from photos released by New York police and contacted local law enforcement, Tisch said. [NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny] added later that Mangione “was sitting there eating” when police approached. They found several items that they believe link him with the fatal shooting in Manhattan, including a ghost gun consistent with the weapon seen in video footage of the crime, a silencer, a fake New Jersey ID that matched the one used when the suspect checked in to a Manhattan hostel, a U.S. passport with his real name, a handwritten document or manifesto that police say speaks to Mangione’s motivation and mindset, and clothing, including a mask, that match those worn by the suspect. Kelly said that, based on the document found in Mangione’s possession, it appeared that he “has some ill will toward corporate America.”

(The Times live blog says a customer called 911, not an employee. Also, “a mask” is wrong; the Adjuster wore two: One black, one a baggy blue. Inconsistencies abound.) Labor reporter Kim Kelly comments:

The Adjuster also had a Twitter account:

I must ask you to click through; but Yang is correct: An X account by the name “Luigi Mangione” did in fact write “the idea that phenomenon are the results of amorphous systems outside of our control is scary.” OK, but if that idea is true, then why hold a CEO accountable, very personally[1], for the results of an “amorphous system outside our control”, in this case, the health insurance industry? Again, inconsistencies abound. And speaking of inconsistencies, why did the Adjuster hang onto all that stuff? Why not ditch it? Is the plan jury nullification?

With that, I want to return to the original, extremely simple plan for this post, which I can put in the form of a question: If I were in the employ of one of the organs of state security, what would I regard as the salient features of the case? And where would I seek more control than I already have? ABC’s summarizes The Adjuster’s stay in Manhattan. I have underlined the relevant topics:

The gunman used a and paid during the 10 days he was in the city, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters Friday. He also kept his except while checking in at a hostel. He was captured on some of the thousands of surveillance cameras blanketing Manhattan, allowing police to build a timeline of his movements.

Now I’ll present aggregations of these three topics — Cash, Masking, Fake IDs — showing that the discourse is already primed to regard them as problems to be solved, if future copy cat Adjusters are to be avoided.

Cash

From ABC:

The 10-day period has been the focus of investigative efforts. Police have collected a lot of video of the suspect all over the city — in the subway, in cabs, in a McDonald’s, according to sources. and he made sure to keep his mask on, according to sources.

From the Washington Post:

Images released by police also seemed to show that person had used before the shooting.

From The Times:

Police have searched the hostel, where it has been reported he presented fake identity documents and paid in , staying in a room with two men he did not know.

From FOX:

The suspect is said to have paid in at the Starbucks.

From the New York Times:

The police said they have a passenger list for the Greyhound bus, but the suspect identification or to board.

So, if you want to look at it this way, cash makes it easier for assassins to get around, and so should be deprecated.

Masking

From AP:

The gunman made sure to during almost all of his time in the city, including during the attack and while he ate, yet left a trail of evidence in view of the nation’s biggest city and its network of security cameras. “From every indication we have from witnesses, from the Starbucks, from the hostel, ,” Kenny said.

From the New York Times:

After that, he went to the hostel on the Upper West Side. , even at meals, and used cash. Kenny said that the only time he lowered his mask was to talk to a clerk at the hostel and smile at her.

From Slate:

A gunman dressed in dark clothing and ambushed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Wednesday morning in midtown Manhattan, where Thompson’s company was hosting a conference.

From WaPo:

The shooter, , fired multiple rounds at Thompson before fleeing the area on a bicycle and disappearing into Central Park.

From the Boston Globe:

Late Saturday, police released two additional photos of the suspected shooter that appeared to be from a camera mounted inside a taxi. The first shows him outside the vehicle and the second shows him looking through the partition between the back seat and the front of the cab. In both, .

From CNBC:

[Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch] said the assailant was last seen in Central Park on Center Drive early this morning. Kenny said the gunman wore , black and white sneakers, and a “very distinctive” gray backpack. The video of the shooting showed the shooter wearing a hooded jacket.

So, if you want to look at it that way, masks make it easier for assassins to conceal their identities, and so should be deprecated.

Fake ID

From AP:

Investigators believe the suspect used and paid cash, Kenny said, when he checked in at the hostel, which has a café along with shared and private rooms and is blocks from Columbia University.

From FOX:

The suspect wanted for the brutal slaying of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson used a fake ID to check into a New York City hostel before the brazen execution-style killing, police sources tell Fox News.

From the New York Post:

The suspect had used the ID to book a space at the HI New York City Hostel at 891 Amsterdam Ave. in Manhattan back on Nov. 30, according to sources. A subsequent probe, however, revealed , the sources said.

From the New York Times:

[A] senior law enforcement official said he used a fake New Jersey identification to book a room at a hostel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side where he stayed before the killing.

Once again, if you want to look at it that way, fake IDs make it easier for assassins to conceal their identities, and so should be deprecated.

Conclusion

Obviously, corporate security reacted to The Adjuster’s claims adjustment immediately. From the New York Times:

Dozens of chief security officers from Fortune 500 corporations around the world joined a video call on Wednesday afternoon, hours after the fatal shooting of the UnitedHealthcare C.E.O. Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan, to discuss additional protective measures for executives moving around the area, according to a security expert who participated in the conversation.

The discussion included best practices and reviews of executive protection programs, according to the expert, Dave Komendat, a retired chief security officer at Boeing and president of DSKomendat Risk Management Services, a consultancy based in the Seattle area. He said that all of the security officers on the video call were facing upper-echelon requests for presentations on the current state of their security programs and scrutinizing their own practices.

And the “upper-echelon” wasn’t only in fear of their lives. From Yahoo Finance:

Shares of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) fell for the second session in a row today as investors seem to be reckoning with the backlash against the company following the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Wednesday morning.

However, cash, masking, and fake IDs are not in corporate security’s purview; they are matters for the State. And fortunately, efforts are in train to allow the organs of state security to police all of them.

• Cash. NC’s Nick Corbishley has written often of “The Dystopian Dream of Global Central Bank Digital Currencies” (and the preference of dull normals for coins and paper). The discourse, as I show above, is primed for the “War on Cash” to be intensified; the public relations spadework has already been done.

• Masking. NC has written up mask bans already. The discourse is also primed for more bans. Here’s a little over-the-top rhetoric from New York’s Mayor Adams:

‘Let him continue to believe he can hide behind the mask. We revealed his face. We’re going to reveal who he is….

• Fake IDs. For that, we have the long-delayed Read ID Act: “Americans will need Real ID to travel in 2025: Here are the requirements.” Here again, the discourse is primed.

Of course, we as a society could avoid these draconian measures with a health care system that doesn’t produce rage in those subjected to its ministrations. But who wants that?