NJ Doctor With Occupy Wall Street Ties Indicted on Explosives Related Charge

You may recognize that physician’s name, as I did when I read the news report.  Rivera was also “deeply involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement,” as CBS News reported after his initial arrest back in November 2012.

Prosecutors and the FBI say the 60-year-old doctor was stockpiling large amounts of bomb-making materials in his second-floor apartment inside a quaint Ridgewood house. They also say he had a stash of weapons, including an assault rifle that he wasn’t permitted to own, CBS 2’s Christine Sloan reported. […]Investigators have not said what the doctor intended to do with the chemicals and weapons. His roommate said Rivera, who last practiced internal medicine at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan, was deeply involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement, volunteering his services to protesters.

CBS News discussed Rivera’s Occupy involvement in this 2012 newscast that reported on his arrest.

 

NJ.com quoted an Occupy Wall Street press liaison at the time of Rivera’s arrest as emphasizing that the movement “vigorously uses Constitutionally-protected rights to protest against Wall Street greed, and is firmly committed to non-violence.”

Bloomberg News profiled Rivera in October of 2011 as the movement was at its peak, publishing this quote from the doctor:

“I’m glad that at last the youth of America is able to stand on two feet and take a position that millions of people around the world have taken that they will not be intimidated by the capitalist free market paradigm and they will fight against gross inequality in distribution of income and assets.”

It is not known at this time what Rivera was planning on doing with the alleged bomb-making materials or if there was any connection to the materials with his protest endeavors.

UPDATE 6/1 at 6:30pm EST:  To elaborate further on the alleged “bomb-making materials,” NorthJersey.com (The Record) provided a list and details regarding the circumstances under which the materials were initially found by authorities. The article also notes that Rivera was not permitted to possess firearms “because he had previously been committed to an institution for a mental disorder.”  (h/t to commenter 9thDistrictNeighbor)

Police said they responded to Rivera’s home on Nov. 16, 2012, on a hazardous-material report and found chemicals in his basement, prompting a Bergen County bomb squad and an FBI terrorism task force to join the search.They said that as the search continued, they found large amounts of nitric acid, hydrogen peroxide, glycerin, sulfuric acid, calcium hypochlorite and potassium perchlorate — all chemicals that can be used in making explosives. They also said they found 10 pounds of thermite and 10 thermite lighters, which can be used to detonate bombs.Prosecutors have not commented on Rivera’s motive in collecting the material, whether he had a specific plan or whether he acted alone or with a group. They did, however, say they found folders marked “revolution” and “anarchism” in his home, along with documents on how to make explosives.