Tulsi Gabbard’s brother was arrested and charged after he allegedly tried to lure several children to his Waikiki hotel room on Sunday.

The older brother of former Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard was arrested and charged after he allegedly tried to lure several children to his Waikiki hotel room on Sunday.

The suspect, 55-year-old Batarti Gabbard, was charged on Friday, July 17, 2026, in connection to the “stranger danger” incident that occurred at a hotel in Waikiki on Sunday afternoon, July 12.

The Honolulu Police Department (HPD) said that at 2 p.m. on Sunday, the suspect approached several children, including a 9-year-old boy, at a pool area of a Waikiki hotel. He allegedly offered them gum and money to get them to join him in his hotel room.

  • Mediocre_Bard_Redeux@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    Today I will introduce Batarti into my D&D campaign; a homeless madman wandering the streets giving away grandiose gifts and stealing children.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    "Our oldest son Bhakti has had mental issues in the past but has been doing well for the last 10 years. Several days ago, he started acting erratically, as a result of smoking pot. His wife kicked him out of the house, so he’s been sleeping on the streets. He gave away his car to a homeless person; lost his ID and phone and has no money. He’s renamed himself, Batarti, and also Jim Morrison Jr., as he’s having delusions of being a rock star.

    “This afternoon, a family member took him to Queen’s Hospital ER to have a psychological evaluation. Bhakti told the doctor they would find cocaine, ice and pot in his blood tests. And this evening, he was admitted for a 72-hour hold at Queen’s, while they continue to monitor him and decide next steps.”

    I dunno…

    I feel like all the cocaine and meth are more likely explanations than smoking a little weed…

    • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      The far more likely explanation for all of this is a manic episode – worsened, of course, by abusing strong stimulants, but probably not brought on by them.

      • frunch@lemmy.world
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        20 hours ago

        This is exactly my thoughts. I’ve had experience with a close friend who is bipolar and when they were manic this completely tracks. Yes, you can blame the drugs on some level but it’s their brain chemistry that’s really behind the crazy shit they do. It’s awful. Luckily they’re better now but it’s something that always looms, you never know if/when things might go south again.

  • ruuster13@lemmy.zip
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    23 hours ago

    Look at those parents put their son’s mental health on blast and blame “pot” to avoid their own shame. Sounds like the kind of family that would also produce Tulsi.

    • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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      23 hours ago

      And their son was kicked out of his house and these rich psychopaths left him to be homeless. He’s on the same island, they could have just gone and picked him up.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      22 hours ago

      Hawaii and other island cultures have a very distant relationship with modern mental healthcare…

      Culturally “hearing the ancestors” isn’t always a bad thing and “there’s no harm in listening” is common communal advice. As such people just don’t see a medical professional until law enforcement is involved. With the dad being a Senator, that takes something big or public like this.

      But, when most people are referring to “voices” they mean more like gut instincts, those populations still experience normal rates of mental illness just like everyone. So when those people hear the advice “listen to the voices and think about what they’re saying” is literal dangerous advice.

      The Gabbord family seems to be Vaishnava, and I don’t know how that religion views the concept. But like I said it’s a cultural thing and usually sticks around after religious conversions, that’s how important it is in oceanic cultures.

      • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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        20 hours ago

        Jesus fucking Christ. Hawaii is a modern state with mental healthcare and people who go to that healthcare. The Gabbards being in a literal cult has a lot more to do with this than “island culture”.

        • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
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          13 hours ago

          givessomefucks constantly makes shit up on vibes and then confidently asserts it; they’ve blocked me because they didn’t like seeing me call out their constant stream of ass-pulled misinformation.

        • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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          20 hours ago

          The whole family was raised in the cult. The parents are kind of inner circle.

  • pelespirit@sh.itjust.works
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    22 hours ago

    Senator Mike Gabbard and Carol Gabbard released this statemen

    Wait, Tulsi is a nepo baby?

    Gerald Michael “Mike” Gabbard (born January 15, 1948) is an American politician who is the Hawaii state senator for District 21 from the Democratic Party, since 2006. Gabbard rose to prominence for efforts to prevent same-sex marriage in Hawaii by passing a 1998 amendment to the Constitution of Hawaii to give the state legislature “the power to reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples” under the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Gabbard, who was born in American Samoa, is the first person of Samoan descent to serve in the Hawaii Senate.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Gabbard

  • neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    21 hours ago

    I’m not a fan of persecuting someone because of what another member in their family did.

    If they aided them, or tried to cover it up, then sure; they are an accomplice.

    I’m not defending this person in particular as I know nothing about them.

    But I know great people who have families member who got caught up in drugs. Doesn’t mean the family is bad.

    • halcyoncmdr@piefed.social
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      21 hours ago

      True… But we can look at the rest of the family. Tulsi is also a piece of shit, actively promoting and assisting the Trump administration…and probably a Russian intelligence asset while being the US Director of National Intelligence.

      And apparently a nepo baby, their father is also a Senator from Hawaii. He failed to win a House seat in 2004, and won a Snwate seat in 2006. In 2007 he switches parties literally because he “believed that he could be more effective to his constituents as part of the majority party in the State Senate, where Democrats have long had a supermajority.” So he switched parties to be a spoiler, he’s still a Republican regardless of the letter by his name.

      He has actively opposed same sex marriage, and the family seems to be part of a cult that actively teaches islamophobia and homophobia.

      That’s a decent amount of context to make some judgements for the entire family I’d say.

    • ltxrtquq@lemmy.ml
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      21 hours ago

      I didn’t know Tulsi Gabbard even had a brother, so I wasn’t about to start suspecting him of anything

  • saltesc@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    So many men model their image on dicks. I don’t know they look in the mirror and don’t immediately see a peckerhead poking out of a t-shirt.