President-elect Donald Trump’s commanding reelection victory understandably upset many on the Left who tried for nearly a decade to demonize his brand of populist politics as outside the boundaries of acceptable political discourse. But in the past week, two incidents in New York have triggered an outburst of violent rhetoric that condemns anti-Trumpian leftist rhetoric.
After a Manhattan jury on Monday unanimously found Daniel Penny not guilty of criminally negligent homicide for the death of a mentally ill homeless man who was threatening subway riders, the leaders of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York called for violence.
BLM of Greater New York co-founder Hawk Newsome shouted, “It’s a small world, buddy,” as Penny passed him in the courtroom. In case it was unclear if Newsome’s words were intended as a physical threat, Newsome later said at a rally in front of the courthouse, “We need some black vigilantes. … People wanna jump up and choke us and kill us for being loud? How about we do the same?”
While protesters chanted, “If we don’t get no justice, then they don’t get no peace,” fellow BLM of Greater New York co-founder Chivona Newsome added, “America has no morals. It has no soul. Our blood has paved the streets of this nation since its inception.” Referring falsely to the jury, which had three minority members, Chivona Newsome continued, “These wonderful white people, I hope they celebrate their Christmas while the [Jordan] Neely family is praying and asking God for comfort. God damn them, and God damn America.”
Members of the National Action Network, run by the career race hustler Al Sharpton, chanted right along with their BLM brethren.
The rhetoric of BLM and Sharpton’s gang is especially jarring because, just days earlier, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was killed in cold blood by a shooter in broad daylight just miles north of the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse.
Thompson’s apparent killer has since been arrested. His politics appear to be an incoherent mess, but the Left’s rhetoric condoning the killing is both extraordinary and telling in terms of where the killer might be found on the ideological spectrum.
“People wonder why we want these executives dead,” former New York Times and Washington Post columnist Taylor Lorenz wrote on the left-wing social media echo chamber Bluesky. “People have very justified hatred toward insurance company CEOs because these executives are responsible for an unfathomable amount of death and suffering,” she added. Later on TV, she suggested her reaction to the killing was “joy.”
Shocking though Lorenz’s comments were, they were echoed, not condemned, among Bluesky’s left-wing membership.
Climate activist Tobita Chow of the Justice is Global project added, “Saw mainstream news coverage about the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare on TikTok and I think political and industry leaders might want to read the comments and think hard about them.” The post received 137,000 likes.
The Network Contagion Research Institute at Rutgers University identified thousands of similar posts across social media platforms that had been viewed millions of times. “We’ve identified highly engaged posts circulating the names of other healthcare CEOs and others celebrating the shooter,” NCRI fellow Alex Goldenberg said. “The framing of this incident as some opening blow in a class war and not a brutal murder is especially alarming.”
That Neely was free to threaten riders on the subway is a legitimate public policy issue. The New York City Police Department said Neely had been arrested 40 times for other similar incidents. In 2021, in a plea agreement with prosecutors, he enrolled in a program that provided free housing and healthcare in the Bronx. He left the program in under two weeks.
The healthcare system is worthy of criticism. The opaque system used by health insurers to ration care compliant with federal regulations is frustrating and disempowering. Much could be done to reform it.
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But killing health insurance CEOs is not one of them. Nor is the solution to New York’s crime problem locking up citizens who defend themselves and others from assault.
The Left’s response to the two violent deaths in New York City tells one a lot about its motives, thinking, and general depravity.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
