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Elderly Man Who Attempted Suicide At <em>Today</em> Show Says It Was Protest Against IRS
By
Ben Yakas
Published Jun 6, 2013
Modified Jun 6, 2013
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Jun 6, 2013
Modified Jun 6, 2013
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Earlier today, an elderly man was taken into custody after he attempted to commit suicide in the plaza of the Today show. Queens resident Pak Chong Mar, 76, told the Daily News that he slashed his wrists as a protest against the IRS, who he claimed had robbed him of millions of dollars. “I had to do something desperate to fight the corruption, fight the IRS,” Mar said while on a hospital gurney at Bellevue Hospital. “They are so powerful.”
According to cops, Pak was in the plaza around 7:50 a.m. when the incident happened; he yelled about the IRS and “peppermint tea” before he pulled out his knife. He was able to cut both his wrists before he was tackled by security. “He took him down like a sack of potatoes,” a friend of the guard told the News. “He’s a regular guy, ex-cop, NYPD. It’s what he does.”
This wasn't the first time Pak has hurt himself in this manner in public: in August 1995, he cut off three of his fingers with a meat cleaver and tossed the digits into the crowd at the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in Flushing.
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irs
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Pak Chong Mar
protest
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today
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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