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Tree Branch Breaker

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    1. User has not uploaded an avatar
      arches

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      no credible evidence, no.
    2. mr. met
      mr. met

      rocking it
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      aside from multiple people seeing newly broken branches while steve is in jail?
    3. mha
      MHA

      rocking it
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      It's my understanding that the individual who reported freshly-torn branches did not contest the theory that the new broken branches was the result of a large truck passing by a lower tree, and that the branches found were much thicker in girth than what Steve has reputedly torn down.

      I've called Mr. Ching of the Parks Department and I got voicemail. I left a message.

      I've not seen Steve, nor have I heard that he is released. The online prison intake site still lists him as being held, so I am going to assume he is still imprisoned. It is unfortunate that there is no picture of him. Maybe KWAC can tell us if there is some way of getting a photograph of him for us to make photocopies and provide them to people in the neighborhood as well as to post it on other blogsites.

      I am not a 'Twitterer' but assuming others are, if Steve is seen in the future, we can ably use this as a means of alerting people that he is on the hunt.
    4. mr. met
      mr. met

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      on page 10 of this thread i see broken branch sightings at 207 park place (over by vanderbilt) and on park place b/w classon and washington. i'll keep my eyes open walking home from work today.
    5. mr. met
      mr. met

      rocking it
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      broken branch dangling from a tree on Classon b/w Sterling and Park
    6. User has not uploaded an avatar
      arches

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      mr. met » broken branch dangling from a tree on Classon b/w Sterling and Park

      Freshly broken? There are still a few branches on Sterling that the Parks Dept. missed in the cleanup after his last big rampage.
    7. User has not uploaded an avatar
      JoshB

      getting it
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      Hey, Mr. Met:

      That branch has been like that for a week-plus, ever since the last rampage. For some reason, my dog like to pee beneath the dead leaves. To each their own.
    8. mr. met
      mr. met

      rocking it
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      i didn't have a way to determine if it was freshly broken
    9. jack krohn
      Jack Krohn

      My Baby's Gone Shootin'
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      If Steve winds up at Kingsboro, he'll probably be there for a few months. But, yeah, once he's discharged, he'll probably be non-adherent with follow up treatment and soon resume breaking trees. Maybe we'll get lucky and the social workers at Kingsboro will get him an ACT team...
    10. mr. met
      mr. met

      rocking it
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      big branch down on the sidewalk on prospect b/w classon and grand. don't know how long it's been there, but i hadn't noticed it before.
    11. mha
      MHA

      rocking it
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      If Steve is freed, maybe by then we would have been able to compile a list of articles and online sites where those who are concerned can be made aware of his actions. We can hand out this information to passersby at train stations in the area, as well as provide it to our council person who could disseminate it to the contituents.

      In the same way we need to keep an eye on sex offenders, we need to keep an eye on this 'tree offender'. We have made more than a good faith effort to protect the tree's as well as Steve's interests. I think it's nigh time we protect our own.

      Tree Avengers, Unite!
    12. jeffrey
      jeffrey

      is not in right now
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      There is no way he broke the one at 207 Park Place.

      It's about, what...10 or 12 feet up and 6 or 8 inches or so in diameter.

      Had to be a truck.
      i extend my battery life by turning down the brightness
    13. eastbloc
      eastbloc

      comprador bourgeois
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      Never underestimate the power of the handicapped.
    14. mha
      MHA

      rocking it
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      I got a call from the Parks Department stating that Steve is still under 'medical supervision' and that the DA's office has compiled sufficient eyewitness accounts of his path of destruction, and therefore there was no need for mine.
    15. carnivore
      Carnivore

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    16. mha
      MHA

      rocking it
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      That was cool!
    17. User has not uploaded an avatar
      arches

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      t minus 2 days til Steve's hearing. Any wagers on the outcome? Think we should remind the various politicians/journalists who have taken an "interest" in this?
    18. whynot_31
      whynot_31

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      arches » 

      t minus 2 days til Steve's hearing. Any wagers on the outcome?

      Nope.

      I do not have the benefit of his psychiatric evaluation, his history of compliance with MH services, or his criminal background ...all of which will hopefully influence the outcome of his pending case.

      arches » Think we should remind the various politicians/journalists who have taken an "interest" in this?

