After the UnitedHealthcare chief
executive “was gunned down by a masked man outside a Manhattan hotel” in New
York City, “a days-long manhunt” occurred that “spanned several states.”[1]
The fact that only a few days were needed to find the suspect, Luigi Mangione,
indicates just how massive and public the manhunt was. For it was not just any
murder, as if the murder of a person who is the chief executive of a large
corporation were worth so much more than that of the rest of us. I suspect that
the influence of the company, and, moreover, corporate America, on local police
in any U.S. member state is more than reaches the headlines. The case at hand
my even suggest that that influence includes even tacit instructions to treat anti-corporate
suspects of murder violently both in retaliation and as a visible reminder to
other potential killers that CEOs are off-limits.
The full essay is at "On the Hidden Power of Corporate America."
1 Jessica Parker and Nadine Yousif, “Luigi Mangione
Fingerprints Match Crime-Scene Prints, Police Say,” BBC.com, December 11,
2024.
