CEO Killer Suspect Luigi Mangione Captured, What We Know, Daniel Penny NOT GUILTY, & Today’s News
PDS Published 12/9/2024
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A person of interest in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has been identified in Pennsylvania.
He was arrested on local firearm charges and the NYPD identified him as 26-year-old Luigi Mangione. (Man-jee-own-ee)
And NYPD is traveling to Pennsylvania to further interview him.
And even though we have been talking about this case for a few days, as a refresher, Thompson was shot in midtown Manhattan on Wednesday morning and there has been a major manhunt for the gunman ever since.
As for how this person of interest was identified, no, it was not at the UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter lookalike contest, which is a real thing that really happened.
But rather at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania, where NYPD says he was recognized by an employee.[]
And police recovered a weapon consistent with the one used in the murder, as well as a fake New Jersey ID that matched the one the suspect used to check into a hostel in New York.
With Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch adding:
“Additionally, officers recovered a handwritten document that speaks to both his motivation and mindset.”(4:37-4:43)
NYPD officials saying that document was 3 pages long and that right now, it does not look like there are any specific threats to others listed in it, but it does show ill-will towards corporate America. []
But they did not include any other details about that document.
All of this notably comes after there were some other updates in the search over the weekend, including the fact that NYPD recovered a backpack in Central Park that they believed belonged to the gunman and contained monopoly money and a jacket.
But officials said the most crucial part in finding this person of interest ended up being those surveillance pictures that were shared, saying:
“The images that we spread with the public were spread far and wide and the tips we received led to the recovery of crucial evidence. We should never underestimate the power of the public to be our eyes and our ears in these investigations.” (6:20-6:36)
The most crucial photo being the one where he lowered his mask at the New York hostel, apparently flirting with the woman at the check in desk.[]
As far as details about Mangione, they did not give too many out, but said he was born and raised in Maryland, had ties to San Francisco, potentially went to school in Pennsylvania, and that his last known address was in Hawaii.
At this time, the NYPD also believes that he acted alone, though the investigation is still ongoing.
And so now, the public is just digging up everything they can about him on social media, and uh, the one conclusion Twitter at least has come to is that they think he’s hot, they are thirsting and simping in ways unseen.[][][]][
And there was some of that last week, especially since, as we talked about, people had no sympathy for Thompson and were actively rooting for the gunman.
But now that Magione has been ID’d as a person of interest, that is just exploding to a new level.
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We’ve gotta talk about the conclusion to this trial of Daniel Penny.
Because depending on your perspective, it’s either a hero now being vindicated or a profound miscarriage of justice. [][]
So in case it slipped your mind, Daniel Penny is the now 26-year-old former marine who choked out a homeless man on the New York City subway back in spring of last year. [Image]
With that man being Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old homeless Michael Jackson impersonator with a history of mental illness and drug use. [Image and Image]
And according to witnesses, when Neely entered the train car, he acted erratically, yelling that he was hungry and allegedly making vague threats. [Quote, find “thirsty”]
So Penny came up from behind and pulled him to the floor in a chokehold for as long as six minutes, all the while bystanders filmed videos that went viral. [B roll, 02:11 - 02:15]
Then, despite EMTs’ efforts to resuscitate him, Neely never woke up.
With Penny later getting charged with second-degree manslaughter.
Now Penny’s lawyers argued that he acted lawfully in defense of the other passengers, who didn’t know whether Neely had any weapons or not. [Quote, find “lunged”]
With several subway riders testifying that they were terrified Neely was going to attack and felt relieved when Penny did something. [Quote, find “terrified”]
But thing is, the prosecutor actually agreed that Penny intended to protect his fellow passengers.
With her adding the caveat: “he just didn’t recognize that Jordan Neely’s life too needed to be preserved.” [Quote and image]
And arguing, “the defendant used way too much force for way too long in way too reckless of a manner.” [Quote same link and same image]
So to bolster that point, she pointed out how Penny kept Neely in the chokehold even after the man stopped moving, and other passengers cautioned him to loosen his grip.
