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High bail, mental-health evaluation for alleged Marathon-anniversary rice-cooker hoaxer

A Wakefield man was ordered held in lieu of $100,000 bail and sent down to Bridgewater for evaluation at his arraignment today on a variety of charges related to the alleged act of performance art that led police to shut Boylston Street for more than two hours last night on the anniversary of the Marathon bombings.

Kevin "Kayvon" Edson was charged with disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct, disturbing a public assembly, possession or use of a hoax device and making a false bomb threat, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports The latter two charges carry up to five and up to 20 years in state prison upon conviction, the DA's office says.

Police shut Boylston Street at the Marathon finish line just a few hours after memorial services on the street and as two brothers who survived last year's bombing approached the finish line after a walk from Hopkinton - after their encounter with Edson there. The entire Green Line was shut down at one point as the bomb squad blew up his backpack and another backpack found at the scene (Police report that backpack belonged to "a local media outlet").

According to the DA's office:

Wearing black clothing and what appeared to be a veil covering his face, Edson removed his shoes and began walking toward the finish line from the direction of Trinity Church. He was yelling and wearing a black backpack.

Alerted to this behavior and aware that the bombs that killed three and injured scores more last year had also been transported in black backpacks, Boston Police approached Edson and asked what was in the bag. Edson allegedly told them it contained "a rice cooker." The officers were mindful that the Marathon bombs are believed to have been constructed with pressure cookers.

Through an opening in the top of the backpack, officers at the scene could see it contained some kind of device. Officers instructed him to remove it and the Boston Police Bomb Squad was called to the scene. At about that time, additional officers began clearing civilians from the scene, bus and subway service was suspended in the immediate area, and Edson was brought to the nearby Boston Public Library for a brief interview.

In a post-Miranda statement to Boston Police and federal agents, Edson allegedly acknowledged knowing what he was doing and said "it was being conceived in my head." He allegedly explained his actions as "symbolism" and said "the performance got the best of me." Beneath his veil, his face was streaked with blue and yellow paint.

Innocent, etc.

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Comments

IJLS "alleged act of performance art."

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The entire Green Line was shut down at one point as the bomb squad blew up his backpack and another backpack found at the scene.

OK, we don't know whether this thing is actually explosive or not. But let's blow it up in the middle of Copley Square anyway. And people are saying the guy that pulled the hoax lacks common sense.

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They don't just strap a grenade to the backpack and run away. They detonate the device using a controlled explosion container.

Next time someone lays a bomb on Boylston street, you want to root around in the backpack checking to see if it's real?

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of moving the suspected device to an isolated area well away from buildings and the like before setting it off with the "controlled explosion container".

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The risk of moving an IED is that it's put together so poorly that just in moving it you set it off. The second risk is remote detonation. If it is rigged with a simple trigger set off by cell phone, then moving it as a live bomb means more time for the criminal/accomplice to set it off before you can disable it.

The pigstick lets you dismantle it in place with little likelihood of setting it off because its components will be too damaged or displaced to create an explosive force...and lots of it will probably be wet too.

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Thanks.

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Describing it as "detonation" is just sloppy writing on the part of the reporting website. They basically never actually "detonate" a suspected bomb, they disrupt it with a shaped water charge. This physically prevents the device from detonating and is widely thought to be a lot safer than trying to carry it off out of town somewhere Batman style.

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Don't know about that - the video I saw posted earlier on this site of the 'disruption' sounded like an explosion, unless someone doctored the video.

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Is a charge (yes, something *did* explode) that shoots high pressure water at the device with the intent of dismantling it quickly, wetting it down (frying circuitry), and more all at the same time.

It's called a "pigstick": http://www.mondial-defence.com/2011/Products/Pigstick.html

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As how they cut iron girders with explosives, only they use water for more effect. They're not actually blowing it up, just shaping a concussive wave to cut through it.

Here they use a small amount of explosive to send a super sonic jet of water through an object to disable it.

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Except they did actually use an explosive charge to "blow up" the backpack

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They used an explosive charge in a tube with water in the other end. It's called a pigstick (see link above).

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It's all very easy to second-guess trained professionals from the comfort of your keyboard. Seeing as the responding officials have had some no small experience in these matters, I would defer to their judgement.

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Whenever anyone in law enforcement uses the term "civilians" it's a huge red flag pointing to an attitude problem, and a warning about the ongoing, creeping militarization of law enforcement. Police are civilians.

