The Murder of a CEO in New York and the Fall of a Tyrant in Syria

Justice remains a perpetual mirage.

Here's a suspicion that I've developed over the last few days. Perhaps some of you might agree with me. This is another one of those ideas where I'd very much like to be proven wrong. Perhaps tomorrow I will be. We can only hope.

I suspect there is a real chance that the man who murdered UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson will get away with it. We may never even know who he was. And even if we do learn his identity, chances are, he is smart enough to avoid getting caught by having done the most obvious thing to do in a situation like this: Fly to a non-extradition country and start a new life there.

I suspect that, if the assassin was smart enough to plan this killing as well as he did, and to have executed his escape from the city as quickly as he did, he most certainly had the next steps already planned far ahead, too. And that would have been the safest and smartest thing to do.

He's just gone.

Now, is this such a wild idea? That someone who commits such a brazen murder on the streets of Manhattan could get away with it?

Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to introduce you to a cruel man named Mr. Clearance Rates:

To translate this chart, what is demonstrated here is the fact that arrests are made on only 57.8% of murders. And that rate is, of course, much higher than for rape, burglary, or having your car stolen (which rates its own category here).

So even among the many murders committed by complete dumbasses, police still struggle to make arrests. (And of course, this is just arrests. The conviction rate is even lower, and of those convicted, how many have simply pled down to a lesser offense?)

Now, I have to emphasize, this is not what I hope happens! I really hope that this motherfucker gets caught, convicted, and put away in prison for life. We simply have a ton of reasons to be skeptical that this is actually going to happen.

However, as this tale of an assassin-as-folk-hero takes off in America, a much more significant story is unfolding in the Middle East: the tyrant and mass murderer Bashar al-Assad has been overthrown. After 50 years, the Assad family no longer controls Syria.

But where is Assad right now?

He's in fucking Moscow, protected by the genocidal monster Vladimir Putin.

Both of these men deserve to be imprisoned for life. While shooting a healthcare executive in Manhattan is a heinous crime, doing the same thing to these motherfuckers would be a heroic act.

Yeah, just let that marble roll around in your skull for a moment.

Consider: How many people celebrating Thompson's murder - because of how terrible health insurance companies can be - even know who Bashar al-Assad is? How many could find Syria on a map?

Here's something else to consider, and it's admittedly gruesome: If the method of executing Assad was to drown him in a pool of the blood of his victims, then how many bodies would it take to fill a pool big enough to kill him? Would it even crack 2% or 3% of the total number of deaths he caused?

But instead of facing the slightest bit of accountability for his thousands of crimes, Assad will live out a comfortable life with his wife and children, certainly in continued luxury. Oh, no! It's going to be a bit colder in Russia. Oh, well! I suppose it's a small price to pay not to get the Gaddafi treatment.

This is how the world works. The bad guys often win. There aren't always happy endings. Justice is elusive. And most people just don't care.

“People are getting tortured and gassed across the globe!? Well, my health insurance is too expensive!”

But maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised.

Maybe the FBI will find the Manhattan murderer.

Maybe someone imprisoned in Assad's jails for years will use his own veterinary gun to put that fucking monster down.

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