Why top internet sleuths say they won't help find the UnitedHealthcare CEO killer

[Eyes closed]

UnitedHealthcare is providing free health care to illegal aliens and being
reimbursed by the federal government on the tax payer dime.

Americans first. Where is their free health care?

Fuck UnitedHealthcare. Fuck Obamacare. Obamacare made everything worse
and increased costs for everyone - except lazy bums and criminals. They
get it free.

A high-profile violent crime typically sets social media abuzz with tips
and theories from amateur internet sleuths, hunting for the alleged
perpetrator.

But after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down in New York
City this week without a primary suspect being identified, a rare
occurrence happened in the thriving true-crime world: silence online from
highly followed armchair detectives.

“I have yet to see a single video that’s pounding the drum of ‘we have to
find him,’ and that is unique,” said Michael McWhorter, better known as
TizzyEnt on TikTok, where he posts true crime and viral news content for
his 6.7 million followers. “And in other situations of some kind of
blatant violence, I would absolutely be seeing that.”

A masked gunman, who is still on the lam, fatally shot the 50-year-old
executive in front of a busy New York City hotel Wednesday, police said. A
senior New York City law enforcement official briefed on the investigation
said Thursday that shell casings found at the scene had the words “deny,”
“defend” and “depose” written on them but police clarified Friday that it
was “delay” and not “defend.”

Thompson’s targeted killing has sparked online praise from people angry
over the state of U.S. health care. Tens of thousands of people have
expressed support on social media for the killing or sympathized with it.
Some even appeared to celebrate it.

“The surge of social media posts praising and glorifying the killing of
UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson is deeply concerning,” Alex Goldenberg, a
senior adviser at The Network Contagion Research Institute at Rutgers
University previously told NBC News. (Thompson was CEO of
UnitedHealthcare, not of UnitedHealth Group, its parent company.)

In a statement, Thompson’s family said he was “an incredibly loving
father” to two sons and “will be greatly missed.”

“We are shattered to hear about the senseless killing of our beloved
Brian,” the statement said. “Brian was an incredibly loving, generous,
talented man who truly lived life to the fullest and touched so many
lives.”

Still, some of the most popular internet sleuths have sat out the
investigation.

“We’re pretty apathetic towards that,” Savannah Sparks, who has 1.3
million followers on her TikTok account — where she tracks down and
reveals the identities of people who do racist or seemingly criminal acts
in viral videos — said about helping to identify the shooter. She added
that, rather than sleuthing, her community has “concepts of thoughts and
prayers. It’s, you know, claim denied on my prayers there,” referring to
rote and unserious condolences.

Although Sparks, 34, has been tapped by law enforcement in the past to
help train officers on how to find suspects online, according to emails
seen by NBC News, she said this time she isn’t interested in helping
police.

Sparks, who also works in health care as a lactation consultant and holds
a doctorate of pharmacy, didn’t mince words when asked if her community
was working to find the suspect in Thompson’s murder.

“Absolutely the f— not,” she said.

Another popular TikTok sleuth, thatdaneshguy, who has 2 million followers
on the platform, made a video that was critical of the health care
industry, saying that he wouldn’t try to identify the killer. “I don’t
have to encourage violence. I don’t have to condone violence by any means.
But I also don’t have to help,” he said.

That attitude among some content creators comes amid amplified attention
on frustrations with medical care in the U.S. in the wake of the killing.

A Gallup poll released Friday found that Americans believe health care
quality is at a 24-year low. Those polled said health care coverage is
even worse, with 54% saying it’s fair or poor.

Online sleuths have helped the FBI identify hundreds of Capitol rioters
and catch previously arrested Jan. 6 defendants committing crimes that the
bureau’s own review had missed, in one case even finding evidence of a
Proud Boy assaulting an officer in the middle of his seditious conspiracy
trial.

And when Gabby Petito, 22, went missing as she documented her cross-
country travels on social media with her fiancé, online sleuths jumped
into action. It was later determined that Petito was killed by her fiancé
Brian Laundrie, who died by suicide.

At least one person who did try to help find Thompson’s killer was
criticized on X, formerly known as Twitter, for doing so.

In a viral post, Riley Walz, a software engineer, said he was “fairly
confident” about where the shooter fled to on a bike after scouring data
from the Citi Bike’s bikeshare program. He said he shared the information
with the police.

