A Bronx man arrested Saturday for allegedly stabbing a 14-year-old boy to death on Friday had an extensive history of mental health issues — something which led law enforcement to again demand change in the Big Apple.
Law enforcement sources said Mejia had been wanted for a Jan. 5 incident in Mott Haven, during which he reportedly attacked a 38-year-old man walking down the stairs leading to the 3rd Avenue-East 138th Street subway station. The victim suffered a gash to the left arm. EMS took the victim to a local hospital, where he received several stitches to close the wound.
Transit cops were able to recognize Mejia from surveillance footage and linked him to both attacks. Officers then tracked him down as he tried to enter his home in Mott Haven where police took him into custody and recovered a bloody knife.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch revealed Saturday that Mejia has an extensive rap sheet and a history of mental illness issues.
“Mr. Mejia is a career criminal with four prior unsealed arrests. The most recent one occurred on Nov. 27, 2024, when Mr. Mejia was arrested for stabbing another victim’s ring camera with a kitchen knife, and importantly, was released on his own recognizance the very next day,” Tisch said. “In 2019, Mr. Mejia was arrested for burglary and arson after lighting another victim’s residence on fire. And in 2017, he was found to be in possession of a 9 mm gun loaded with nine rounds, including one in the chamber.”
Tisch said she hopes this tragic incident will lead to more available resources to keep the mentally ill off the streets.
“A brutal, unprovoked killing of a 14-year-old child by a career criminal, a recidivist over and over again, with a history of mental health interactions with the NYPD,” the commissioner said. “How many times does the mayor have to keep talking about this before something changes? I’m hopeful something will change. Let this be the call to action.”
The incident occurred more than a week after Gov. Kathy Hochul announced her intention to seek state legislative approval to empower New York City and other localities to involuntarily hospitalize the severely mentally ill.
#5
We are to assume he is a US citizen based on the coverage. Maybe that’s not a pertinent topic that Americans would be interested in.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/12/2025 10:30 Comments ||
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#6
When a dog mauls and kills someone, are we really concerned about the mental state of the dog? We make sure the dog never does it again to protect others.
[KOMOnews] An Army Veteran sat in a small Joint Base Lewis McChord
… home to I Corps and 62nd Airlift Wing near Tacoma, Washington. It’s one of 12 joint bases created by the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission, combining Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base…
courtroom, voice wavering, to talk for the first time on the record about how he was sexually assaulted by his doctor.
The ranking officer, who served in Operation Enduring Freedom, told the court how he was seeking relief from back pain from Army Doctor Michael Stockin back in 2022. But instead, he said, the anesthesiologist at Madigan Army Medical Center directed him to “drop trou” and touched his genitals multiple times without gloves.
Stockin has admitted to the crime and 35 other assaults of soldiers that were done “with the intent to arouse and gratify the sexual desire” of the doctor under the guise of a medical purpose. It is believed to be the largest case of its kind in recent Army history.
On Friday, Jan. 10, Judge Col. Larry Babin formally accepted the terms of a plea deal, that called for Stockin to be discharged, stripped of any military benefits, and face a minimum of close to 10 years in prison. In exchange, Stockin pleaded guilty to 41 counts, or what are called “specifications” under military law, including 36 counts of abusive sexual contact and 5 counts of indecent viewing. Military prosecutors dropped another 11 counts during the proceedings.
The judge asked Stockin directly “Are you doing this because you are convinced you are guilty?”
#1
Seems unlikely that an assaulted would have developed a discipline of just fondling marble bags for his jollies. They will find more if they look to jug this guy and his helper for more years than 10.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/12/2025 8:15 Comments ||
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TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Arnold Ruutel, the last communist leader of Soviet Estonia and the Baltic country’s second president after the restoration of independence, has died. He was 96.
The office of the President of Estonia, Alar Karis, announced on its website that Ruutel had died on Tuesday.