With the Marine Corps martial arts expert who trained Penny testifying that Penny was aware the holds could be lethal. [Quote, find “be lethal”]
But the defense called their own medical expert to the stand who claimed that the chokehold alone didn’t kill Neely.
Arguing instead that a mix of factors led to his death, including a sickle cell crisis, a schizophrenic episode, K2 intoxication, and in part Penny’s chokehold. [Quote, find “K2”]
This contradicting the medical examiner, who did not have the toxicology report at the time they ruled the official cause of death to be compression of the neck.
Though they also stated at trial, “No toxicological result imaginable was going to change my opinion,” even if they showed “enough fentanyl to put down an elephant.” [Quote]
So after each side gave their closing arguments, the 12-person jury deliberated all throughout last week in Manhattan.
But on Friday, they returned to the courtroom to announce that they could not agree on a verdict.
So the judge and the prosecutor agreed to throw out the manslaughter charge, which would’ve carried a sentence of up to 15 years. [Headline]
Instead allowing the jury to consider a lesser alternative charge of criminally negligent homicide.
Which carries a maximum sentence of just four years, though the judge could give him no prison time at all.
But now today, the jury came back with another announcement, this time that they’d reached a unanimous verdict.
Daniel Penny is not guilty of criminally negligent homicide. [Headline]
With one half of the protesters outside the courthouse celebrating the news, and the other half disappointed by the lack of justice for Neely’s death.
Though it’s still not completely over for Penny, since Neely’s father separately filed a lawsuit in New York Supreme Court last week accusing Penny of assault, battery and causing Neely’s death. [Image and Quote, find “lawsuit”]
But the main takeaway is that Penny’s not going to prison, and whether you’re happy about that or not, I want to hear your thoughts down below.
Links:
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/12/06/us/daniel-penny-jordan-neely-trial-verdict/index.html
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Jay Z is being accused of raping a teenage girl alongside Diddy.
Right, ever since Diddy was indicted back in September, there had been a ton of rumors and reports that other celebrities would be named in legal action, claims that A-listers knew about and even participated in Diddy’s alleged freak-offs.
And yesterday, it actually happened.
The case in question actually involves a lawsuit that was first filed in October.
It named Diddy, and mentioned two other unnamed celebrities,
But it has now been refiled to say one of those celebrities was Jay Z, while the other has still not been identified.
And we actually covered it when it was first filed, so some of the allegations might sound a little familiar.
The suit claims that Diddy and Jay Z drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl at a VMAs after party in 2000.[]
And it says another celebrity stood by and watched as both took turns assaulting her.
As for how these allegations unfolded, the lawsuit says that the girl was trying to get into the VMAs, and Diddy’s limo driver ended up inviting her to an after party.
Once at that party, the suit claims she was asked to sign a document, which she now believes was an NDA, but she was never given a copy.
Also claiming she accepted a drink that made her feel woozy, so she went to a room to lie down, and then Diddy, Jay Z, and an unnamed female celebrity walked in.
And that is when the assault allegedly happened, with Jay Z being accused of undressing raping the teenage girl first, and Diddy going after, with the girl only escaping after hitting Diddy in the neck.
The suit adding that after this alleged assault, she:
“fell into a deep depression which continues to affect every facet of her life.”
Adding that she also suffers from PTSD and a seizure disorder caused by the trauma.
The suit also accused Jay Z of harassing the alleged victim.
Claiming that before this updated complaint was filed, Jay Z received a letter from her counsel requesting mediation, but:
“Jay-Z responded to said letter by not only filing an utterly frivolous lawsuit, but by also orchestrating a conspiracy of harassment, bullying and intimidation against Plaintiff’s lawyers, their families, employees and former associates in an attempt to silence Plaintiff from naming Jay-Z.”
But the suit says that this effort did not work, and actually encouraged the victim to list him in the suit.