      Nope.

      In the event that he is released, I believe that we should hope it is with mental health support services, and that the ongoing receipt of said services are a condition of his probation.

      ....the outcome of his case (whether it is sentancing or release) is now securely in the hands of the court system. Our advocacy was able to get the matter to the court system, and now I believe we should leave it alone.

      We should save the "friendships" we have developed with politicians and journalists in case we need it at some future date.

      [I also hope that the court system would be immune from such influence at this point. The whole purpose of the court system is that the neither the "victims" or "those directly related to him" get to decide the accused's fate. The system was designed under the theory that the former would be too brutal, the latter completely soft.]

      I will state though, that if I were a sane individual, I would never break trees again after spending several weeks incarcerated. ...but, as we all agree, the wellness of said individual was never really in question.

      AND

      I will also state that if he is released, I believe it will be with some kind of services.

      However, regardless of the quantity and quality of said services, if he begins to engage in behavior that is illegal, we should again fight to get him the care he needs, and the protection the public deserves.

      Based on the success we had this past round, I hope that future rounds may be easier. Who knows, we might even get some help from the 77th Pct this time. (?!)

      <<<< looks for superman cape. Wishes he really had super powers.

      <<<<has been disappointed in Magic Wand.

      I'd also argue that the ongoing situation at Lincoln and Franklin is presently far more worthy of our very limited attention span and resources.
      For better or worse, the change on Nostrand is going to make the change on Franklin look minor.
    19. whynot_31
      whynot_31

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      Hmmmm. He had court today, but it does not show him as being released or sentenced.

      Date:August 18, 2010

      Court:Kings Criminal Court

      Part:APAR1

      Docket Sentence

      No Sentence Information on File.

      I guess this means they have not entered the data yet.

      Our possible outcomes are:

      a. Adjourned and he remains in jail until the next date.

      b. Adjourned and he is released.

      c. Released

      d. Sentenced and begins to serve time.
      For better or worse, the change on Nostrand is going to make the change on Franklin look minor.
    20. User has not uploaded an avatar
      arches

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      Yeah, i noticed that. It probably means that someone still has to fill out the third carbon copy of some form before handing it to someone else who will record the information by typewritter and then take a picture of the typed form and post it on a website. Or something.
    21. carnivore
      Carnivore

      Brooklyn Snark
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      I saw a tree branch down on (I think) Underhill today. Hopefully just a coincidence, although it did seem to be the size branch he usually goes after.
    22. king without a crown
      King without a crown

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      You can register for a victim notification when hes released on that website
    23. whynot_31
      whynot_31

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      King without a crown » You can register for a victim notification when hes released on that website

      I've done that. So I assume there is a delay in data entry, something like Arches describes.

      Arches,

      There may be additional steps:

      8. put the carbon paper in the interoffice envelope.

      9. address the interoffice envelope.

      10. close the interoffice envelope.

      11. put it in outgoing box

      12. mail guy picks up envelope

      13. mail van next goes from Brooklyn Court to fourth floor data entry unit in Jamaica Queens (known to all civil servants as "DEUJQ") once a week on Mondays.

      14. etc.
      For better or worse, the change on Nostrand is going to make the change on Franklin look minor.
    24. king without a crown
      King without a crown

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      They call your phone and leave a message
    25. whynot_31
      whynot_31

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      The feature I signed up for was to use that new fangled technology "email".

      No email came, so (like Arches) I assumed the city was still working out the bugs. I imagined some poor civil servant making the leap from carbon paper to a 20 year old Intel 80286 based computer s/he had just been given.

      ----------------------------------------------------

      To make a short story shorter, I went to this link:

      http://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/webcrim_attorney/Detail?which=case&docketNumber=2010KN056137&courtType=L&countyId=23&docketId=3696096&docketDseq=1&defendantName=Maynard,+Steven&county=KINGS&court=Kings+Criminal+Court&recordType=C&recordNum=19857999#NextAppearance

      Where it is supposed to tell anyone the fate of Mr. Maynard after it makes the user enter characters to prove they are not a robot.

      But, alas, even though I proved I was not a robot, it did not provide me with an update.

