Cabbie-slash suspect taken to psych ward

[mike r]

Source: Associated Press

The college student accused of slashing a taxi driver because he was a Muslim has been taken to a New York City psychiatric ward. Correction Department spokesman Stephen Morello said Michael Enright, of Brewster, N.Y., was taken from the Rikers Island jail to Bellevue Hospital on Thursday night.

Authorities said that on Tuesday a drunk Enright attacked a Manhattan cab driver, Bangladeshi native Ahmed Sharif, who had identified himself as a Muslim during a conversation. The cab driver told police that the two struck up a conversation before Enright turned on him, screaming “This is a checkpoint, mother----er! I have to put you down.” Enright reportedly proceeded to stab the driver’s neck and face with a Leatherman knife. Authorities say Enright uttered an Arabic phrase before slashing Sharif's face and neck...

Enright once volunteered with an interfaith group that has supported the proposal for a mosque near Ground Zero. He was found with two composition-style notebooks on him that contained details of his experiences embedded with U.S. forces in Afghanistan but did not appear to contain any anti-Muslim rants, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. Enright was carrying the journals in a bag along with an empty bottle of scotch, the official told the AP on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38879244/ns/us_news-life/

[Submariner]

1. It looks like the racist little prick will miss the Beckster-a-looza

hate-fest this weekend. Another tea-bagging piece of crap in jail where he belongs.

[Frisbee]

2. Shouldn't the just round up...

everyone who attends Beck's hate-fest and send them to Belleview?

[LostinVA]

4. We have no proof that he's a racist, he might be medically insane

And delusional. Have to wait and see.

[OnlinePoker]

5. Read the article

He supported the ground-zero mosque and had no racist comments in the notebooks they found on him. I think, if they've taken him to a psych ward, there is a good possibility he may be schizophrenic and something set him off.

[LostinVA]

8. Exactly

[Kweli4Real]

11. That's NOT what the article said ...

You state: "He supported the ground-zero mosque." The article states: "Enright once volunteered with an interfaith group that has supported the proposal for a mosque near Ground Zero."

There's a big difference between the two statements.

When I read this article I got the immediate feeling that this article is an outline of his Eright's defense ...

He was drunk .

He is suffering from PTSD .

There is no evidence that he is anti-Muslim

He can't be anti-Muslim because "he ONCE volunteered ..."

[cheneyschernobyl]

22. PTSD isn't a valid defense for what he did

I've got PTSD, and knowing right from wrong still rules the day. It's a good thing that I can't get into trouble for thinking about what I'd like to do to beck/palin/rove/o'lielly/limp-balls etc.

[amandabeech]

16. This guy may very well have some serious psychological problems.

I'm not going to make any judgment about him until definitive information about his mental and physical health is released.

I once did volunteer work in a psych hospital. People could seem relatively normal until something set them off.

Also, schizophrenia and other serious problems often start to manifest themselves in late adolescence and early adulthood. This guy looks about 20 or so--right in the range.

Another factor could be the alcohol. Many psychiatric medicines cannot be taken with alcohol. All kinds of bad things can happen. At the hospital where I volunteered, there were often a lot of late night Friday and Saturday admissions of people who could function relatively well if they took their meds, but on Friday night, they'd go get drunk and go absolutely berzerk. That could have happened with this guy.

Not all patients take their meds all the time, either. Some meds still in use do have unpleasant side effects, and patients will just stop taking them. Or the patients think that they're doing okay, and just stop taking their meds. Some folks will do things when they're off meds that they won't do when they're on meds.

Once the docs at Bellevue get him stabilized, Enright may very well be able to appreciate his actions and may feel a great deal of remorse.

I do not condone what this guy did, but I'm not going to pass judgment until there is definitive information about his mental and physical health.

[RamboLiberal]

18. Yeah but he kept insisting to the cops "I'm a patriot"

IMHO the FBI ought to be doing a profile on all these whack jobs that seem to be popping up at the rate of 1 or 2 a month or every couple of months.