The suit also trying to paint Diddy and Jay Z as being incredibly close, saying that their relationship went past just being collaborators, that they were very close friends.
So close that Jay Z is allegedly the only person, aside from Diddy’s mom, allowed to call him by his legal name of “Sean.”
For his part, Diddy’s legal team gave a statement to NBC News saying the suits being filed against him are shameless publicity stunts full of lies.[]
But it’s Jay Z’s response that is getting the most attention, because he posted a statement to Roc Nation’s social media accounts railing against the victim’s lawyer, Tony Buzbee, saying:[]
“My lawyer recei ved a blackmail attempt, called a demand letter, from a "lawyer" named Tony Buzbee. What he had calculated was the nature of these allegations and the public scrutiny would make me want to settle. No sir, it had the opposite effect! It made me want to expose you for the fraud you are in a VERY public fashion. So no, I will not give you ONE RED PENNY!! These allegations are so heinous in nature that I implore you to file a criminal complaint, not a civil one!!”
Going on to try to discredit Buzbee’s previous cases, as well as his time in the marines, then calling him an "ambulance chaser in a cheap suit.”
Going on to say:
“My only heartbreak is for my family. My wife and I will have to sit our children down, one of whom is at the age where her friends will surely see the press and ask questions about the nature of these claims.”
“You have made a terrible error in judgement thinking that all "celebrities" are the same. I'm not from your world. I'm a young man who made it out of the project of Brooklyn. We don't play these types of games…We protect children, you seem to exploit people for personal gain.”
This led to a whole back and forth, with Buzbee issuing a statement, saying that the one thing Jay Z failed to mention in his response is that:
“My firm sent his lawyer a demand letter on behalf of an alleged victim and that victim never demanded a penny from him. Instead, she only sought a confidential mediation.”[]
“As far as the allegations in the complaint filed, we will let the filing speak for itself and will litigate the facts in court, not in the media.”
And as you can imagine, there has been a ton of responses everywhere, especially since people were kind of just waiting for the other shoe to drop in terms of other celebrities being named in the Diddy case.
So some were quick to defend Jay Z, but others slammed his response, saying it was “indistinguishable from a 3am toilet Trump tweet.”[][][][]
And then, because Jay Z is married to Beyonce, you had tons of people trying to use the allegations against him to bring her down.[][]
This even though she is not named anywhere in that complaint, so you had some upset that these serious allegations are turning into a stan war. [][]
But that all just shows the tip of the iceberg in terms of how messy things might get now that one of the most powerful people in the music industry is facing accusations here.
And so I would just love to know your thoughts on this one, on the allegations, Jay Z’s response and denial, the overall reactions.
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This could be the end of TikTok as we know it — for real this time.
A federal court has upheld the law signed by Biden in April that forces TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, to sell to a non-Chinese company or face being banned in the U.S.
With the deadline for that sale being January 19th, the day before Trump will be sworn into office.
Right, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and intelligence officials argued the move was necessary because TikTok’s ownership under a Chinese company posed a threat to national security.
Arguing that the Chinese government could pressure the private company to hand over Americans’ data or push propaganda.
Though, very notably here, they never provided evidence of those claims.
And TikTok has denied them fiercely, filing a lawsuit arguing that the legislation violated the First Amendment and unfairly targeted the company.
But a three-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled unanimously against TikTok, effectively denying its effort to overturn the law.
With the judges arguing that said the law was “carefully crafted to deal with only control by a foreign adversary” and didn’t violate the First Amendment, adding:
“The government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States.”
And, notably here, the Chief Judge on the panel did acknowledge that many Americans could “lose access to an outlet for expression, a source of community and even a means of income.”
But he also added that “Congress judged it necessary to assume that risk given the grave national-security threats it perceived” and the courts “are not in a position to set it aside.”
Now, with this, we’ve seen a lot of free speech advocates condemning the move, with TikTok itself also slamming the decision as “ ”
And also indicating that it will take the matter to the Supreme Court, arguing that the high court:
“has an established historical record of protecting Americans’ right to free speech, and we expect they will do just that on this important constitutional issue.”