      ...and here, I started out so hopeful.

      --> Don't worry KWAC, I won't blame you for the state of the criminal justice "system" as long as you don't blame me for the state of the mental health "system". Deal?
      For better or worse, the change on Nostrand is going to make the change on Franklin look minor.
    26. whatchuwant
      Whatchuwant

      Parliament Menthol Funkadelic
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      Here we go- today's POST:

      An accused serial tree mutilator in Brooklyn is too cuckoo to stand trial, officials said yesterday.

      A psychiatric report on Steven Maynard, 36, found he's mentally unfit to defend himself on criminal-mischief charges for his bizarre rampage, officials said yesterday.

      "He's incompetent to help his defense," a prosecutor in the case said.

      The loony lumberjack allegedly went off his meds and used his bare hands to rip branches from trees on Eastern Parkway and in Prospect Park, doing some $200,000 in damage.

      When he was nabbed last month, he told cops that "there are demons in the trees, and I had to cut them down" because the demons had killed someone called "Amy."

      Maynard will be held at an upstate psychiatric facility until he's ready for trial.

      Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/tree_hater_ruled_nut_case_3BcVOzhzcv3NElE5fZ1b1N#ixzz0x3t5F0Nn

      "...you can choose the rain....but I choose the sun..." - N. Costa
    27. whynot_31
      whynot_31

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      Edited by whynot for some degree of sensitivity:

      Whatchuwant » Here we go- today's POST:

      An accused serial tree mutilator in Brooklyn is too mentally ill to stand trial, officials said yesterday.

      A psychiatric report on Steven Maynard, 36, found he's mentally unfit to defend himself on criminal-mischief charges for his bizarre rampage, officials said yesterday.

      "He's incompetent to help his defense," a prosecutor in the case said.

      The severely mentally ill man allegedly went off his meds and used his bare hands to rip branches from trees on Eastern Parkway and in Prospect Park, doing some $200,000 in damage.

      When he was nabbed last month, he told cops that "there are demons in the trees, and I had to cut them down" because the demons had killed someone called "Amy."

      Maynard will be held at an upstate psychiatric facility until he's ready for trial.

      Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/tree_hater_ruled_nut_case_3BcVOzhzcv3NElE5fZ1b1N#ixzz0x3t5F0Nn

      Dear World,

      In the event I am reincarnated, I want to come back to a world where someone who is too ill to consent does not have to be charged with a crime before we, as a society, can ensure that they get care. Thanks.

      Sincerely,

      Whynot
      For better or worse, the change on Nostrand is going to make the change on Franklin look minor.
    28. User has not uploaded an avatar
      mdgately

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      It's a shame that the NY Post can't resist its usual bad puns and alliteration, but good news that this guy is finally being held for treatment.
    29. mha
      MHA

      rocking it
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      Egads!

      Dude, I sincerely hope you never come back.
    30. whatchuwant
      Whatchuwant

      Parliament Menthol Funkadelic
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      Uh, WhyNot- be glad you don't live in Jersey:

      Gov. Chris Christie today made it illegal for state laws or rules to identify anyone with a developmental or intellectual disability as "mentally retarded" by signing legislation sought by people who have felt belittled by the term.

      Other offensive terms banned: "mentally retarded," "physically

      handicapped," "feeble-minded," and "physically or mentally defective."

      The law also applies to language involving people with mental illness,

      such as "the insane," the "mentally deficient," and "the mentally ill."

      - from NJ.com
      "...you can choose the rain....but I choose the sun..." - N. Costa
    31. whynot_31
      whynot_31

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      Whatchuwant » Uh, WhyNot- be glad you don't live in Jersey:

      Gov. Chris Christie today made it illegal for state laws or rules to identify anyone with a developmental or intellectual disability as "mentally retarded" by signing legislation sought by people who have felt belittled by the term.

      Other offensive terms banned: "mentally retarded," "physically

      handicapped," "feeble-minded," and "physically or mentally defective."

      The law also applies to language involving people with mental illness,

      such as "the insane," the "mentally deficient," and "the mentally ill."

      - from NJ.com

      One can never find a good term to refer to a person's mental illness, but there are lots of bad ones.

