“The system is just broken,” said Michael Alcazar, a former NYPD detective and adjunct professor at John Jay College. “If he’s violent and mentally disturbed… they should keep him in the hospital. Someone’s dropping the ball.”
Alcazar was talking about Nicolas Babilonia Jr., a violent and mentally ill man with a charming name like Icepick Nick.
Ice Pick has 37 arrests and likes to roam the East Village and assault people. He threatens to kill people, chases residents, and brandishes his weapon of choice. As the Sunday Post explained, the NYPD is well aware of the ice pick problem.
They picked him up and locked him up in Bellevue, where he is being treated for mental health issues.
He is released within days, even hours, and is quickly back on the streets.
That’s the case with Shaquan Cummings, also mentally ill, who stabbed an 11-year-old boy in the head in Harlem on Friday.
And on Saturday, Cyril Destin is accused of getting up from his walker, pulling out a knife and stabbing a random tourist in Times Square.
Like Icepick, these two are no strangers to the justice system. Cummings has arrested about 20 people. Destin,
Police know who these threats are.
They are a small group of mentally ill vagrants who terrorize neighborhoods and traffic points, set off ticking time bombs, get picked up and released for low-level harassment, and spew profanities. , and spitting at passersby.
That is, until he shoves someone in front of a train. Then the person dies and goes to prison for life.
East Village resident Garrett Rosso says that’s definitely what Ice Pick is aiming for. “If he doesn’t get help, he will either kill someone or commit suicide.”
“Advocates” argue that mentally ill people need help, not police intervention, but they actually prevent that from happening. Homeless advocates are filing a series of lawsuits to prevent involuntary institutionalization and drug treatment. They want to make it legal to sleep on the streets and allow drug use through injection sites.
“While it is noble to preserve the right of people with severe mental illness to receive treatment in the least restrictive setting, it leaves many… and be readmitted to the hospital,” Dr. Daniel Johanna wrote in the American Medical Association Ethics Journal.
“The term ‘dying with rights’ was coined by Darold Treffert in 1973 to describe the overreach of the law in protecting individual rights at the expense of personal safety and well-being. ”
50 years ago. At least that’s how long New York has been dealing with this problem.
Mayor Adams’ idea is to target 100 of the “hardest to reach” homeless and often mentally ill New Yorkers and get them off the streets. In November, more than half were taken to evacuation centers or placed in hospital beds, he claimed.
Mayor’s wake-up call
We want this to be successful, but after last weekend’s events, Adams must bring new urgency to this effort. Mr. Cummings and Mr. Destin were unable to contact each other until someone was injured.
Neither did the ice pick nick. He was arrested Thursday for threatening someone with a metal pipe.
Mayor, these three were also among the “most difficult to access.”
Stop taking “no” for an answer.
And to all the liberal social justice and legal groups trying to stop the city from litigating and lobbying these men, please consider what is the best outcome for us and for them.
You can’t say it better than East Village resident Chris Ryan, who was quoted about Ice Pick Nick in Sunday’s post. “Anyone who thinks they are being empathetic or benevolent by letting this man rot in the street and precipitating another violent encounter” needs to consider their own perspective. there is. ”
