As Americans are still grieving the assassination of Charlie Kirk, New York City delivers another gut punch. A Manhattan judge just tossed out terrorism charges in the case of Luigi Mangione — the man accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in broad daylight last December. You read that right: a political assassination in midtown Manhattan, and somehow it’s not terrorism. Welcome to Alvin Bragg’s New York.
Judge Gregory Carro’s reasoning? Brace yourself. He wrote in a 12-page decision that prosecutors had failed to show evidence of a desire to “terrorize the public, inspire widespread fear, engage in a broader campaign of violence, or to conspire with organized terrorist groups.” According to him, Mangione’s murder was just a “heinous, but targeted and discrete killing of one person.” In other words, because Mangione didn’t leave behind a membership card for Al-Qaeda, it’s not terrorism.
Let’s pause here and check the FBI’s own definition of terrorism: “the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a Government or civilian population in furtherance of political or social objectives.” Now remind me — didn’t Mangione literally execute a healthcare CEO to make a “point” about the system, while scribbling political messages on shell casings? If that doesn’t meet the definition, then what exactly does?
This is the same twisted logic we’ve been watching unfold in the aftermath of Kirk’s assassination: radicals cheering, excusing, and even celebrating murder for political gain. The moral decay on display is revolting. And rulings like this don’t just embolden killers — they terrorize the public, whether the judge admits it or not. In fact, NYPD’s Counterterrorism and Intelligence Bureau is already warning that the threat of more assassinations remains high. But apparently, that still doesn’t count as terrorism.
To be clear, Mangione isn’t walking free. He still faces a laundry list of state and federal charges — and the feds could hit him with the death penalty. If there were ever a case that screamed for the ultimate punishment, this is it: shooting an innocent man in the back, for politics, for ideology, for nothing more than hatred.
But here’s the sad reality: the New York justice system, under people like Alvin Bragg, is so broken that Americans can’t count on it to deliver the justice they deserve. Thankfully, federal prosecutors still have the chance to step in and do what the local system refuses to — hold a political assassin accountable as the terrorist he is.
The good news? Every one of these outrageous rulings is a wake-up call. Americans see the double standards. They see the weakness. And they see why we need leaders who are willing to enforce the law without apology. Justice delayed is dangerous — but justice denied is deadly. And the people are watching.
