The Patriot Post® · Another Awful Martyr on the Left

It was Aesop who noted more than two and a half millennia ago that we’re judged by the company we keep. And the Left lately has been keeping company with murderers.

For the longest time, their cause célèbre was vile cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal. More recently, though, leftists have taken a shine to Luigi Mangione, the twisted Ivy League dreamboat who murdered UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson — a husband and father of two — ostensibly because he didn’t like the spiraling costs of healthcare. (We in our humble shop don’t know a single person who’s happy with the miserable failure of ObamaCare, but nor do we know anyone who’s taken to shooting people in the back because of it.) Indeed, the Mangione mania has become downright sickening, as evidenced by the recent musings of “independent” journalist Taylor Lorenz. (As an aside: Does anyone doubt, for example, that today, in private company, they’d be nodding approvingly and clinking their wine glasses had either Thomas Crooks or Ryan Routh accomplished his mission?)

But Mangione now has company in the form of “alleged” murderer Karmelo Anthony, the 17-year-old who earlier this month at a high school track meet in Frisco, Texas, ended the life of a fellow 17-year-old, Austin Metcalf, for the high crime of having told him he was in the wrong school’s tent. “Touch me and see what happens,” said Anthony, before stabbing Metcalf in the heart and leaving him to die in the arms of his twin brother, Hunter.

Anthony doesn’t deny doing what he did — only claiming that he did so in self-defense — but the outpouring has been grotesque. As the New York Post reports:

Donors from across the country, celebrating a 17-year-old who pulled out a knife at a track meet, have flooded a GiveSendGo fundraiser set up by the Anthony family with contributions and racially provocative comments. “Keep doing what you do, young man,” one anonymous donor of $100 wrote. “You are an antibullying hero, a scholar, and a gentleman.” Another $20 donor, alluding to the fact that the perpetrator is black and the victim white, wrote, “US AGAINST THEM! PERIOD!”

The total haul so far? More than $500,000. This should give us all chills.

But this isn’t merely an outpouring of sympathy for Anthony. The deranged Left has also targeted the victim’s family. Last week, the Frisco Police Department confirmed that the Metcalf home was “swatted.” If you’re unfamiliar with the term, it involves a hoax phone call to report a serious crime, with the intent of getting a SWAT team dispatched to the targeted residence. This is deadly serious stuff, and one day it’ll get someone killed.

Last week, Jeff Metcalf, Austin’s father, made a surprise appearance at a press conference in which Anthony’s mother had planned to speak. Metcalf was ultimately escorted out by police. Metcalf had said he was only there to watch, but regardless, whatever happened to the “moral authority” that the Left always talks about? Surely the father of Austin Metcalf deserves to be heard.

It seems leftists are trying to turn this case into the next iteration of George Floyd — or, frankly, any number of other unworthy individuals. To this point, the Left’s celebration of Anthony and Mangione are not one-offs. In addition to these two, we have the aforementioned Floyd, as well as Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Jacob Blake, Jordan Neely, Marcellus Williams, and countless others before them.

Clearly, these people need to find better martyrs.