      I merely strive to be "less offensive".

      Striving to be Politically Correct is an unattainable and even questionable goal

      ....but I can do better than the Post.

      (who can't?)
      For better or worse, the change on Nostrand is going to make the change on Franklin look minor.
    32. mha
      MHA

      rocking it
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      The Post was honest (I can't believe I'm saying this, believe me). As Bob Marley said, "The truth is an offense, but not a sin." If we all live our lives tucking our tails in, then no truth would ever be spoken.

      Political correctness is hypocrisy that panders to POWER, uttered by sycophants who are constantly trying to be liked.

      Steve is a NUTJOB and he's in the LOONEY-BIN. There, I said it. Let's hope he can work through the tree-sitting demons, and find his Amy; but if not, let's ensure that our trees live. Case closed.
    33. photogirl
      photogirl

      getting it
      Joined: May '10
      Posts: 99

      I gotta say, MHA, I am a little disappointed in you! Mental illness is an illness like any other. Would you describe an elderly paranoid relative of yours with Alzheimers as a "Nutjob" who needs to be in a "looney bin"? And, of course, given the prevalence of Alzheimers, many of us have mental illness in our future. So how about a little compassion for this guy, which doesn't mean we can't stop him from breaking trees. But, we need not demonize him.
    34. mha
      MHA

      rocking it
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      Pshaw photogirl, tell that to the trees on my block.

      But seriously, you are correct. My callousness is misdirected. It should really have been directed to the guardians of Mr. Maynard, whose own neglect led to all of the tree damage, and the city which for years turned away while he did it.
    35. whynot_31
      whynot_31

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      I consistently blame the abstract "city".

      The mental health system, social service system, civil court system (handles guardianship matters), and police all seem to drop the ball and lack procedures when it comes to handling cases like this.

      Jack Krohn blames the civil libertarians .....and he has a point as well.
      For better or worse, the change on Nostrand is going to make the change on Franklin look minor.
    36. whynot_31
      whynot_31

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      Road Map Shows Route From Punishment to Treatment

      by Mark Moran Psychiatric News August 6, 2010

      http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/45/15/7.1.full

      (due to problems with cut and paste, readers may find the above link as being easier to read than the below)

      Decreasing inpatient beds and an increasingly punitive approach to deviant behavior, along with greater involvement of legislatures in mandating sentencing, has resulted in a “perfect storm of criminalization.”

      A 62-year-old woman making a call from a Washington, D.C., subway pay phone refuses to relinquish the phone to another commuter impatient to use it.

      A fight ensues, and the police are called. When approached by the police, the caller begins to yell at them, refusing to leave the premises. She is arrested for disorderly conduct, trespassing, and resisting arrest.

      Taken to a hospital, she appears to be hearing voices and expresses the belief that she is “the president.” She initially refuses medication, but after a few days she develops a relationship with one of the nurses who is able to persuade her to begin taking medication.

      The incident was recounted in a June 21, 2010, Weblog by forensic psychiatrist Erik Roskes, M.D., on “The Crime Report” at <www> under the title “The Charge: Being Mentally Ill in Public.”

      In the report, Roskes—who was the forensic psychiatrist assigned to evaluate the woman's fitness to stand trial—recounts calling the arresting officer and inquiring why the woman wasn't taken immediately to the emergency room. The officer replied, “She wasn't doing anything dangerous. They wouldn't have taken her.”

      In his blog, Roskes asked, “What is wrong with our system that a person can be perceived by a police officer as being dangerous enough to require arrest and detention in jail, but not dangerous enough to be admitted to a hospital for treatment?”

      It's a question that has long gone unanswered, even as the criminalization and incarceration of people with mental illness has skyrocketed from year to year. A report in May by the Treatment Advocacy Center found that Americans with severe mental illness are now three times as likely to be in jail as they are to be in a hospital (Psychiatric News, June 4).

      Roskes is a member of APA's Task Force on Outpatient Forensic Services, whose report “Outpatient Services for the Mentally Ill Involved in the Criminal Justice System”—approved by the APA Board of Trustees in December 2009—outlines historical reasons for criminalizing this population in the last 30 years, reviews evidence regarding the impact of ordinary outpatient services on rates of incarceration of mentally ill individuals, provides an overview of the characteristics of mentally ill individuals in the justice system and the risk for violence, and describes model treatment approaches to those with mental illness involved in the justice system.