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I guess all that show at the memorial yesterday about having cops, firemen and EMTs stand up and take a bow for all they did for us and still do for us was a bunch of baloney, because as we have all been told here, THEY are the real problem. While you're at it, why don't you criticize the surgeons at Mass General for performing all those unnecessary amputations last year, as long as you're telling people how to do their job, right down to correcting the jargon in their press releases.

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WTF are you on about?

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Sorry, I was unclear Bob - the tone of your remark on how you perceive the police view themselves against 'civilians' sounded decidedly (and to my way of thinking, unfairly) critical. You seemed to accuse the police of having an attitude problem due to their consideration of non-policemen as 'civilians' - and I pointed out that in stark contrast to this perception, that very police force was honored by 'civilians' at the memorial ceremony on Tuesday for its service during and after the marathon bombings. Sorry if this distinction did not come across in my first remark.

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How the heck do you jump from me pointing out one little piece of what I consider to be a symptom of a problematic attitude to thinking I'm on some kind of anti-police rant?

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Not a term my retired from the police father ever used. I wonder if it is an artifact of the militartization of our police forces?

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First entry for civilian:

ci·vil·ian
/səˈvilyən/
noun
noun: civilian; plural noun: civilians
1. a person not in the armed services or the police force.

Emphasis added. But by all means, argle-bargle away because OMG TEH COPZ!!!1!

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A "civilian" is also what a porn performer would be dating if he/she wasn't in the industry, according to interviews in the recent Deborah Anderson documentary film "Aroused".

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Sorry to burst your conspiracy bubble.

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Belongs, or belonged, to NECN

NECN General Manager Mike St. Peter released a statement saying, "One of the two bags that police detonated last night belonged to a NECN news crew. The crew had put down their bag - which contained cables - while on the scene covering last night's developments. They were not permitted to retrieve the bag when the area was quickly evacuated. The NECN crew cooperated while asking officers several times if they could get their bag back. Because of the ongoing investigation, police denied access. Once the scene was cleared, the crew picked up the remains of the bag."

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NECN told the police repeatedly that one of the two bags was theirs. BPD "disrupted" it anyways.

Way to go, boys. Way to go all Boston Strong on that bag of media cabling.

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You have a person who can explain the bag and it's contents and the explanation is logical. Ask him to go and remove the contents piece by piece why while the police stand at a distance if there is any doubt.

This sort of paranoid, knee-jerk reaction isn't making Boston any safer. And yes, I know what happened last year.

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...you'd complain about that. Way to be an armchair general. Go put yourself in harms way and then you can complain.

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Your post is one fallacy after another. You don't speak for me, so you don't know what I would say if they did nothing. Also, destroying it and doing nothing are not the only two choices available. Finally, putting themselves in harm's way doesn't somehow make their decisions better or right or more valid. The fact that I don't disarm bombs for a living also doesn't make mine wrong, worse, or worth dismissing on face value.

Oh, and that's armchair sergeant to you. Do I look like an officer? I work for a living!

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and not get to blow stuff up using expensive new Homeland Security funded toys? Hey, can we get some more of those $4,000 trash barrels please?

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The Globe posts a statement written by his mother - who has run the Marathon several times and who says her son suffers from mental illness:

Boston is certainly, in many ways, a strong city. The first responders, the runners, the sports teams, the medical community and the citizens are all Boston Strong. What is NOT strong is the mental health system in Boston, our state, our country, and the world. I have two sons who struggle with mental illness and I have had to constantly fight for twelve years to get them the help they need. Advocating for assistance from mental health providers for my sons has been a full-time job.

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Why are you burying this in a comment?

Also, how about talking about the horrible, bigoted response when people found out he was in a queer student group?

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This is something I deal with on stories that change over the course of a day - do I update the original story and risk the chance that people who have already seen it won't see the change or do I put it in a new comment where they might?

In this case, my post had already been up for a bit (not a long time, perhaps), so I went with a comment. Based on the site's stats, a fair number of people do actually read the comments, so I don't think it's quite as buried as it might be somewhere else.

As for the homophobic stuff, I assume you're talking about Barstool Sports, no? If so, well, unfortunately, that's hardly surprising, or new. But not everybody is a Barstool Sports reader.

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but I'd vote him worst dressed at the event.

