Man identified by police as Max Azzarello, from Florida, declared dead after incident outside lower Manhattan courthouse
A man has died after setting himself on fire outside the New York courthouse where Donald Trump’s hush-money trial is taking place.
The New York City police department said on Saturday the man had been declared dead by staff at an area hospital.
Officials had said earlier the man, who was in his late 30s, was in critical condition.
The New York police department said the man, who they identified as Max Azzarello of St Augustine, Florida, did not appear to be targeting Trump or others involved in the trial.
Witnesses said the man pulled pamphlets out of a backpack and threw them in the air before he doused himself with a liquid and set himself on fire on Friday. One of those pamphlets included references to “evil billionaires” but portions that were visible to a Reuters witness did not mention Trump.
Another case for, at a minimum, universal mental health care.
While I do think that we do need universal mental health care (and universal health care in general), I’m not sure it would have helped in this situation. The thing about mental health care is that you can’t force it on anyone, they have to want it themselves. He had friends who tried to get him help but he wouldn’t take it, and there’s only so much that can be done if he refuses. It’s like the old saying you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.
I don’t think you can advocate for universal mental health care without universal health care. Mental health care is health care.
There’s a reason where I am that a mental health clinician is part of the cancer team. Having just the therapy aspect covered would do nothing for people unable to treat their physical illnesses.
Promoting better accessibility of mental health care is reasonable- even places with universal coverage mental health lags behind. The tricky thing is that some people will refuse to access care even if its available. Its more visible in cases like this but happens all the time with other chronic illnesses like COPD and diabetes where it gets out of control and the person succumbs quietly.
I don’t know where I’m going with this. I wish he had sought help and I wish that help was available. I’m glad no one else lost their lives in this case.
Agreed. Treating mental health separately from health makes about as much sense as requiring different health insurance for teeth as well as eyes.
Well, that’s why I say “at a minimum”. Once everyone has universal mental health care, then maybe we can get the real deal…
It seems to me, at least in suburban middle class liberal millennial circles, that mental healthcare is getting a lot more destigmatized.
I hope this anecdote is part of an actual trend, and it expands to other demographics.
“so you’re saying we need a fire suppressant grenade launcher? we’ll get right on it.”
Ill call Raytheon, see if we can get the unit price below 1 mil.
A firefighting low-power 40mm grenade would actually be a dope idea, though I don’t know how effective it would be. There’s been attempts at similar “grenade” type extinguishers you toss.
My highdea is a firetruck that has cans of compressed nitrogen, and a firehose of sorts that’s got some resistive heating elements lining all the inside of it (that can be turned on or off). Then it just dumps out nitrogen at a huge CFM/PSI/whatever, displacing the oxygen quickly enough to blow out the fire, but not long enough to suffocate the immolator.
Basically a huge, super powered hand dryer. That chokes the fire. And a 50/50 shot as to whether it’s nice and warm or freezing fucking cold.
Not really, lol.
You think better access to psychological care won’t reduce instances of self-immolation?
I think we should address why people do this instead of telling them they shouldn’t do it.
Blaming a lack of mental healthcare is patronizing and derailing from the real issues.
You people don’t realize when you’re being manipulated to waste money on useless endeavors. It’s sad, really.
I would give your comment passing marks if the prompt were to give a general sense of smug disagreement without saying anything with actual content. Also, I get the distinct impression that you don’t know what the word “patronizing” means.
Lol, what? Telling someone their problems aren’t real and it’s just mental health is a textbook example of patronizing them.
I’m guessing you feel called out and that’s why you feel the need to criticize and misrepresent what’s being said.
Judging by how you don’t know what “patronizing” means, I’ll also accept that you can’t comprehend English very well.
Sure, but no one said that the problems weren’t real, and no one’s being as reductionist as you seem to think.
My criticism was there to highlight how patronizing you are being while simultaneously illustrating that no one else here was. To be more specific, you’re assuming a lot about everyone else’s positions and giving the most surface-level explanations you possibly could.
Derailing the conversation to mental health instead of what this person’s specific problems were has the same effect.
Yeah. I’m patronizing to those who are duped into wasting money on things that don’t solve problems. I’m assuming you’re in that camp which is why you’re “criticizing” me.
Criticism noted and discarded.
My read on this is that you think access to mental Healthcare doesn’t solve any problems. Am I mistaken, and if not why do you think that?
Also, what problem(s) did the self-immolator have that you think needs to be addressed so badly that it needs to be talked about to the exclusion of all else? After all, if you’re so irritated about what people not talking about them, why not bring them up explicitly?
Tell me you know nothing about mental health without telling me you know nothing about mental health.
Mental health problems are absolutely 100% real. It’s not “in your head”. Depression isn’t something you can just walk off. Panic attacks aren’t something you can fix by taking a sick day.
To imply that “mental health = not real” is not only destructive, but also incredibly insulting.