Society / StudentNation / Should We Treat Political Violence as a Public Health Crisis? Mark Thompson, a young plumber from Orem, Utah, never imagined he would be affected by political violence. But it also revealed the limits of treating political violence solely as a safety and security problem. And today, the level of harm from political violence increasingly looks like a public health crisis. Focusing only on body counts misses how political violence actually works, and its most immediate damage is often invisible.