As they search for the man who assassinated a top health-insurance executive in New York City last week, authorities are contending with an unanticipated challenge: an outpouring of popular sympathy for the killer.
From online forums and social media to the streets of Manhattan, people have celebrated the suspect as a quasi-folk hero who struck a blow against a detested institution, the nation’s for-profit healthcare system.
Many were rooting for the killer to evade capture and defending his actions—or remarking on his good looks. in some cases, expressions of support have crossed over into calls to stymie a police manhunt that, on Sunday, entered its fifth day with the suspect yet to be named, reports the Wall Street Journal. On the social-media platform X, several people suggested flooding the police with fake tips or dressing like the killer to confuse law enforcement. In New York’s Washington Square Park, a group held a look-alike contest.
Some online sleuths who have made a habit in recent years of banding together in informal posses to try to solve crimes are withholding their services. To Ed Davis, a former Boston Police Commissioner, the public reaction to the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was both a hindrance to the manhunt and baffling. “I’ve been watching it, and I’ve been shocked by it,” Davis said. "It’s actually troubling to see it, and I really am surprised that people are reacting that way considering the tragic loss here and the violence of what happened.” Davis, who now has a security-consulting firm, noted that the public’s reluctance to assist would deprive police of a vital resource in a search that has now stretched beyond the bounds of New York City.
Sympathy for outlaws is hardly unheard of. Eric Rudolph,who set off a pipe bomb at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, managed to elude the FBI for seven years by hiding out in the Smoky Mountains. Supporters donned “Run, Rudolph, Run!” T-shirts. The current outpouring is on a grander scale and fueled by social media.
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