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isn't a 'sexy' topic, and doesn't really help bring in votes for politicians, unless we're talking about lucrative government contracts outsourced to the private sector.

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Government contractors rather have more money for security toys, cameras, pig sticks, armored vehicles, and other military tools than spend it on mental health. The military got another wake up call at Fort Hood on vastly increased mental health needs. On the other hand, I saw in a recent magazine article that the monthly cost for Abilify is nearly $1,000, and its only an adjunct drug in a combination with other drugs that could each exceed $1,000/month.

Drug development, marketing, and approval costs for the world have to stop being put mostly on the backs of Americans. Many of these new, patented drugs are me-too drugs with little increased efficacy or side-effect reduction. New therapies are needed which may not be so politically correct, such as cheap, generic ketamine taken about every 5 days.

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New therapies are needed which may not be so politically correct, such as cheap, generic ketamine taken about every 5 days.

You are a doctor? An epidemiologist? A therapist? A neurologist? A biochemist?

What does any of this have to do with "political correctness" as imagined or in reality? Evaluation of treatments being offered has a hell of a lot to do about side effects and compliance, effective treatment and functionality (and cost, yes ... but a cheap drug that nobody will take due to side effects and inability to hold a job while being treated isn't cost effective).

There is also a not insignificant issue of off-label use of existing drugs that have not been evaluated for safety and effectiveness in a properly controlled population trial.

Oh, and I assume that you are aware that depression and bipolar disorder are two completely different clinical and physiologic entities, and that treatments for unipolar depression are often not only useless for bipolar, but dangerous?

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Just too many examples. Does research for finding healthy benefits of pot get funding in the US? How about use of performance enhancing drugs like anabolic steroids and human growth hormone for anything except aids-wasting? Imagine if surgical recoveries (including joint replacements) could be made faster or people made less feeble. Nope, the party line is that its all bad and steroids don't work (the claim for years in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary). Same Reefer Madness attitude still exists in many drug areas that could improve people's lives. Over 80% of the population is not destined for addiction. Meanwhile drug companies spend millions making minor changes to existing drugs just to get a new patent and obscene prices, rather than try new things which might inadvertently make people feel good.

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I'll probably regret siding with Mark and getting involved in this pissing contest.

But he's right about one thing, once a week dose of ketamine actually helped fend off depression. I just read an article(s) about that.

Have you ever done K recreationally? I have. The 'effect' that recreational users get from K only lasts a little over an hour (from a single dose), so you aren't totally incapacitated for weeks on end. And like Prozac the positive effects stay with you for days after. I should know, I was a raver in a former life. I lived for MDMA & K.

But here's your citations to prove Mark is actually right (oh boy it pains me to say that) about Ketamine and Depression (but everything else is irrelevant.. meh)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carolyn-i-rodriguez-md-phd/healthy-living-...

http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/major-depressive-disorder/new-claims-and...

http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleid=1733363

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to have cheap, generic K work faster and better than any of their drugs, electro-shock, magnetic stimulation, talk therapy, and other cash cows. They may need a pill for their anxiety, or write checks to politicians and medical institutions to keep K from being used (under controlled circumstances). The effectiveness of K has been known for many years, but the funding for studies hasn't been there publicly or from private companies who know that FDA approval is more challenging and expensive than drug research itself.

Remember that pot, K, and anabolic steroids are not newly invented drugs. There have been decades to study them and its not happened, other than in non-scientific settings. Prolonged exposure to raving has harmed me, with knees no longer suitable for bicycling.

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You do realize that unipolar and bipolar depression are different?

You do realize that not all drugs work for all people?

You are aware that side effects are a huge issue in mental health treatments, and can be fatal, and can lead to noncompliance with treatment, etc.?

And you are probably also aware that the cost of any drug that has to be administered weekly by a medical professional is going to be far higher than the simple cost of the drug.

Right?

Then again, conspiracy theories are so much easier to understand than scientific uncertainty and appropriate treatment evaluation process modalities.

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The message I responded to was titled "Mental Health" and generally complained about inadequate mental health treatment. You jumped to bipolar, thus changing topics while demanding responses to your subset topic. If you took the time to read Cybah's good links, you would have seen that ketamine has application to bipolar disease, which hasn't had new drugs in 30 years.

Using ketamine is needed exactly because not all drugs work for all people. The current ones only work for about half of people, so more me-too drugs is insanity.

