this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2024
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According to police, Charles Smith, 27, entered the Walmart at 1955 S. Stapley Dr. on Dec. 19 intending to film pranks for social media platforms.

Instead, police said Smith grabbed a can of Hot Shot Ultra Bed Bug and Flea Killer from a shelf without paying for it and then sprayed the pesticide on various vegetables, fruit and rotisserie chickens that were available for purchase.

Smith recorded his face, the pesticide can and the act of him spraying its contents. He later posted the recording online.

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[–] [email protected] 139 points 23 hours ago (6 children)

Now, this could qualify as terrorism.

Not a single murder of a psychopathic indirect mass murderer CEO.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 45 minutes ago

It would need to be politically motivated

[–] [email protected] 60 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Doubt many CEOs shop at Walmart, otherwise it would totally be terrorism charges.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

you'd be surprised. A fairly large number of them are quite miserly, even in their personal lives.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 13 hours ago

The CEO types have people who are responsible for filing the fridge and pantry. Those people probably shop at Walmart just like everyone else.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

What do you believe his political motive was in spraying the produce?

[–] chickenf622 14 points 22 hours ago

Whatever you think it is to fit your personal narrative /s

[–] [email protected] 5 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (1 children)

What was the political motive behind Luigi YAHOOO-ing the ceo?

I would recommend you reading his manifesto as long as you can, its not long but its being taken down from pretty much everwhere

[–] [email protected] 0 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

It's been publicallly stated neither him nor his parents were customers of that specific insurance company, so the manifesto is likely fake.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

The “We have no indication that he was ever a client of United Healthcare…” (https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/12/13/us/ceo-shooting-luigi-mangione-unitedhealthcare) is a little far away from a definitive statement, isn’t it? If they knew that not to be the case, why wouldn’t they say it so? Its really shouldn’t be hard to find out

[–] [email protected] 5 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

So... do you think he was a customer, and they just haven't found out yet?

Like you said, it shouldn't be hard to find out. Therefore, he almost certainly wasn't a customer. They'd know.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

So… why aren’t they saying that?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

United already has a serious public image problem with their 30%-35% claim denial rate.

How much worse would it be if they said, "yeah, Luigi's back problems could have been easily fixed by surgery, but we decided to deny that claim and put him on painkillers for the rest of his life." They'd be admitting that one of their many fark-ups got their CEO killed. And that's not going to help their case if this ever goes to trial.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

I am not an american so I wouldn’t know, but surely your police force wouldn’t lie in the interest of a company, would it?

Or like, there would be massive legal backlash if the company disclosed false info to the police, no?

What is going on over the great puddle?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 13 hours ago

police force wouldn’t lie

Absolutely corruptible. That lie wouldn't even be expensive. Company puts in a call to execs running the police, they say how they want it to go down, make promises for money/power/favor, trickles down through the ranks.

massive legal backlash if the company disclosed false info

The feds didn't even pay the reward and there was no backlash. We don't get together well and protest over things that don't affect us individually. Even the left is shit at it. We expect them to lie. If someone produces proof he was with them, they'll just plain plausible deniability or individual incompetence.

Corporations own our political landscape on both sides. The judges, the police, everyone is running with a level of autonomy, wiggle room as you will, but when they need a narrative fed, it's easy. Only 60% of us even believe the truth, feeding a few lies is simple.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

That's just how cops talk. Police are trained to speak as vaguely as possible in order to not give the defense any ammunition. If they say "he was not a customer" then the defense can use that in the trial, and why would they want to help the defense?

Now answer my question. Do you think he was a customer, and they just haven’t found out yet?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

How on the bloody earth would assassinating his character help his defense? Maybe if they were lying, that could help I guess?

He is either ought to be, or he is a set up! It is very suspicious that after a week of headless panicking they found the suspect with the murder weapon and an apparently false paper explaining that he did it

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

The most likely explanation for that is he's not the criminal mastermind you want him to be.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

Dude you're thinking way too deeply into, it really is as simple as "that's just how cops and lawyers talk, nobody is going to give away anything."

On top of that we have pretty serious restrictions called HIPAA on releasing private healthcare information and no insurance provider in the world is just going to go ahead and confirm plans details or lack of one if they don't have to.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

So you think the police shared a semi-guess on the conference?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

What was their guess? Their statement was a non-answer at best.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I can copy in the same quote from a few comments above? “We have no indication that he was ever the client of United Healthcare…” (https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/13/us/ceo-shooting-luigi-mangione-unitedhealthcare/index.html)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 12 hours ago

I'm not sure what you think that statement means.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

They are not giving a definitive answer and merly giving their (less legally binding) professional opinion. Its like they dont want to know or publish an absolute.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 17 hours ago

Yeah that's how cops talk. They don't want to put a professional statement out there if it helps the defense.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 13 hours ago

The manifesto they found on him was completely innocuous. What people are talking about that you consider might be fake is his online post history of the years on several platforms. no way they backfilled several services for that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

What political cause or ideology do you think this was done in support of?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

Honestly, there doesnt have to be a political motivation. If its political, they would want to say their message and not just give control of the narritive to the media.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

I strongly suggest you pull out a dictionary, and look up the definition of terrorism.

[–] GhiLA -1 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

I didn't see what store it was but maybe he was trying to kill all of the flies in his local Whole Foods.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 23 hours ago (4 children)

I mean, I get your point......but not every story has to be compared to other stories. In this case Luigi. I also see other people bring up politics during stories that have nothing to do with politics.

And I wonder why people do that. Why talk about an unrelated topic when there's already an interesting topic?

I guess it's not as bad as reddit, where they would instead just post a random unrelated quote from the office, but still....

[–] Ookami38 12 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

It's quite simply what's on people's minds right now. It was a major event, it outlines some of the systemic inequalities, and people are interested in the subject.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah.

It's also just fun to talk about because it probably makes US healthcare CEOs nervous.

After all they've done to the rest of us, it's nice to think of them feeling nervous. If they're not going to feel our grief, or appropriate remorse, or empathy, at least they can feel nervous.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 13 hours ago

There's a good book about capitalism and what happens when the CEO class gets nervous about the underclass getting tired of their shit. It's called The Iron Heel by Jack London. It's what inspired 1984 and is the start of the dystopian future sci-fi writing.

The basic premise is it never ends like the French Revolution when the workers revolt because the regular person has too much invested in the status quo.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

It's a current event being compared to another current event. One about a murder, and the other potentially attempted homicide, depending on the pesticide used. Seems to be pretty related to me, regardless of any politics.

Just because they call it a "prank", and the media uses the same shitty term, that doesn't make spraying pesticides on food for unsuspecting citizens to grab any less dangerous.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

One has a potential villain above the law and a moral purpose in removing him, or is at least a sympathetic figure striking out at one of the many causes of our misery, and who we can applaud. There is a root cause in desperate need of fixing but corporate voices in search of profit who are somehow more important than people’s lives

The other is threatening people’s lives and health by contaminating food, and dismissing as a “prank” for clicks. He needs plenty of time in jail and to forfeit whatever cash those clicks might bring. There is no morality play, no political difference, only exploiting the worst of humanity for cash

[–] [email protected] 3 points 23 hours ago

It reminds me of the dupes on Facebook that comment "must have been a Kamala voter" on every video of someone doing something stupid.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 21 hours ago

Corporate needs you to find the difference between this story and this story.

(They're the same story)

[–] atzanteol -2 points 23 hours ago

Now, this could qualify as terrorism.

🤣