My Little Runaway
Luigi Mangione and the myth of NYPD
While NYPD is breaking their arms by patting themselves on the back on the arrest of Luigi Mangione, it is fit to keep a few things in mind:
Luigi Mangione escaped their city without outside support. By his lonesome, he dodged every cop and blockade to get to the bus station. One that was crowded with people. People who knew what had happened.
He took a bus. He went to two cities.
By then, dozens of people saw him and at least thought “gosh, that looks like the shooter of that CEO guy,” if not “HEY! That’s him!”
He was on the lam for five days with all of U.S. law enforcement looking for him and his smiling visage on every news site and all over social media.
No one in his family - and don’t tell me they didn’t recognize him - said anything.
None of his friends said anything. Not even a vengeful ex-roommate or romantic interest.
In five days, he ate and slept multiple times - somewhere.
NYPD offered a paltry $10,000 reward. The FBI added $50,000.
He was turned into the police by an old woman working at McDonalds after he ordered some food and sat down to eat it.
“He was just sitting there eating,” said Joseph Kenny, the New York Police Department’s chief of detectives. From FastCompany.
There’s a few things that must be apparent.
Lots of people saw Luigi Mangione and said nothing to the police. His face was everywhere.
He was captured in a McDonalds. I am going to guess it wasn’t the first McDonald’s he ate in during his escape. It was just the first one where someone phoned 911.
Even he must have been stunned at how long it took for police to arrest him.
I wouldn’t want to be that old lady.