Horrific stabbing spree in Manhattan shows how politicians still won’t lock up the dangerous mentally ill

Monday morning, after nearly two weeks of buzz about how the recent election heralded a new era in American politics, New Yorkers were treated to a painful reminder of how much life here hasn’t changed.

Three people were stabbed to death in separate incidents across Manhattan.

The perpetrator was a total stranger to each victim and the attacks unprovoked.

The man who has reportedly confessed to the murders is named Ramon Rivera, a resident of the Bellevue Men’s Shelter.

His history of arrests, incarceration and psychiatric hospitalization dates back two decades.

This was a “ticking time bomb” case, to borrow a phrase from our late colleague DJ Jaffe.

We have a perp whose advancing mental deterioration and participation in criminal activities of mounting seriousness all unfolded in full view of mental-health and criminal-justice professionals.

And yet, for reasons best known to themselves, those professionals declined to intervene to keep this individual off the street.

Rivera had been arrested just weeks ago — on the same day that he left Rikers after serving eight months’ time for third-degree burglary and third-degree assault.

But a judge still released Rivera without bail.

This despite an history of violence both extensive and recent, including a May assault on a corrections officer during Rivera’s last sentence while he was being treated in Bellevue’s psychiatric ward.

For some people, the problem is that they are bad, others that they mad.

With some perpetrators, the problems started so long ago it’s hard to say what the original “root cause” of their violence was.

Another term typically applied to these fatal incidents is “preventable tragedy.”

They were preventable insofar as they wouldn’t have happened had their perpetrator been confined to jail awaiting trial or to an inpatient psychiatric hospital setting.

The same could be said for repeat offender Carlton McPherson, who last March pushed a commuter to their death in front of a subway train while out on bond after having failed to show up for court twice.

Or of Steven Hutcherson, who was released at a court hearing for a prior charge just two weeks before stabbing tourists in Grand Central Terminal on Christmas Day last year. 

Confinement plays an essential role in preventing crime and addressing untreated serious mental illness.

For some acutely sick individuals, only a hospital setting can provide the structure that allows medication to take effect.

One New Yorker who understands the need for confinement is Mayor Eric Adams.

This stabbing spree vindicates Adams’ longstanding claims that city government needs stronger tools for intervention from state lawmakers, both in the public safety and mental health contexts.

Perhaps, after New York’s shift rightward in the recent election, Albany lawmakers might look more favorably on Adams’ requests regarding questions like bail reform and having psych hospitals consider patients’ history of treatment compliance before discharging them.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, acting partly in response to Adams’ lobbying, has increased the number of psychiatric hospital beds across the state.

But that number is still far too low, and as we have written in these pages prior, there’s no point in trying to commit someone to a psychiatric hospital bed that doesn’t exist.

Yes, more federal funding for psych beds would be helpful.

And indeed, the first Trump administration was fairly helpful on that score.

But New York officials would have maximum credibility if they’ve done everything they can to put their own house in order before asking for a mental-health bailout.

And they’re still a long way from that.

Carolyn D. Gorman is a Paulson policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute. Stephen Eide is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, and a 2024–25 Public Scholar at The City College of New York’s Moynihan Center.