Manifest Malice

Four Suspects accused of Crimes Targeting Property & Vehicles Include: (LTR) Paul Kim, Cooper Jo Frederick, Lucy Grace Nelson, and Daniel Pounder

Just months after a small minority of fringe voices within America praised illegal attacks targeting its next president, a rich and influential business leader was murdered on the streets of New York. United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was allegedly killed by twenty-six year old Luigi Mangione. The victim was a white, wealthy, male, and the resulting praise for his death and assailant has been quite something to behold. Several people across the country have supported this brazen vigilante crime. Mangione has quickly gathered admirers and supporters akin to other infamous criminals such as Charles Manson or Ted Bundy. I wonder if his victim had been a woman of a different cultural background would these supporters feel differently? Weeks later a female teenager would carry out the thirty-ninth school shooting within the United States this year.

Luigi Mangione in Police Custody

Some public advocates for Mangione attempt to label him as martyr or striking a blow for what they term justice. Yet they blame all the past actions of a corporation upon a single person while asserting this was acceptable. However, that is not how logic, corporations, or the law works. Logically there are several other methods of seeking to find justice that do not require murdering another person. From initiating lawsuits to seeking aid from legal advocacy groups, the alleged perpetrator had the money to undertake a real legal crusade if he cared to do so. Instead he killed someone for his grievances and has amassed a significant defense fund provided by those of like ideals. Yet justice requires a legal setting, it is the antithesis of justice to kill someone without a trial or regard to the rule of law.

Most people have some respect for the law because any thinking person understands civilized society depends upon it. Yet that respect dwindles when emotion leads to some celebrating random self-appointed vigilantes. Luigi Mangione a person who is not rational or intelligent enough to figure out a non-violent solution. A killer who arbitrarily chose his target and decided to violate the most enshrined American right, the right to life. For if a society cannot agree that all people have a right to exist, it is not a civilized one. Such action dictates a disregard for the assurances of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness within the Declaration of Independence. You have respect for the life of others or you do not.

Some have alleged certain political doctrines are responsible but this only explains a part of the greater issue. Mangione reportedly drew from several different questionable influences and political doctrines and was even himself a paradox of sorts. He was a white, upper class, ivy league educated male who believed he was striking a blow for all people by killing someone like him. Luigi Mangione is not a folk hero, he is just another infamous killer in a recent modern succession. The results in such matters lead to responses unanticipated by most and consequences applied not to the assailant but the public. Those cheering and offering public support do not understand the new costs we all shall pay.

Corporations quickly started creating or increasing their security coverage for leading figures which likely will now increase financial costs. Such new financial burdens will likely be passed onto the public. I have repeatedly supported that illegal violence is a self-defeating practice that renders greater punitive overreach by government. Official entities wield the ability to label more crimes domestic terrorism and increase budgets accordingly. It allows for criminal acts to be redefined and defendants can be removed from all the legal criminal protections into military or extralegal bodies to render whatever they call justice.

Unsurprisingly, Luigi Mangione has been charged with domestic terrorism in New York and this will feasibly set a legal precedent. Such a legal standard will allow those in power, no matter the political party, to charge other citizens under questionable and broad standards of what precisely is murder and what they deem constitutes terrorism. A legal Pandora’s box has been flung open with little concerns for all the damage it may cause and the potentially demolished rights of accused citizens. New York District Attorney Alan Bragg has attempted to present the act being terrorism because “it was a killing intended to evoke terror” but failed to offer any extensive statutory legal basis.i Bragg has decided this murder, which in nearly any other criminal case would be just a murder, is terrorism.

New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg

However, in the very same city a month prior, Bragg opined that criminal gangs undertaking violent crimes repeatedly for years “did not impact just these defendants and their associates...It impacted the entire neighborhood, a climate of fear for ordinary residents who had no part in this violence.”ii Bragg admits those suspects terrorized a neighborhood for years, they killed each other and harmed others by establishing a climate of public fear. Until their apprehension, the 200/8 Block, 6 Block, and Own Every Dollar allegedly shot eighteen people, killed seven people, and this includes four innocent bystanders. Alvin Bragg in a related press release said “I want to be very clear: if you...use guns to commit violence against fellow Manhattanites, you will be held accountable.”iii Yet these wide ranging criminal groups were not charged with terrorism but murder and several other associated criminal charges.

Based upon the standard used by Alvin Bragg, it appears the death of a regular terrorized citizen is murder but a wealthy and influential citizen’s death is terrorism. A single violent act that may have frightened a small part of the public, lead corporate executives, is considered provoking societal terror. Conversely, a years long gang campaign of intimidation and violence targeting Americans does not qualify for the more serious charge Mangione faces. It would seems Bragg’s most powerful allegations are utilized not to protect his district but for highly publicized cases. In my view, the law should be fairly and universally applied even in moments of public outrage. Luigi Mangione if convicted should face the legal standard for all his crimes, nothing less and nothing more. To punish any citizen with untested or legally questionable standards is a violation of their constitutional rights and renders injustice for all.

Unfortunately, actual politically motivated violent attacks on people and property have continued to increase since the beginning of this year. Many former protests that incited significantly less violent reactions were largely constrained to President Donald Trump’s properties and seemingly did not pose a public threat. Things have quickly changed, widespread political vandalism now targets vehicles with alarming frequency using weapons that range from keys to explosives. While several current and past protests and cases of widespread vandalism were contained largely to younger age groups, many current vandals have no excuse of ignorance or youth. Quite a few of these “adults” were over forty, based on age, yet their behavior resembles a destructive toddler without concern for illegal acts. While the question of whether these attacks were coordinated remains, that a growing pattern of violent unlawful behavior is now ongoing cannot be reasonably debated.