Severe side effects of current drugs, poor efficacy, and slow action are exactly why many patients go off them. The standard drugs suck, so is exactly why completely new ones have to be seriously investigated.

You have to understand the system. If you are a researcher and want a grant to study an illegal drug, you have to design a study that will show the drug is bad if you want funding. NIH doesn't want (much) to fund studies on therapeutic uses of illegal drugs, money would have to come from the NIDA (Nat. Institute on Drug Abuse) division, and their job is to only show that pleasant drugs are bad. Hence, there is a huge vacuum of knowledge on therapeutic uses of many useful drugs.

As to administration, already patients get monitored administration of opiods, methadone and subxone in a growing number of locations. Besides, more mental health treatment facilities and services are needed, delivering medications that actually work. Its cheaper than having millions of people less or non productive due to ineffective treatments currently used.

Here's a conspiracy theory for you: If medical treatment were effective, people would seek less retail therapy.

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No, I did not go off topic.

I am very well acquainted with research funding mechanisms, as I am involved in grant money distribution and research grant supervision, and your ignorance of how the entire system works is showing here.

My point is that you can't just start dispensing a drug, call it promising, and then completely generalize its application no matter how cheap it is. There are reasons for this, reasons that you are continually choosing to ignore, reasons that you lump under that meaningless nonsense term "political correctness", etc.

These reasons have nothing to do with the phony drug war or any conspiracy, but with science and standards for protection of patients, the rather poorly understood mechanisms of disease and differences between humans and their response to drugs.

Also, the person in question in this case has bipolar disorder - and you brought up a treatment for a specific mode of unipolar depressive illness. Even if ketamine proves out as a treatment for unipolar depressive states, it will likely be of little use for bipolar disorder and may (like SSRIs) be dangerous. Then you claim that I was off topic?

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This is probably the younger son of a guy I knew who is now evidently at the end of his rope with cancer.

The older brother is listed as TJ and the guy I knew was Tommy. He'd be in his mid 60s or more by now.

I'm pretty sure he was a Vietnam War veteran and a footbal star at our high school when young.

This is just so wretched.

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The mother's statement mentions her husband has cancer.

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in another news report.

If it's the same person, I knew him as a younger guy in the early 70s.

He was pat of a bunch of town high school athletic heroes who got drafted and went to Vietnam.

They went through a post war hell period and many eventually pulled out of it. Some never did and they were all more or less swept under the rug.

I was too young for draft when that war ran out of steam but it messed up a whole generational slice of our most promising people.

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It's clear there are many mentally ill on our streets. Just ride the T and see for yourself. She may have a point here

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What a brave statement, and a sad, difficult situation for the family. Here's wishing them sympathy and support.

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The law in Massachusetts states:..... whoever willfully communicates or causes serious public inconvenience or alarm, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not less than 3 years nor more than 20 years or imprisonment in the house of correction for not less than 6 months nor more than 21/2 years, or by fine of not less than $1,000 nor more than $50,000, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

He should be in prison and ordered to get psychiatric help and meds, if found to have a mental defect. Electronic bracelet monitoring when released. His lawyer said....no explosives were found,...he has never been in trouble before.....blah blah bunch of bullshit!. Hold him accountable for his actions and the consequences of causing panic and mental harm to others. ACCOUNTABILITY

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the mentally ill do not need to be in prison (where too many of them end up) but, in an ideal world, facilities that would truly help them. Most who are mentally ill and end up in prison do not get the help they need and, unfortunately, end up back on the streets with the same issues and problems.

"Bullshit" must be the word of the day, today, on UHub. Anywho, why is it "bullshit" for his defense attorney to offer up that his client has never been in trouble before, if his client has never been in trouble before? And no explosives were found. I fail to trace your logic.

You might not know too much about bi-polar mental illness from your comments. But, by its very nature, someone who, say, suffers from bi-polar illness with manic phases, generally does not have control over his or her actions during the said manic phase of the illness and, thus, to say he/she should be held "ACCOUNTABLE" for actions that he/she would have no control due to his/her mental illness over is disturbing.

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Its the cops who caused serious public inconvenience and alarm by deciding to turn a harmless social commentary into their personal training exercise and media whoredom. The "beekeeper" was ordered to leave the backpack and told cops exactly what was in it. NECN TV techs told police the other bag was theirs and what was in it. The only guilty party here was the cop in charge who decided to make a harmless little stunt into a media event.

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