This is a genuine question.

I have a hard time with this. My righteous side wants him to face an appropriate sentence, but my pessimistic side thinks this might have set a great example for CEOs to always maintain a level of humanity or face unforseen consequences.

P.S. this topic is highly controversial and I want actual opinions so let’s be civil.

And if you’re a mod, delete this if the post is inappropriate or if it gets too heated.

  • TommySoda@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    If he gets caught, then I’d say yes. Murder should be treated as murder regardless of what the reason is. Making exceptions is never a good idea.

    I just hope he doesn’t get caught.

    • nocturne@sopuli.xyz
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      6 days ago

      Then all of the healthcare companies that allow people to die because they will not cover them need to be prosecuted, every executive, every decision maker.

      • friend_of_satan@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid “dens of crime” that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice.

        CS Lewis - Screwtape Letters (preface)

    • TerkErJerbs@lemm.ee
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      6 days ago

      Brian Thompson and his co-workers murder hundreds of thousands of people with systemic neglect, spreadsheets, and lawyers. They murder in broad daylight, during business hours. And yet they’re comfortable, well paid, successful people who will never see a day in jail. What they’re doing isn’t even considered a crime.

      I hope he doesn’t get caught, also. Because the same laws that protect those fucking ghouls will crush him for bringing attention to the grift.

    • Tinidril@midwest.social
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      6 days ago

      Making exceptions is never a good idea.

      Why not? The whole reason we have judicial discretion is that every crime departs from the platonic ideal in one way or another.

      The working class has been losing a class war for decades without ever properly noticing that it was happening. Working Americans have been dying in that war, and now someone struck back.

      I’ll be sold on the “no exceptions” ideal when we haul in the corporate murderers alongside the people who fought back.

      Jury nullification is the other acceptable option.

      • TommySoda@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        Yeah, that’s kinda my point. The system is fucked beyond repair specifically because these people running the companies get exceptions. These people have basically let thousands of people die for the sake of money. So like I said before, murder is murder and should be treated as such.

        • comfy@lemmy.ml
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          6 days ago

          Given the perspective you described, I would consider the actions of the company to be systematic mass murder who the legal system fails to stop, and the actions of the shooter to be community defense against a mass murderer. They’re certainly not equivalent, and I don’t see what the benefit is of treating that defense equally to even one callous for-profit murder.

          The problem isn’t that exceptions are made and therefore all crimes should be treated in an ignorant vacuum. The problem is that the idealist legal system doesn’t even consider indirect suffering as the violence it is, because the legal system is ultimately beholden to the power of capital (money buys politicians and the media power to make them win, politicians write laws).

    • Nollij@sopuli.xyz
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      6 days ago

      I’m confident that someone will get caught and be made into an example.

      Whether they were the one that actually did it is immaterial.

    • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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      6 days ago

      2 or so years ago I’d have agreed with you.

      But it’s become clear that the wealthy and powerful are beyond the reach of our justice system. coughdementedfeloninthewhitehousecough

      So fuck 'em.

      I understand why they will prosecute him if they catch him, but I wish for him to never get caught, and I feel really confident (given the other signs of planning) that the phone, water bottle, and very public appearance at Starbucks in recognizable clothing are nothing but a red herring.

    • Vespair@lemm.ee
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      6 days ago

      I hear and understand your point, and I can’t say that I disagree with it.

      That being said, I sure as hell wouldn’t convict the guy.

    • 14th_cylon@lemm.ee
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      6 days ago

      I just hope he doesn’t get caught.

      he will get caught. they already have his photo, he is not professional hitman, he can only evade for so long when there is the whole country’s law enforcement after him.

      • TommySoda@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        Except the photo they have of him with his face visible isn’t even the same guy. Doesn’t even have the same clothes or backpack. So unless this dude is proficient at changing his clothes and ditching a backpack all while riding an electric scooter down the street in New York, then they have the wrong guy in that photo.

        • 14th_cylon@lemm.ee
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          4 days ago

          wtf are you talking about? they have multiple photos and it is obviously the same person

                • 14th_cylon@lemm.ee
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                  3 days ago

                  you do understand that these photos are from different place and different time, right?

                  the black backpack seems more like some shoulder duffel bag to me i assume it is from the hostel checkin. people don’t travel around the city with the same luggage they used for inter-city travel.

                  people also can have different clothes for different occasion, like putting on some light rain or wind-proof jacket. it can also be shitty compression from some shitty camera.

                  it is the same person ffs, look at his face, that nose could have passport of its own.