But a source close to Lyft, which operates Citi Bike, later said the NYPD
told the company directly that the incident did not involve the bikeshare
program.

Walz declined to comment Friday. Since his post, some X users have called
him a “snitch.” McWhorter, or TikTok’s TizzyEnt, said backlash toward
those who did try to help might cause others to not want to step in.

“If you’re seeing it in such a groundswell, I have to imagine that factors
into some people’s decision,” he said.

But mostly, McWhorter said, “there’s this weird thing, this vibe of like,
I don’t see a bunch of people just feeling an urgency.”

McWhorter posted his first video about the incident Friday evening. The
roughly two-minute video was about “how much people don’t care.”

Sukrit Venkatagiri, an assistant professor of computer science at
Swarthmore College, said many people feel a lack of connection with a
wealthy CEO.

“They don’t really empathize with who the victim is in this scenario,”
Venkatagiri said.

Venkatagiri, who has studied the harms of misinformation and
disinformation as well as crowd sourcing investigations, said,
anecdotally, he has seen less talk of finding Thompson’s killer on spaces
like the subreddit r/Reddit Bureau of Investigations, an online sleuthing
page on Reddit that claims it is “using the power of the internet to solve
real-world problems.”

“People are less motivated, from an altruistic perspective, to help this
victim in this specific case,” Venkatagiri said.

Beyond a lack of online sleuthing, which can sometimes muddy law
enforcement’s investigations, there has been a flurry of information
released by the New York Police Department.

Police released two images of a “person of interest,” including one in
which he is smiling while using a fake ID to check out of a hostel on New
York City’s Upper West Side, as well as several surveillance videos,
including one in which the suspect shoots Thompson.

Investigators believe the shooter may have traveled to New York City from
Atlanta last month by bus, three senior law enforcement officials familiar
with the case told NBC News.

Investigators have not identified a suspect, although the investigation is
ongoing, a senior law enforcement official briefed on the matter said
Friday. Police have found dozens of images from surveillance cameras of
the suspect from tracking his timeline in Manhattan, the official said.

Police have offered a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to
an arrest and conviction.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/internet-sleuths-say-wont-help-find-
unitedhealthcare-ceo-suspect-rcna183228

[pothead]

