Set with the duty of monitoring down a fugitive from the regulation, you possibly can assure social media will observe them down in file time – even when the one factor to go by is a small, three-inch hole between a masks and a hood. As was the case with the suspect within the deadly capturing of UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson.

The NYPD launched a set of pictures taken behind a taxi on Sunday, and inside lower than 24 hours, the web had gleaned from the darkish, bushy eyebrows alone that it was 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, a Baltimore-born graduate from the College of Pennsylvania, who comes from a distinguished household.

However as soon as discovered, the circus didn’t cease there. In addition to figuring out the suspect, social media sleuths tracked down his LinkedIn, Twitter – even his Goodreads – profiles. And simply as quick got here the memes, objectification and reactionary vlogs.

First, BookTok started analysing his style in literature, questioning whether or not Harry Potter and the Starvation Video games books “radicalised” him (in all seriousness, he did assessment the Unabomber’s manifesto, calling Ted Kaczynski “an excessive political revolutionary”).

Then issues took a good sillier flip, when folks began screengrabbing Mangione’s Twitter banner image, which incorporates a picture of Pokemon character Breloom, an X-ray of his backbone and a topless snap of himself seemingly taken in Hawaii (his final registered handle) – since dubbed a “thirst lure”.

However what does this inform us concerning the alleged killer? And, extra importantly, is he single? I even noticed one video claiming that Luigi would discover itself on the hottest child names listing in 2025 – and depressingly, they could be proper.

I really like an web quest as a lot as the following individual – and am keen on a little bit of doomscrolling. However when these developments and phenomenons transfer away from the difficulty at hand and glorify a suspected killer, that’s the place I (and plenty of others) ought to draw the road.

No matter your politics; your aversion to capitalism (the irony of him being arrested after visiting a McDonald’s was not misplaced on me) and private experiences with the US healthcare system, a person nonetheless died in all of this – a person with youngsters, a spouse and household.

Past mourning their loss and navigating the prominence of the case, they are going to now, too, need to face the truth that the homicide of their relative has spawned infinite memes, unsavoury feedback about the primary suspect within the case and prompted an elaborate celebration by individuals who have an excessive amount of time on their fingers. On a human stage, not less than, that’s extremely unhappy.

It should be mentioned that social media isn’t at all times an aggravator in these circumstances. In 2012, it was because of web sleuths that Don’t F**okay With Cats killer Luka Magnotta was caught. It was additionally social media customers who helped the police observe down lacking Gabby Petito in 2021, who was allegedly killed by her boyfriend Brian Laundrie – who later shot himself.

Neither is social media solely chargeable for this glorification of a possible prison. Sure, in 2014 there was the notorious Scorching Felon craze, which stemmed from the viral mugshot of mannequin Jeremy Ray Meeks and popularised the hashtag #feloncrushfriday. However earlier than the beginning of Instagram, TikTok and the like, there was a weird custom of prison adoration – from Ted Bundy and Charles Bronson to Richard Ramirez. Hybristophilia (a sexual curiosity in those that have dedicated crimes) has lengthy been rife in popular culture.

However too usually, folks on these platforms run away with themselves and get twisted up in conspiracy theories. They overlook that actual persons are concerned – as we’ve seen again and again with Elisa Lam, Nicola Bulley and others. The thirst for clicks and “engagement” overrules the need for fact – usually with massively damaging results and to the detriment of a reside case.

To me, the response to Mind Thompson’s assassination completely summarises the 12 months we’ve had. It demonstrates how starved of frequent decency and human compassion we’re – how suspended from actuality we’ve turn into.

Of all of the issues to unite folks; it was this. And that’s one thing we must be ashamed – and scared – of.