      And it issues a strident wake-up call to psychiatrists who remain—in the view of the task force—underinformed about this alarming civic trend toward criminalization and underinvolved in responding to it.

      Few Know Extent of Problem

      “The psychiatric community is becoming increasingly aware of the problems of correctional mental health care,” the report stated. “Few, however, are aware of the magnitude of how many public-sector patients now fall within the domain of the criminal justice system and are destined to receive poor care and follow-up. Nor are most psychiatrists aware that the prison environment is antitherapeutic, engendering maladaptive behavioral patterns that render future care more difficult.... [I]t is no longer possible to believe that problematic patients not served by public-sector psychiatrists are receiving good care in the criminal justice system.”

      Past APA President and forensic psychiatrist Paul Appelbaum, M.D., was chair of the Council on Psychiatry and Law when the task force was formed. “Other countries, including Canada and England, are far ahead of the U.S. in recognizing that patients coming out of correctional facilities have particular characteristics and special needs,” Appelbaum told Psychiatric News. “The council requested this report because we believed that it was time for American psychiatrists to think seriously about how best to meet the treatment needs of this growing and often neglected population.”

      ‘A Perfect Storm of Criminalization’

      In an interview with Psychiatric News, Task Force Chair Steven Hoge, M.D., said bluntly, “Correctional psychiatry is the new public psychiatry.”

      Hoge, who is director of the Columbia-Cornell Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship Program, said the turn toward criminalization of individuals with mental illness has historic roots involving multiple factors—diminishing availability of public psychiatry beds, an increasingly punitive approach in the “war on drugs,” increasing hostility on the part of a public fearful of mentally ill people and the perceived risk of violence, and greater involvement of legislatures, as opposed to courts and judges, in mandating sentencing.

      The result, he said, “has been a perfect storm of criminalization.”

      This has happened in the context of a sharp rise in incarceration generally. “If you look at the incarceration curve for the general population, it has gone up from 100 per 100,000 to 900 per 100,000,” Hoge said. “It's extraordinary. The United States has the highest rates of incarceration of any country in the world, including some of the most repressive regimes.

      “It's ironic that just as we have been deinstitutionalizing people with mental illness, the society has taken a wholesale turn toward a punitive approach to deviant behavior,” he told Psychiatric News. “We are more likely to charge someone with possession [of drugs] than to try to find a treatment program for someone who is an addict.”

      Among the summary conclusions outlined by the task force are the following:

      The quality of care in correctional settings varies from nonexistent to adequate. In general, psychiatric care in jails and prisons is fragmented and inconsistent.

      For an outpatient-based system to function in providing better care for mentally ill offenders, better access to inpatient beds is necessary.

      There is evidence that mandated outpatient treatment may be useful in reducing rates of arrest and incarceration when properly funded and monitored.

      Programs must be designed to treat and manage patients with comorbid substance abuse problems and antisocial personality disorder, and outpatient programs must be prepared to address the problems related to chronic disability, unemployment, and homelessness.

      Mentally ill women in the criminal justice system have special needs due to high rates of trauma history and PTSD. In addition, many will need assistance in parenting, supporting, and providing care for children.

      Models for caring for mentally ill offenders exist in other countries. They may be useful as starting points in designing a system for the United States.

      The task force offers four recommendations for the field of psychiatry (see What Psychiatrists Can Do).

      “The overall message is that these are our patients,” Roskes told Psychiatric News. “People with mental illness who are involved in the criminal justice system are and should be of interest to every psychiatrist.”

      Roskes, who does not stint on criticism of organized psychiatry for failing to be more involved in the issue, said other groups—the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, and the Council of State Governments—have taken the lead in working on alternative treatment approaches to criminally mentally ill people.

      He added, “A history of arrest is not the same as a history of violence. I work in a state hospital where two-thirds of our patients are forensic. Clinically they are no different from the nonforensic population except that they have gotten caught. But people are afraid of this population, and that is to our discredit as a field.”