Post by Eyes closed
UnitedHealthcare is providing free health care to illegal aliens and being
reimbursed by the federal government on the tax payer dime.
Americans first. Where is their free health care?
Fuck UnitedHealthcare. Fuck Obamacare. Obamacare made everything worse
and increased costs for everyone - except lazy bums and criminals. They
get it free.
A high-profile violent crime typically sets social media abuzz with tips
and theories from amateur internet sleuths, hunting for the alleged
perpetrator.
But after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down in New York
City this week without a primary suspect being identified, a rare
occurrence happened in the thriving true-crime world: silence online from
highly followed armchair detectives.
“I have yet to see a single video that’s pounding the drum of ‘we have to
find him,’ and that is unique,” said Michael McWhorter, better known as
TizzyEnt on TikTok, where he posts true crime and viral news content for
his 6.7 million followers. “And in other situations of some kind of
blatant violence, I would absolutely be seeing that.”
A masked gunman, who is still on the lam, fatally shot the 50-year-old
executive in front of a busy New York City hotel Wednesday, police said. A
senior New York City law enforcement official briefed on the investigation
said Thursday that shell casings found at the scene had the words “deny,”
“defend” and “depose” written on them but police clarified Friday that it
was “delay” and not “defend.”
Thompson’s targeted killing has sparked online praise from people angry
over the state of U.S. health care. Tens of thousands of people have
expressed support on social media for the killing or sympathized with it.
Some even appeared to celebrate it.
“The surge of social media posts praising and glorifying the killing of
UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson is deeply concerning,” Alex Goldenberg, a
senior adviser at The Network Contagion Research Institute at Rutgers
University previously told NBC News. (Thompson was CEO of
UnitedHealthcare, not of UnitedHealth Group, its parent company.)
In a statement, Thompson’s family said he was “an incredibly loving
father” to two sons and “will be greatly missed.”
“We are shattered to hear about the senseless killing of our beloved
Brian,” the statement said. “Brian was an incredibly loving, generous,
talented man who truly lived life to the fullest and touched so many
lives.”
Still, some of the most popular internet sleuths have sat out the
investigation.
“We’re pretty apathetic towards that,” Savannah Sparks, who has 1.3
million followers on her TikTok account — where she tracks down and
reveals the identities of people who do racist or seemingly criminal acts
in viral videos — said about helping to identify the shooter. She added
that, rather than sleuthing, her community has “concepts of thoughts and
prayers. It’s, you know, claim denied on my prayers there,” referring to
rote and unserious condolences.
Although Sparks, 34, has been tapped by law enforcement in the past to
help train officers on how to find suspects online, according to emails
seen by NBC News, she said this time she isn’t interested in helping
police.
Sparks, who also works in health care as a lactation consultant and holds
a doctorate of pharmacy, didn’t mince words when asked if her community
was working to find the suspect in Thompson’s murder.
“Absolutely the f— not,” she said.
Another popular TikTok sleuth, thatdaneshguy, who has 2 million followers
on the platform, made a video that was critical of the health care
industry, saying that he wouldn’t try to identify the killer. “I don’t
have to encourage violence. I don’t have to condone violence by any means.
But I also don’t have to help,” he said.
That attitude among some content creators comes amid amplified attention
on frustrations with medical care in the U.S. in the wake of the killing.
A Gallup poll released Friday found that Americans believe health care
quality is at a 24-year low. Those polled said health care coverage is
even worse, with 54% saying it’s fair or poor.
Online sleuths have helped the FBI identify hundreds of Capitol rioters
and catch previously arrested Jan. 6 defendants committing crimes that the
bureau’s own review had missed, in one case even finding evidence of a
Proud Boy assaulting an officer in the middle of his seditious conspiracy
trial.
And when Gabby Petito, 22, went missing as she documented her cross-
country travels on social media with her fiancé, online sleuths jumped
into action. It was later determined that Petito was killed by her fiancé
Brian Laundrie, who died by suicide.
At least one person who did try to help find Thompson’s killer was
criticized on X, formerly known as Twitter, for doing so.
In a viral post, Riley Walz, a software engineer, said he was “fairly
confident” about where the shooter fled to on a bike after scouring data
from the Citi Bike’s bikeshare program. He said he shared the information
with the police.
But a source close to Lyft, which operates Citi Bike, later said the NYPD
told the company directly that the incident did not involve the bikeshare
program.
Walz declined to comment Friday. Since his post, some X users have called
him a “snitch.” McWhorter, or TikTok’s TizzyEnt, said backlash toward
those who did try to help might cause others to not want to step in.
“If you’re seeing it in such a groundswell, I have to imagine that factors
into some people’s decision,” he said.
But mostly, McWhorter said, “there’s this weird thing, this vibe of like,
I don’t see a bunch of people just feeling an urgency.”
McWhorter posted his first video about the incident Friday evening. The
roughly two-minute video was about “how much people don’t care.”
Sukrit Venkatagiri, an assistant professor of computer science at
Swarthmore College, said many people feel a lack of connection with a
wealthy CEO.
“They don’t really empathize with who the victim is in this scenario,”
Venkatagiri said.
Venkatagiri, who has studied the harms of misinformation and
disinformation as well as crowd sourcing investigations, said,
anecdotally, he has seen less talk of finding Thompson’s killer on spaces
like the subreddit r/Reddit Bureau of Investigations, an online sleuthing
page on Reddit that claims it is “using the power of the internet to solve
real-world problems.”
“People are less motivated, from an altruistic perspective, to help this
victim in this specific case,” Venkatagiri said.
Beyond a lack of online sleuthing, which can sometimes muddy law
enforcement’s investigations, there has been a flurry of information
released by the New York Police Department.
Police released two images of a “person of interest,” including one in
which he is smiling while using a fake ID to check out of a hostel on New
York City’s Upper West Side, as well as several surveillance videos,
including one in which the suspect shoots Thompson.
Investigators believe the shooter may have traveled to New York City from
Atlanta last month by bus, three senior law enforcement officials familiar
with the case told NBC News.
Investigators have not identified a suspect, although the investigation is
ongoing, a senior law enforcement official briefed on the matter said
Friday. Police have found dozens of images from surveillance cameras of
the suspect from tracking his timeline in Manhattan, the official said.
Police have offered a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to
an arrest and conviction.
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/internet-sleuths-say-wont-help-find-
unitedhealthcare-ceo-suspect-rcna183228

I can't say I blame them because the US healthcare system is highly corrupt as is
big pharma.
Something needs to be done, and quickly.