The scenes in the Manhattan courtyard illustrated a sharp division of American society: Luigi Mangione, a sitting of a medical manager who left behind his wife and two children.
He was encouraged by dozens of Mangione fans outside. They waved Italian flags and sports T -shirts and called “free Luigi” and “Cougars for Luigi”.
Mangione, accused of killing Executive Director Unitedhealth Group Inc. Brian Thompson outside Manhattan last year, was detained as a hero for those who consider shooting as a form of justice against insurance diseases. It is a deep dividing phenomenon – the one that was brought to a significant relief in the last days after the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The viral nature of the social media, which created its own form of celebrities, ignites the political division, sentiment against settling, perception of capitalism and creation of competing stories online. It bleeds into the real world and evokes broken debates on violent vigilantism, extremism and freedom of expression.
On Tuesday, when the judge supervised the Mangione case, he dismissed the murder of the first instance in court and at the same time allowed a smaller number in court, supporters were thrown out of breath.
“We are opening champagne tonight,” said Abril Rios, 26 years old, who said she was waiting for hearing in the queue for almost 30 hours.
While Thompson’s killing last year was convicted by political leaders on both sides of the alley, Mangione continues to attract supporters who consider him a crusader against corporate greed. Kirka’s assassination for last week also expanded convictions from Republicans and Democrats.
However, President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance blamed killing of inflammatory left -wing rhetoric and committed to investigate the organizations lean -legged. People who celebrated death or offered negative aspects Kirk – a polarizing character who captured firmly conservative attitudes on questions such as race and gender – facing online vitriol and lost their jobs.
“We are in a bad place as a company,” said Harvey Silverglate, a lawyer and co -founder of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Manifestations. “These assassinations and attempts to assassinate political speech are very worrying.”
Nevertheless, he notes that the reactions to killing are fundamentally protected.
“We must have a movement that increases people’s ability to speak to each other, even if it is hateful, even if it is vicious – if it does not include physical violence,” he said.
FBI director Kash Patel this week addressed social media platforms and whether they support political violence. The data showed that the online networks were “wildly out of control” in managing radicalization, he said. The Patel supports its shield’s stripping companies according to Section 230, a rule that protects the Internet platforms from legal responsibility for the content published by their users.
Since her arrest at McDonald’s in Altoon, Pennsylvania has attracted the Mangione legions of supporters who have found countless ways to show their support, sending heart -shaped messages and projecting a face to a building in Manhattan to donate more than $ 1 million to its defensive fund.
Tuesday’s hearing, the first in the case of February, gave these fans a rare opportunity to show their affection personally.
When Mangione, 27, shuffled from the courtroom while he had ankles around, supporters waved their direction when he nodded. Many of them were dressed in Green, a link to Luigi’s character from the Super Mario video game series.
The judge’s decision to cancel the accusation of the murder of the first instance that Mangione will not face a prospect of life imprisonment without the possibility of conditional release. He still faces an independent federal court where prosecutors are looking for a death penalty.
Alexa Modugno, who arrived in the court building on her pink T -shirt with a heart in the shape of a heart mangione, said he did not believe in violence, yet considers his alleged crime to be “necessary evil” to ignite change.
“I think Luigi is like Vigilante and a martyr, as well as the holy,” said Modugno, 35.
For several supporters, the murder was bound to what they consider wider good when they draw attention to unevenness in the US health care system, which they consider to be profitable from suffering.
“Someone like Luigi is an essential stimulate for a very important interview,” said Veda Rivers, 26.
Nadine Seiler, 60, was wearing the “Cougars for Luigi” T -shirt on Tuesday at 1 in the morning to travel to the court building from her home Maryland. Although she acknowledged that some people support mangione because of the physical attraction, she said that many supporters wanted to express their disgust in the health care system.
“I’m sure it goes from people who think he’s cute for some people who are really about the question of health care reform,” Seiler said. “I just know I’m here on the basis of a problem.”
Support for Killers extends a long way to history, Steven Levitsky, a government professor at Harvard University, and the author of how democracy was dying, noting that people encouraged the assassination of former President Ronald Reagan. It is now different, he said that social media intensifies extreme views that can only apply to a small percentage of the population.
“I think it is most important in these situations that anyone who has any influence – political leaders, media commentators, religious leaders – are coming out and violently reject violence, especially in terms of violence against their perceived rivals,” he said.
With the help of Patricia Hurtia Hurtado and David Voreacos.
This article was generated from an automated news agency without text modifications.
(Tagstotranslate) Luigi Mangione (T) Manhattan Court Building (T) Health-ins dance Executive
