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.
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.
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.
I dunno, I kind of remain pretty skeptical of that being the case. For just as much as I’ve seen that mental health concerns are getting de-stigmatized, I’ve, in almost equal measure, seen all manner of people throwing around terms with absolutely no meaning, taking identification in certain terms without really understanding or elaborating a clear case for their use. I’ve also seen just as many people call, say, someone who sets themselves on fire “insane”, and effectively use various mental health stuff as a thought-terminating cliche, as a kind of offhanded dismissal of anything that makes them feel bad, or they don’t like. Just mechanisms by which they can slot people into boxes and promptly file them away to be forgotten.
So I dunno, I beware the idea that it’s just gonna get swept up, like everything else, into like, middle class liberal self-help bullshit.
Agreed. Treating mental health separately from health makes about as much sense as requiring different health insurance for teeth as well as eyes.