      “Outpatient Services for the Mentally Ill Involved in the Criminal Justice System: A Report of the Task Force on Outpatient Forensic Services” is posted at http://www.psych.org/TFR200921
      For better or worse, the change on Nostrand is going to make the change on Franklin look minor.
    37. carnivore
      Carnivore

      Brooklyn Snark
      Joined: Apr '05
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      We have made a decision as a society that the mentally ill patient's right to autonomy (and thus right to refuse treatment) trumps a paternalistic principle of benificence (giving the patient the treatment they need) unless that person poses an immediate threat to his/her self or others. With that premise, that autonomy must come responsibility for one's actions while refusing treatment; thus the inevitable involvement of the criminal justice system. It would be an unacceptable Catch-22 if the patient had the right to refuse treatment, but then was considered too mentally ill to be responsible for his/her actions.
    38. whynot_31
      whynot_31

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      I agree. ...as a society, we have made that decision.

      ....but as individual, I do not always agree with society's decision.

      I believe that society not only has the right, but an obligation, to provide treatment to those who have a history of being violent to themselves and others.

      In this situation, I believe that we shirk our responsibilites under the convenient guise of "civil liberties and autonomy".

      ...and that we, as a society, could come up with better solutions than we have.

      Surely we can develop and refine the options available.

      With the advent of advanced psychotropics, I have a hard time believing that the only options are as stark as

      Pilgrim State and Willowbrook, as they existed for much of their history http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willowbrook_State_School

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrim_Psychiatric_Center

      http://www.opacity.us/site23_pilgrim_state_hospital.htm

      vs.

      Letting them suffer a miserable life of delusions in the community, where their illnesses put themsevles, their family members and the larger community at risk.

      vs.

      the present "bug" units of the Criminal Justice system

      In this situation the individual was permitted to damage an estimated 200k in city property before concerned citizens and authorities acted on the situation.

      Seemingly, no value was assigned to the damage he was permitted to do to himself or his family.

      I believe we, as a society, are smarter than this. ....and that we can come up with better solutions that will simultaneously allow us to create choices that are not as stark. We can create treatment options that provide a better balance than our present polarized struggle, which using your definitions, pits

      "autonomy"

      VS

      "benificence"

      We can change the struggle and the debate.

      Can't the pendulum stop swinging so wildly?

      Surely there is a middle ground that would not cause the pendulum to constantly whack the opposing sides of the grandfather clock.

      In otherwords, I believe that in the vast majority of the time, a system based on consent is superior to one based on coercion. Most folks are not ill to the degree that they are a danger to themselves, and I am not suggesting that we return to the days of having the ability to hospitalize our most annoying relative.

      But, what do we do with Steve?

      I'm an optimist. I think we can do better.
      For better or worse, the change on Nostrand is going to make the change on Franklin look minor.
    39. carnivore
      Carnivore

      Brooklyn Snark
      Joined: Apr '05
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      I didn't make up those terms or come up with framing this issue in that way. Those are the terms that medical ethicists using when debating these kinds of issues.
    40. whynot_31
      whynot_31

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      I am familiar with the terms and the debate.

      I am of the perspective that the debate should be always ongoing, because it should reflect both the advances in treatment AND abuses by providers as they occur.

      It's all about that pendulum analogy. The media and courts make it swing from side to side. ....Whenever folks like me request moderation, we are told that we:

      endorse or mitigate the abuses of Willowbrook/Pilgrim State

      and/or

      have no respect for Autonomy and consent

      and/or

      want people with mental illness to have a complete "pass" on being held accountable. (the opposite of Criminalization)

      In this case, I am pleased the guy is finally getting the care he needs.

      ....but yea, I think we could improve on this whole routine. Who knows, in many instances we might be able to prevent the need for inpatient care. ....one easily could argue that is what Steve is receiving now.

      While I believe a system based on consent has its problems, I also believe that 99.99% of the time, it is better than one based on coercion.

      Steve is among the 00.01% of the population.

      In my idealism (which others will doubtlessly call "naivete"), I believe we can do better.