A trained agriculturalist, Ruutel was almost 50 when, in 1977, he began serving in high-ranking positions within the communist party of the Soviet republic of Estonia. In 1983, he was elected chairman of the republic’s supreme council, becoming the highest-ranking communist official in Estonia.
Soon, however, Ruutel was using his position to prepare for Estonia’s split from the Soviet Union, which had occupied the tiny European country on the Baltic Sea in 1940. In November 1988, Ruutel was a key figure in preparing a declaration of independence, with full sovereignty following three years later.
In the newly independent Estonia, which inherited a sizable ethnic Russian minority as part of its Soviet legacy, Ruutel advocated social democratic policies and support for farmers, and in 1994 he helped form the People’s Union, a left-leaning party that took part in several ruling coalitions.
Ruutel was elected president in 2001, succeeding the highly popular Lennart Meri and serving the next five years while shepherding the Baltic nation into NATO and the European Union in 2004. He sought reelection for a second five-year term but was defeated by Toomas Hendrik Ilves (aka The Penguin) in 2006.
Ruutel will be buried with full state honors, Estonian public broadcaster ERR reported on Wednesday. It did not give a date for the funeral.
The death toll from the California wildfires has risen to 16, with more than 12,000 buildings destroyed.
Los Angeles Sheriff Robert Luna stated that at least 13 people are reported missing. Media reports indicate that wind direction in Los Angeles has shifted, pushing the fire… pic.twitter.com/rsU0mBdxT4
#4
In a weird sense ‘Climate Change’ did cause this. But not in the way Leftist think; it was caused by Leftist twisted Climate Change ideology leading to very poor decisions.
#7
Those areas will likely be labeled 'fire prone' and NOT be permitted for rebuild. They will be returned to nature.
"ONLY YOU" can prevent this from happening again. [sarc off]
Maui Fire Update One Year Later - Aug 2024: Lahaina Rebuild in FocusAccording to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1,399 homes need rebuilding. As the community pursues rebuilding efforts, county officials have only approved a fraction of the disaster recovery building permits submitted by homeowners or their representatives.
To illustrate the sluggishness of this process, it is worth noting that the first residential property is currently only in the rough-framing phase, which occurs during the early stages of reconstruction. However, there has been progress on other lots with laying utility lines and foundations. The premium on reconstruction labor in Hawaii when compared with the mainland U.S. is 40%.
#11
Some progress in containment of the Eaton fire. Yesterday was about 15%, today about 27%.
Still struggling to contain the Palisades fire, only 11% contained.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
01/12/2025 13:31 Comments ||
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#12
A lot of these 12,000 buildings destroyed are $1 million structures (by California standards) on $7 million lots; even if they are insured, only the structural losses will be covered, though most of the financial losses will be because the land cannot be rebuilt on. I suspect governments, at various levels, will pick up that loss by buying the land for parks or reserves or such at some large fraction of pre-fire 'value.'
#5
IRT Skidmark's comment, CalFire has been using convict labor deployed from special fire camps for decades. Inmates in the camps are eligible for reduced sentences depending on their behavior.
[BBC] Flight data and cockpit voice recorders from the South Korean passenger plane that crashed last month stopped recording four minutes before the disaster, the country's transport ministry has said.
The crash of the Jeju Air flight killed 179 people, making it the deadliest air accident on Korean soil. Two cabin crew members were the only survivors.
Investigators had hoped that data on the recorders would provide insights about the crucial moments before the tragedy.
The ministry said it would analyse what caused the "black boxes" to stop recording.
What we know about the South Korea plane crash
Why was there a wall near runway?
The recorders were originally examined in South Korea, the ministry said.
When the data was found to be missing, they were taken to the US and analysed by American safety regulators.
The plane was travelling from Bangkok on 29 December when it crash-landed at Muan International Airport and slid into a wall off the end of the runway, bursting into flames.
