On the night of April 13, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and his family hosted a Passover seder in their official residence in Harrisburg. Hours later, as they slept, a man snuck past security, threw Molotov cocktails into the house, and lit it on fire.
Fortunately, the fire was extinguished. Though there was substantial property damage, the governor and his family escaped unharmed. What is striking, however, is the relative quiet that has followed—the absence of widespread condemnation or any sustained national conversation about what this incident might tell us about our civic condition.
Authorities arrested Cody Balmer, a 38-year-old with an extensive criminal record and a history of mental instability, shortly after he apparently confessed and submitted to law enforcement. He had recently been arrested for assault against multiple members of his family but was out on bail. His family had tried, unsuccessfully, to have him committed. Balmer was reportedly upfront about his motives, telling the police he opposed what Shapiro would “do to the Palestinian people.”
That is a strange, terrifying sentence. Josh Shapiro is a state governor, not a federal official with foreign policy authority. But he is also Jewish and has expressed his steadfast support for Israel and its right to wage war against Hamas, even as that has become a divisive issue within his Democratic Party. In a moment of global tension, that was apparently enough to make him a target. The man who targeted him – not only prepared to murder an entire family, but to bash Shapiro to death with a hammer if it came to that – is admittedly mentally ill. Does that mean his violence should be written off as just the erratic behavior of one deranged man?
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Tal Fortgang is an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He was a 2023 Sapir Fellow.
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