Months following Elon Musk political alliance with the Trump campaign a string of attacks began. Molotov cocktails struck an Oregon city Tesla dealership in January on the day Donald Trump was inaugurated. A forty-one year old man has been charged with attempted arson in multiple incidents and firing a rifle at the dealership amid the next month.iv The next attack struck a Tesla dealership in Colorado allegedly using the political graffiti and the same type of incendiary devices the first had. Two men, a forty-two year old and second man in his twenties were arrested for separate alleged crimes involving the same Loveland dealership.v vi During March gunfire targeted an Oregon Tesla dealership twice, one Las Vegas dealership was firebombed, and explosives were discovered in a Texas dealer’s showroom.vii This was accompanied by a widened list of related targets that included charging stations being destroyed or damaged in Massachusetts, Indiana, and South Carolina.viii

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A “DOGEQUEST” Map of America Noting Tesla Owners, Dealers, and Protests

Vandalism and destruction of Tesla properties expanded to potentially include anyone that owns a Tesla vehicle nationwide. Some have even tried to justify these intimidation tactics which employ violence, online threats, and false police reports. A now removed website named Dogequest contained “a list of Tesla owners, their addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses in an apparent effort to dox those who have not sold their vehicles out of fear of being targeted.”ix x Such fear was proven legitimate as dozens of vehicles were keyed with fascist symbols, smashed, and set ablaze in not just the United States but internationally as well. Vandalism and firebombing of Tesla properties and several vehicles have also been reported within Canada, Sweden, Italy, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand.

This voracious political hatred is leading people to lose all respect for the legal rights of other American citizens. Those still desiring to feed their limitless political outrage that have yet to act, may wish to reconsider similar behavior. As those being charged shall learn, unlike Luigi Mangione, several later Tesla attack suspects actually meet the United States government’s definition of domestic terrorism. They are undertaking “ideologically driven crimes in the United States that are intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population or influence the policy or conduct of a government.”xi The civil population would be endangered Tesla dealers, workers, or car owners and the government body influenced would be the Trump administration.xii These acts only help the ideological opponents of prior mentioned suspects because the majority of public opinion is against criminal violence.

Gov. JOSH Shapiro & His Family were targeted by a Firebombing

Only deluded people can believe these crimes are justified or will effectively accomplish legitimate political change. Those wasting a breath to defend such injustices may wish to consider what happens if this mob decides another type of political ideology is unacceptable? Will current supporters be so eager to cheer on criminals destroying their property or privacy? Less than one day after this article was completed, the democratic Governor of Pennsylvania’s residence was firebombed while Josh Shapiro and his family were inside asleep.xiii Is a fleeting moment of imagined revenge worth targeting innocent people and destroying your reputation forever? All suspects found guilty will likely face extensive court fines, serious legal consequences, and be remembered as just a footnote in criminal history.
Sincerely,
C.A.A. Savastano

References:
i. Jake Offenhartz and Jennifer Peltz, December 17, 2024, Suspect charged with killing United Healthcare’s CEO as an act of terrorism, Associated Press, apnews.com
ii. Melanie Marich and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon, New York Post, 30 Members of feuding NYC street gangs busted after bloody turf war that killed seven: ‘A climate of fear’, New York Post, nypost.com
iii. Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, November 14, 2024, D.A. Bragg: 30 Gang Members Indicted For Widespread Gun Violence Over Six Year Period, manhattanda.org
iv. Isabel Funk, April 3, 2025, Salem filmmaker pleads not guilty of attempted arson in Tesla dealership attacks, Salem Statesman Journal, statesmanjournal.com
v. United States Attorney’s Office, District of Colorado, February 27, 2025, Lyons Resident Charged In Connection With Series of Incidents At Loveland Tesla Dealership, US Department of Justice, justice.gov
vi. Sage Kelley, March 14, 2025, Second arrest made in string of Loveland Tesla attempted arsons, The Denver Gazette, denvergazette.com
vii. Micheal Dorgan, April 2, 2025, Number of Tesla attacks soars past 50 as violence targeting Musk’s company escalates, Fox News, foxnews.com
viii. Andrew Goudsward and Jasper Ward, March 20, 2025, Three charged in arson attacks at Tesla dealerships, charging stations, Reuters, reuters.com
ix. David Ingham. March 19, 2025, A website mapped Tesla owners and their personal information amid a wave of of attacks, NBC News, nbcnews.com
x. Alexandra Koch, March 21, 2025, Tesla vehicles, dealerships targeted with arson, gunfire and vandalism in at least 9 states: FBI, Fox News, foxnews.com
xi. United States Congressional Research Service, December 29, 2023, Understanding and Conceptualizing Domestic Terrorism: Issues for Congress, US Congress, congress.gov
xii. Johnathan J. Cooper and Gene Johnson, March 19, 2025, Violent attacks on Tesla dealerships spike as Musk takes prominent role in Trump White House, Associated Press, apnews.com
xiii. Kinsey Crowley, April 14, 2025, Photos capture extensive damage to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home after arson attack, USA Today, usatoday.com

Related Article:
The Menace of Malice