Sim Jai-dong, a former transport ministry accident investigator, told Reuters news agency that the loss of data from the crucial final minutes was surprising and suggested that all power, including back-up, could have been cut.
Many questions remain unanswered. Investigators have been looking at the role that a bird strike or weather conditions may have played.
They have also focused on why the Boeing 737-800 did not have its landing gear down when it hit the runway.
[MSN] Millions in Los Angeles County mistakenly received emergency alerts telling them to evacuate. It happened not just once, but twice, with the second incident on Friday.
The mistakes created panic across the region, but the county said they had quickly addressed it.
The county's director of emergency management said the cell phone alerts have already saved lives by getting people to evacuate. However, for about 10 million people, a couple of those alerts also created unnecessary chaos and some distrust of the alert system.
The City of Beverly Hills, in a post on X, reports an evacuation alert went out at 4 a.m. Friday, the county's Office of Emergency Management confirmed it was "another error."
The first error occurred Thursday when the office said millions of people received an alert on their phone by mistake. The alert told them to gather loved ones, pets and supplies, and evacuate. A message to disregard was sent 15 minutes later.
"I can't express enough how sorry I am for this experience," Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management Director Kevin McGowan said. "First of all, I want to clarify this is not human-driven. No one is sitting at a desk right now initiating emergency alerts."
McGowan said local authorities initiated the alert for the correct area. However, there was a system error that sent the emergency alert to the entire county. "We accidentally hit 'Reply All'. Our bad"
"We have every technical specialist working to resolve this issue and find out the root cause," McGowan said.
Here's how the wireless emergency alerts, or WEAS, are supposed to work: Authorized national, state, or local authorities send them through FEMA's warning system to a specific geographic zone affected by an emergency.
This means if someone is in that zone and has a WEA-capable phone, even if they are visiting from out of town, they are supposed to get the alert.
Overall, the technology has become more precise over the years.
When it launched in 2012, the FCC said alerts were sent countywide. By 2019, they had to be sent to zones "with no more than a 1/10th of a mile overshoot."
The geo-targeting of zones relies on new smartphone technology that improves every time most people upgrade their devices.
In 2023, about 83% of smartphones supported enhanced geotargeting, according to the FCC and CTIA, a U.S. wireless association.
"There is an extreme amount of frustration fear with regards to the erroneous messages," McGown said.
On Friday, McGowan said his top priority was to find out what caused the tech error, begging people in LA to still trust the system.
"I implore everyone to not disable the message on your phone," McGowan said. "This is extremely frustrating and painful and scary, but these alert tools have saved lives during this emergency. Not receiving an alert can be a consequence of life and death."
McGowan said the evacuation maps on alertla.org are accurate.
Most wireless carriers participate in the emergency alerts, but it is voluntary. Check with your carrier to be sure.
JUST NOW🔥🔥🔥 Tens of thousands of people are protesting in Bucharest against the cancellation of presidential elections in December What you see in the video is the beginning of the march 3 hours ago As usual media is dead silent about this! We want our country back! pic.twitter.com/SE5xWNqjZ1
Titanium dioxide, the most widely used whitening pigment in the world, has been linked to adverse health effects, particularly genotoxicity and intestinal inflammation. It is applied as a food coloring and a whitening agent to chewing gum, cakes, candies, breads and ice cream.
Titanium dioxide is the most widely used whitening pigment in the world and has been linked to adverse health effects, particularly genotoxicity and intestinal inflammation.
It is applied as a food coloring and a whitening agent to a wide variety of foods, including chewing gum, cakes, candies, breads and ice cream.
Because of health risks, France banned titanium dioxide, or TiO2, as a food additive in 2020. Two years later the European Union (EU) also banned titanium dioxide as a food additive.
But in the U.S., titanium dioxide is found all over the grocery shelves.