      For better or worse, the change on Nostrand is going to make the change on Franklin look minor.
    41. mha
      MHA

      rocking it
      Joined: Feb '10
      Posts: 1,352

      Steve is crazy. He killed many trees

      'Society' ignored him -- despite many homilies

      Now he's gone -- due process be damned

      No doubt living horribly -- in a room probably crammed

      What's worse, a free Steve killing trees?

      Or the situation as is?

      I am glad Steve is gone

      His own future he made

      Now the streets can be cooler

      And hopefully, there will be more shade.
    42. smw380
      smw380

      getting it
      Joined: Apr '07
      Posts: 134

      Is Steve still in custody? i've seen some branches on the ground along underhill and on dean - hope he's not back to it.
    43. whynot_31
      whynot_31

      Former Lurker
      Joined: Mar '06
      Posts: 16,360

      smw380 » Is Steve still in custody? i've seen some branches on the ground along underhill and on dean - hope he's not back to it.

      To my knowledge, Steve remains in custody. He is being held on the basis that he is too mentally ill to assist in his own defense, or enter a plea. When (and if) he becomes well enough, he will then either be sentenced or released.

      ....Steve was not responsible for every branch broken in Prospect Heights or Crown Heights.

      Kids do it.

      Trucks do it.

      Wind...
      For better or worse, the change on Nostrand is going to make the change on Franklin look minor.
    44. stacey
      stacey

      rocking it
      Joined: Mar '05
      Posts: 3,526

      smw380 » Is Steve still in custody? i've seen some branches on the ground along underhill and on dean - hope he's not back to it.

      Those were from the garbage trucks today
    45. opossumqueen
      OpossumQueen

      rocking it
      Joined: Aug '07
      Posts: 2,533

      He's made the news : /

      http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/tree_branch_madman_is_sent_to_psych_dLbLRsqXTMIsCHcm45sGHL?CMP=OTC-rss&FEEDNAME=

      "after a reign of terror that caused about $200,000 in damage to street trees"
    46. carnivore
      Carnivore

      Brooklyn Snark
      Joined: Apr '05
      Posts: 14,021

      OpossumQueen » He's made the news : /

      http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/tree_branch_madman_is_sent_to_psych_dLbLRsqXTMIsCHcm45sGHL?CMP=OTC-rss&FEEDNAME=

      "after a reign of terror that caused about $200,000 in damage to street trees"

      Pretty pathetic that the Post is citing the Brooklyn Paper as a source. Weak journalism.
    47. whynot_31
      whynot_31

      Former Lurker
      Joined: Mar '06
      Posts: 16,360

      Birds of a feather, flock together
      For better or worse, the change on Nostrand is going to make the change on Franklin look minor.
    48. whynot_31
      whynot_31

      Former Lurker
      Joined: Mar '06
      Posts: 16,360

      An article about the number of mentally ill people served by Rikers, and the revolving door caused by a lack of outpatient treatment..

      http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/searchlight/20100929/203/3374

      Unfortunately, the article does not point out that this trend is occuring as more inpatient psychiatric beds are being closed.

      ....The only way to obtain treatment for the seriously mentally ill is quickly becoming via the correctional system.
      For better or worse, the change on Nostrand is going to make the change on Franklin look minor.
    49. User has not uploaded an avatar
      novanglus

      getting it
      Joined: Mar '10
      Posts: 75

      Just got this email:

      9/29/2010

      This e-mail is to inform you that STEVEN MAYNARD with New York State identification number 1411010671 has been transferred to the custody of another law enforcement agency. You will no longer be updated by the VINE Service on changes in this offender's custody status. Please take all necessary precautions to ensure your safety.

      This notification is sponsored by the New York State VINE Service. It is our hope that this information has been helpful to you.

      Thank you,

      The VINE Service
    50. whynot_31
      whynot_31

      Former Lurker
      Joined: Mar '06
      Posts: 16,360

      I received it as well. Based on the article in the NY Post referenced by OPPQueen, I predict it means that he is now a ward of the Office of Mental Health, and no longer the Department of Corrections.

      The Department of Corrections has several large psychiatric facilities on Rikers, and contracts with HHC hospitals for short term care. One has to be in need of long term care to be transferred to OMH.
      For better or worse, the change on Nostrand is going to make the change on Franklin look minor.

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