We had the sniper who fired a 100+ rounds at police building & had a trailer IED that failed to detonate a couple weeks ago in Texas. He committed suicide before the cops could take him. His complaint was government might take his guns & raise his taxes.

The prison guard who murdered a man and stole his custom AR-15 at a gun range cause he was "supplying a miltia to take over the government".

The whack job who shot it out with the CHP on his way to attack Tides Center(which only Beck talks about) and ACLU.

The Hutaree miltia that was busted.

And quite a few others dating back to last year.

I'd love to know what's on their bookshelves, what radio & TV they listened to if any.

[UTUSN]

3. Yip, I was waiting for this. Taking bets on what his Dx will be. n/t

[slackmaster]

6. Conservative carpet-peer attacks Muslims - Par for the course. Liberal attacks Muslim - Crazy.

Got it.

[lib2DaBone]

7. This Enright kid reminds me of a Columbine shooter or a John Hinkley...

Call me crazy (ok.. you're crazy) ... but this kid was involved in a do-gooder organization that was supposed to spread "understanding".

He went to Afghanistan and then comes home and flips out. I wonder (while in Afghan) if he had any contact with any CIA-type manchurian guys offering funny pills and advice?


* There was a backstory a long time ago.. about the Columbine shooters. They had worked for a retired CIA guy in a Pizza place after school. This same retired CIA guy also had contact with high school shooters working in Pizza places in Kentucky and Virginia... where there were school shootings.

The story never gained legs and quietly faded away... but we all know how an ex-marine named Lee Harvey Oswald was allowed to filter back and forth between Russian intelligence and the CIA. Coincidence....


:tinfoilhat:

[LostinVA]

9. Except the Columbine shooters didn't appear to be insane

But Hinkley is.

[stanwyck]

10. Say what you want about this guy, just, please, don't say this

(as I've seen on other sites). Enright was never a Marine. I'm overly sensitive to this as my son is an active duty Marine with 8 years in. There are already too many people who link military personnel with crazy. And rightwing darling Jeff Gannon aka Jeff Guckert? The guy called "distinguished journalist" by Sean Hannity. The guy given a front seat at Bush's press conferences? The guy who got a press pass after 9-11 when Maureen Dowd couldn't get one? The guy with no credentials whatsoever? Not a Marine, either, despite his claims.

[stray cat]

12. DU is as biased as free republic it seems when it comes to innocent until proven guilty

No one is insane if they attack someone DU likes.

[closeupready]

13. Agreed.

n/t

[RamboLiberal]

19. Huh - how the heck is this guy innocent?

He was locked in the damn cab and the driver was slashed. You think the driver made this up?

[alp227]

14. Cabbie-stabbing suspect transferred to Bellevue ward

Source: CNN

New York (CNN) -- Michael Enright, the man suspected of stabbing a cabdriver in New York after learning he was a Muslim, has been moved from jail to a psychiatric ward, a city official said.

New York City Corrections Department spokesman Stephen Morello said Enright, a 21-year-old film student at the School of Visual Arts, was transferred Thursday night from Rikers Island jail to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan.

The decision was made after medical staff at Rikers jail examined Enright and determined he should be sent to the Bellevue ward, a locked unit with cells, corrections staff and medical staff.

The Tuesday night attack occurred amid public debate over plans to build an Islamic cultural center and mosque to be called Park51 two blocks from the site of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/08/27/new.york.muslim.stabbed/index.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. I am betting they are doing tests for a few things

including PTSD, as well as bipolar disorder.

Just call it a sneaky.

And yes, they should...

Oh and not because he is white either...

I suspect this is one of the first incidents of the war coming home...

[kiranon]

17. He's the right age to be schizophrenic. It's a young adults disorder.

[provis99]

20. a drunk Irishman who's violent? how is this news?

[rug]

21. He's heading to Mid-Hudson Forensic Psych Center.