Candy like Skittles, Starbursts and Jell-O, gum like Trident White peppermint gum and Mentos Freshmint Gum, cake products like Duncan Hines Creamy Vanilla Frosting and Nabisco Chips Ahoy! cookies are just a few of the myriad food items that contain the additive.
A significant body of research, mostly from rodent models and in vitro studies, has linked titanium dioxide with health risks related to the gut, including intestinal inflammation, alterations to the gut microbiota and more.
It is classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Group 2B, as possibly carcinogenic to humans.
As a food additive, titanium dioxide and its nanoparticles in particular have been associated with DNA damage and cell mutations, which in turn, have the potential to cause cancer. When used as a food coloring, it is known as E171.
#3
It is not the 147 cupcakes per day. It is the Red Dye #2 in the frosting and sprinkles, man! Studies have shown that drinking as little as 8 ounces (~250 ml) of that stuff will turn you orange.
#4
When I was doing toothpaste product development for the big consumer products cmpany, TiO2 was considered inert, harmless unless the dust as inhaled. But all dusts can be harmful when inhaled due to irritation independent of biochemical interactions. So we wore N95 dust masks when adding powdered ingredients in the lab or pilot plant, and were content.
What Possible Negative Impacts on Health Could Titanium Dioxide Have?
Principal exposure routes are skin contact, eye contact, and inhalation.
Inhalation: High quantities inhaled through the mouth or nose might irritate the throat and nose.
Skin Contact: Patients might have a little rash.
Eye Contact: As a foreign object, it could cause a little irritation. While debris is being rinsed from the eye by tears, there may be tears, blinking, and minor momentary pain.
Ingestion: This compound is not dangerous when consumed.
Long-Term (Chronic) Effects Exposure: The few available research do not allow for conclusions to be made.
Potential Carcinogen: Animal data suggest that it might cause cancer.
ARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer): Group 2B - possibly carcinogenic (cancer-causing) to humans. The ACGIH is the American Conference for Governmental Industrial Hygienists. A3- known to cause cancer in animals.
Teratogenicity or Embryotoxicity: No known effects on the developing fetus.
Reproductive Toxicity: There are no recognized risks to reproduction.
Mutagenicity: No evidence exists that this substance is mutagenic (ability to induce genetic mutation).
#5
Thanks TW - good info. Reminds me of the chrome-6 work my brother did.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
01/12/2025 13:17 Comments ||
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#6
You’re very welcome, Rex Mundi. I only worked there a few years, but found the experience very stimulating, and I’ve got to continue enjoying the connection as a corporate spouse.
Incidentally, Children’s Health Defense is Robert F. Kennedy Jr‘s outfit. Here’s hoping he concentrates on more important concerns.
#7
Almost anything, even water, can have "adverse health effects" if ingested in large enough quantity. As toxicologists say, the poison is in the dose.
#9
Sunblock is fine, Skidmark. It’s topical, and the titanium dioxide is mixed throughly into the cream. So nothing to breath in, and it is not absorbed. Now if you were to eat several tubes of the stuff — then the perfumes would probably make you vomit it all back out before any of the other ingredients caused problems. That’s how toothpaste flavours work to protect against children getting fluoride poisoning — it’s really quite a clever bit of formulation done across the industry.
#10
"And beware carbon black! Inky, right,
But supremotagenic! Too white!
An oily emulsion,"
She sneers with revulsion,
"Turns People of Color to bright!"
#12
I thought sunblock was so bad for the environment that some places don't want you in the water while enjoying your vacation and using sunblock. It's bad for the fishies, ya know.
#14
Because if the peasants are allowed sunblock they won’t get cancer at the same rate, leading to more of them living longer and using up resources intended for their overlords.
Or, more likely, the regulatory bureaucrat’s overweening caution, preferring to forbid any possibility of liability. America’s FDA has become more and more cautious over the years, to the point of absurdity, though to be fair, patients’ willingness to sue their doctors in the hope of a big payout has also done much to drive an attitude of refusing to take any risks.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