And just this morning, we saw TikTok filing a motion asking the federal appeals court to pause the law from taking effect to give the Supreme Court enough time to consider whether to take the case and allow Trump to weigh in.
With the company arguing that Trump could prevent the need for the Supreme Court to rule on the matter at all by fulfilling his promise to “save” TikTok.
Which is a complete 180 from his first term, where he became one of the app’s biggest opponents and actively tried to ban it.
But, as for what Trump could actually do here, that’s not entirely clear.
Right, in order for the law to fully be repealed, it would take an act of Congress.
One possible action Trump could take is directing his new attorney general to not enforce the law.
But that could be tricky because the way the ban is enforced is by penalizing app stores if they continue to offer TikTok.
But Apple and Google would probably be wary about disobeying a law entirely based on the word of Trump, who isn’t known for being particularly trustworthy and has been inconsistent in his views of TikTok.
Additionally, there’s a provision of the law that allows the president to determine whether a sale or similar transaction successfully removes TikTok from “foreign adversary” control.
With some experts speculating that ByteDance could make serious structural changes to meet those requirements and Trump could approve them and allow the app to continue operating.
But, at the same time, many experts have also questioned Trump’s commitment to TikTok, especially given how hawkish he is on China.
With some noting that Congress passed this law after closed-door intelligence briefings about the threats posed by TikTok’s Chinese ownership, and so Trump could change his mind once he takes office and gets briefed on the same information.
But, outside of Trump, TikTok doesn’t have many other avenues for survival.
Right, of course, there is always the possibility that ByteDance will cave to the law and sell now that their attempt to block the law has been shut down by the Appeals Court.
But they have repeatedly refused to do so, and even if they wanted to, a sale of TikTok’s algorithm would probably get blocked under Chinese export controls issued in 2020.
So if they did decide to sell TikTok, it would be a shell of the platform without the algorithm that makes the app what it is.
Then, as far as the Supreme Court’s role in all this, multiple experts have said that if the justices agree to take up the case, they would likely uphold the decision made by the Appeals Court and allow the law to live on.
And while you'd still likely be able to use TikTok if you downloaded the app by the ban, you wouldn't be able to receive updates so eventually it'd turn into a buggy nightmare before ultimately becoming useless. []
So yeah… not looking too great for TikTok.
But, of course, we’re going to have to wait and see, and with this, I’d love to know your thoughts in those comments down below.
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What the hell just happened in Syria?
After nearly two decades of civil war, the rule of the Assad family has ended after just a few weeks with Bashar al-Assad and his family reportedly fleeing the country to Russia.
The liberation of Damascus also came with sobering reminders of Assad’s regime like the tens-of thousands of political prisoners that were freed.
The stories coming out are heart breaking, suh as allegations that everyone was given a number and weren’t allowed to use their names.
But that’s a rabbit hole and we need to look at how this happened so quickly, who’s behind it, and is this really the end of the war?
On the first point, it seems that what really screwed over the Assad regime was that its major backers -- Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah have lost a lot of their power in the region.
Russia used to have a lot of troops in Syria but has needed them more and more for its war in Ukraine.
That left Iran and Hezbollah.
So that left Hezbollah to prop up Assad, all of which came crashing down after it gambled that it could fight another war with Israel.
Because of this, the ill-trained and low-morale troops under Assad’s control almost literally didn’t put up a fight when the rebels started their offensive.
Speaking of them, who are they?
Despite being described as a cohesive group, they’re more of a loose coalition with the group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham at the helm. I’ll be just calling them HTS.
They’re a spin off of a former Al-Qaeda affiliate; so a few steps removed from its hardcore Islamist past.
But that doesn’t mean those tendencies still aren’t there with the US designating them as a terror group.
