Social media support for accused killers Luigi Mangione, Elias Rodriguez an 'exceptionally bad sign': expert
Social media users have been drawing comparisons between online support for accused killers Elias Rodriguez, Rodney Hinton Jr. and Luigi Mangione.
"That people who commit murder are receiving any meaningful amount of public support, seemingly because the victims are seen by the murder's supporters as belonging to the political opposition, is an exceptionally bad sign for our society," Nicholas Creel, Georgia College and State University ethics professor, told Fox News Digital. "Democracy requires people to be committed to certain values, such as the peaceable resolution of our differences. Without that, we're at risk for a far wider breakdown in the rule of law, the kind where mass atrocities can easily arise."
Rodriguez, 31, of Chicago, is accused of killing Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, a young engaged couple who worked at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday evening outside the Capital Jewish Museum.
Mangione, 26, is charged with first-degree murder in furtherance of an act of terrorism, stalking and a slew of other state and federal charges in both New York and Pennsylvania for allegedly gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a 50-year-old married father of two, on a sidewalk in Manhattan on Dec. 4, 2024.
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Hinton, 38, is charged with aggravated murder after he allegedly "intentionally" struck retired Hamilton County Deputy Larry Henderson, who was directing traffic near the University of Cincinnati during a graduation ceremony, with a vehicle around 1 p.m. on May 2. He allegedly killed the officer a day after Cincinnati police fatally shot his son during a foot pursuit, according to police.
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Experts who spoke with Fox News Digital also noted social media support for 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, who shot at then-presidential candidate Donald Trump during his 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, before being fatally shot by responding officers.
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"Now that we're seeing these other murders get the same kind of attention [as Brian Thompson's], it does seem to be a pattern that is fairly new in terms of the reaction to this," Creel told Fox News Digital regarding support for Mangione and Rodriguez specifically. "So when you get this larger and larger portion of the population that's willing to … sanction that sort of behavior, you become very much ripe for a sort of authoritarian takeover, the kind that can start to lead to mass atrocities."
He added that the most recent killings of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim represent a "very destructive sort of behavior to society."
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"When we look at how does a country become a democracy and remain one – because that's never a guarantee – what we tend to see is there's certain values society has to hold, and one of those is the idea of not resorting to violence," Creel said.
He and his colleague, Ania Rynarzewska, an assistant professor of marketing, have conducted research showing that people feel more empowered when their radical beliefs and ideas get support online.
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"Our research has found so far that before [Thompson's murder], people felt powerless. So they felt like their voice didn't matter," Rynarzewska said. "And after the incident and after people started voicing their opinion on social media … they felt more empowered to speak. They felt like their voices were in the majority, so they no longer have to suppress it."
In all three cases, authorities allege that the suspects had political or personal motives behind their respective alleged actions, and all three men are receiving support, both monetary and nonfinancial, from radical social media users.
A preliminary investigation in the Rodriguez case shows the suspect was allegedly observed pacing back and forth outside the museum before he approached a group of four people leaving the building, including the two victims, and began shooting, D.C. authorities said.
He then entered the museum, where he was detained by event security. While in custody, he yelled, "Free, free Palestine!"
Mangione similarly shouted a message after his arrest in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
"It's completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people and its lived experience," Mangione shouted outside a courthouse in Hollidaysburg days after his arrest.
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Paul Mauro, former NYPD inspector and Fox News contributor, told Fox News Digital that Mangione, Rodriguez, Hinton and Crooks represent "a very specialized class of violent losers."
"At some point, everybody's been down in their luck," Mauro said. "But … when you are in and around 30 years old, and you are still clinging to these adolescent beliefs about the world and how you are on the side of the righteous because you are a member of a particular internet forum, and you're willing to … extinguish the lives of others … you're going to take away loved ones from families. Well, I'm sorry, but you guys are in a class by yourselves."
He added that law enforcement professionals have seen such activity by young radicals "developing" since about 2020.
Mauro also said officials should be following the money that U.S. colleges and universities are receiving from nongovernment organizations and whether any of that funding comes from U.S. adversaries, such as Iran.
The former NYPD inspector noted that Rodriguez, Mangione, Crooks and, to an extent, Hinton are all relatively young men who had "their whole lives ahead of them" before allegedly hunting down people they believed to be their political or personal "opponents."
"They weaponize these college kids who are susceptible and naive and who have never really been scuffed up by the real world," Mauro said. "And in many cases, they don't want to be. They don't really want to go out and get jobs and do all the stuff that we did. … And they stay in this hyperprogressive bubble thinking that they're on the side of the righteous. And then what happens is they manage to survive."
Creel and Rynarzewska similarly noted that young people who are lonely or isolated tend to find a sense of community in people who share radical views online.
"From a bigger societal perspective, that's where we really see the destructive influence on … youth," Creel said. "When you're young, you're developing your sense of the world. You're coming to figure out, when you come of age, what's acceptable, what's not. That's when norms are being developed, your values take hold. And so, because of that, when you see these far more fringe-type positions of people supporting violence – murder, even – that becomes one of those things that then you think is normalized."
Mangione and Hinton have pleaded not guilty to their respective crimes. Fox News Digital has reached out to their attorneys for comment.Original article source: Social media support for accused killers Luigi Mangione, Elias Rodriguez an 'exceptionally bad sign': expert
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