Assassinations are despicable. I don’t much care if the targets are politicians or mafia bosses. It’s the method I despise. For those who are old enough to remember the killing of Patrice Lumumba, then JFK, then Malcolm X, then MLK, then RFK, every assassination is (I hate this word) a trigger. Assassinations are destabilizing. The shooting of Archduke Franz Ferdinand set off the first world war. Targeted violence has always been a sign – an augury – that the social order is breaking down. I would have preferred to see Osama bin Laden brought to justice so that we might have understood his methods and motives. I know that trials can be rigged, corrupted, biased, but so far the courtroom is the best place we have in which to decide between guilt and innocence – and to assign an appropriate punishment. Assassination is a death sentence without benefit of judge or jury.
All of which is to say that I was deeply horrified by the assassination of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, in cold blood, in broad daylight, in front of the Hilton hotel, in Manhattan.