[]The group's leader, Abu Mohamed al-Jolani pushed back against this in an interview with CNN, saying that the label was “primarily political and, at the same time, inaccurate.” [broll of the interview]
He went on to add that the whole reason HTS exists is because it was opposed to the most extreme Islamic groups and splintered away.
But that hasn’t stopped many from worrying that we’re about to see another repressive caliphate in the Middle East.
On that note, Jolani had this to say:
“People who fear Islamic governance either have seen incorrect implementations of it or do not understand it properly.”
He went on to add that Syria would transition into “a state of governance, institutions and so on…. Syria deserves a governing system that is institutional, no one where a single ruler makes arbitrary decisions.”
And the group does have experience governing.
It’s been in charge of the large city of Id-leeb and the surrounding areas for a while now.
Reports from there indicate that in some ways it was repressive with things like prisons for political prisoners (I guess some things don’t change in Syria).
[]But at the same time Jolani showed that he was willing to bend after push back from residents.
[]And either way he’s been effective with Id-leeb going from one of Syria’s poorest major cities to one that is effectively run with malls, cafes, functioning public services, and even 24-hour electricity… something that not even Damascus has.
[]
But ruling what essentially amounts to a single province is much different from an entire country.
Especially one as diverse as Syria, which has a lot of ethnic and religious minorities.
Which begs the question of what would happen to them under a possibly (moderate) Islamic regime?
Jolani tried to reassure them, saying that: [broll of the interview]
“There were some violations against them [minorities] by certain individuals during periods of chaos, but we addressed these issues.”
“No one has the right to erase another group. These sects have coexisted in this region for hundreds of years, and no one has the right to eliminate them.”
What’s really interesting is seeing how the media has portrayed Jolani and his group after recently or so compared to the past.
Just looking at Google trends and you can see there’s not a lot about them out there prior to the past few weeks.
The biggest buzz they made was back in April when the group was dealing with protests in Id-leeb, with some outlets describing him as a dictator.
“Protests have erupted against another Syrian Dictator.”
And “Protests Grow Against Powerful Jihadist Groups in Syria Enclave.”
[]And generally speaking, HTS was described as authoritarian.
But now they’re more of an “unknown.”
However, the Jolani and the group have spent MONTHS trying to polish their image, and they may possibly be sincere about it despite their fundamentalist past.
But as we saw in his CNN interview, he now claims the opposite.
[]And the group has been saying the right things recently.
Like in response to those protests earlier this year, HTS’ media body told outlets:
“The protests … in the streets against Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham and the Salvation Government are natural and we do not view them in any other context.”
“We’re confident that those who work make mistakes and all protests aim to correct these mistakes that have recently transpired.”
[]
And that’s on top of recent reports that claim soldiers for the HTS were told they couldn’t approach women for dressing "inappropriately" and tell them to cover up because women are allowed to wear what they want.
It remains to be seen if this is just some temporary stances to cozy up to other countries are a legitimate shift.
And all that could depend on what happens next.
Jolani claims that he’ll be working with groups to try and set up some kind of stable transition to power.
And obviously most people hope for that.
But even if he starts a stable government in Damascus it doesn’t mean that’s even the end of the Civil War… unless he can convince the Kurds to lay down their arms and join the country again. [use the map]
Something that probably isn’t likely as they’ve been acting autonomously for almost two decades now and an independent Kurdistan has long been a dream for the ethnic group.
And that’s ANOTHER rabbit hole, because as all of this was happening Turkey attacked Kurdish forces because Turkey DOESN’T want a Kurdistan to exist.
And let’s say that some kind of agreements were made to end the fighting between the various rebel groups… Syria would still be at war.
This time with Israel as the two have long had a disputed region called the Golan Heights.
And with the Assad regime falling, Israel took the chance to attack in Syria and secure a buffer zone and occupy more land.
So we’ll have to keep an eye on all these moving parts.
Because as great as it’d be to see a democratic and relatively free Syria as Jolani has promised… it’s probably safer to say that the country still has A LONG way to go.
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