Tree Branch Breaker

I saw Crazy Steve today. He stood on Franklin glaring either at an overhead tree branch, or two women with a baby in a carriage. I was on my cell phone, and I stood about 10 feet away from him because I didn't know if he was going to make a move and harm the tree, or the two ladies and the baby. Either way, I was gonna confront the situation. He looked at me, and I at him and he must have seen my resolve because he walked away talking to himself. At his leave I turned to the two ladies and said, "Be careful of that guy." The both said in unison, "I know!" They began to talk about him glaring at them, and their thoughts were, 'why is he looking at us like that?' I pointed out the tree damage he has caused, and the police indifference and one of them said, "And if he ends up hurting someone then they are going to step in."

I agreed. I don't have a camera, or a good camera phone. It's my hope that someone with either can surreptitiously take a picture of Steve. If we can pass it about to other sites, then we can create a way of monitoring this guy.

I had a conversation with a lady who is one of the superintendents taking care of a building on Sterling Place. She told me that this past weekend she had an encounter with Crazy Steve that easily surpasses my previously reported one involving his weird gaping at the two women and the baby on Franklin Avenue.

She said that he was standing nearby a tree that he had earlier maimed on Sterling. It's the tree on the northern side of Sterling Place closest to Bedford Avenue. She might have said something to him to the effect of, 'You better leave that tree alone,' or something like that. She was about to enter into the building facing the newly planted tree. She said that he turned towards her and, motioning with her hands to the sides she said that " he was steppin' to me," in a threatening way. When she said this I registered shock on my face and then she said, "Yeah, it's a lucky thing I had my hammer on me," Which she held forcefully in her hand; and upon seeing it he backed off.

She then said rather scarely, "Whenever I see him I have this awful feeling in the pit of my stomach,'' and she rubbed her left side. "I feel like something absolutely horrible is gonna happen because of that guy."

We played out awful permutations of what she meant: He could attack someone; he could react to someone who either taunts him, or makes attempt to stop him from mangling a tree; or lastly, he hurts a child.

It's weird. Sometimes I feel as if I am living in a parallel universe and we are all characters in Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. I felt this sensation strongly after starting the thread dealing with 'Birds and other forms of Wildlife' and I described hearing a bird in a tree making varying calls; someone said that the birds which do that are mockingbirds, and I said in response, how apt.

Crazy Steve is our Boo Radley. Instead of leaving little toys for the girl protagonist in the cubby holes of a tree, he breaks tree branches, and indeed, kills some of the trees; maybe we are Ms. Lee's first draft. I share the sentiment of the superintendent. I too think that something awful might happen. God forbid, something awful happens to someone because of him; that would be horrible, but not surprising. My conscience would feel appeased because I will think to myself, 'Well, I was a responsible citizen. I tried.' God forbid something happens to STEVE though, and I will feel that somehow, collaterally at least, I am partly to blame. After all, I started the thread, the dots were connected by folk reading my initial comments and adding their own stating essentially, 'Yeah, that happened to me too!' That's really scary. Suppose, may the gods forbid it, the cops are called because of Steve, and they do their 'police freeze' schtik, and then he gets snuffed out in a hail of you-know-what? Oh dear Gods, NO.

I thought of this as I walked towards the Franklin Avenue train station yesterday. A familiar red-on-white oversized Michael Jordan t-shirt came into view; Steve. He was doing his hand gesture thing, which looks like he is trying to solve a very complicated quadratic equation without the benefit of paper. I eyed him skeptically as I always do when we walk pass each other. His hands fluttered. I watched them carefully. They suddenly stopped. His left hand shot a thumbs up gesture. Shocked, I made eye contact. There was a softness, a glimmer of sadness, then a look of pain. The forbidding mask suddenly reappeared, as did the fluttering hands. We passed.

I would recommend that people reach out to Detective Martin Brown at [email protected] . His Office number is 646 610 6016; his cell is 917 337 4168. There is a growing awareness of this that at least may manifest into wider awareness: a reporter from the Wall Street Journal is apparently investigating the worth of writing an article about this.

I saw CS about 3 times today, and though I have no proof I believe that he is responsible for ripping off a 4.5 foot long branch (with leaves) off of a big London Plain tree on the northern side of Sterling Place. The branch is at the foot of the tree right now.

Detective Brown's argument, as well as the argument of a Sergeant(?) O'Keefe of the 77th Precinct is that there is little value in arresting a guy for breaking a few branches. I contend however, that the absencee of trees affects everything -- including the intangible and tangible value of the neighborhoods we inhabit.

I disagree with you KWAC. CS was verbally warned by at least two people who said in essence, 'If you touch my tree, I am going to call the police on you," and as of yet, he has not touched their trees. This pertains to a guy on Sterling Place, and the tree in front of Pulp and Bean. Now, maybe there is a method to his madness, and there is an alternate reason why he hasn't touched those trees, yet; but, I am of the mind that there is something in his mind that recognizes wrong from right. Also, maybe becase there has been little consequence to his actions, he continues to do them.

Also, it's my sense that it is Due Process that determines whether he possesses a state of mind aware of culpability. Due process consists of arrest and a trial by a jury of his peers, and a sitting judge; he has not received any of that. It's my sense that the responsibility of the police is to apprehend those accused of breaking the law; then it's the job of a judge and jury to ascertain whether the law is applicable to the person, and if there should be penalty.

Even if he isn't culpable, at the least, those who are his guardians should be culpable. If - may the gods forbit it - he hurts someone, the culpable state of mind issue goes out the window. I think the issue here is the cops not perceiving that their is any importance to the crime, and given the ongoing expose' by the Village Voice into the 81st Precinct's alleged fudging of criminal statistics, it lends towards the argument that the 77th is also doing the same thing, no?

That may be a jump, but also to ignore a crime is somehow to give incentive to the perpetrator, whether he be sane, or not.

I believe you mentioned earlier that one can receive a mental hygiene warrant'. I actually did a bit of googling and found out where one can have that done, but to be honest, I ran out of gas over the issue. I laid it out earlier on a previous message. I called and spoke to a very nice lady who told me any member of John Q. Public could come to the Brooklyn Supreme Court and get it. But also, I had a case of cowardice regarding actually making further attempt at having the authorities have their hands on CS. I wondered what the facility he would be held in would be like, and I felt that my conscience would be shaken continually by the idea of my hand being the one responsible for diminishing the quality of his life. I am confident that the sort of facility he would be in will not be anything like a kinder gentler Shutter Island, this being New York, and the social welfare net being worn thin. I thought that Steve ripping off branches is probably the lesser of all the evils. He's our Boo Radley, or Radio Raheem; let's hope he does not end up like the latter.

I think once you see Steve you will know it's him. It's like seeing a UFO. You don't know what it looks like, but once you see one, you know what you've seen.

He almost always has on an over-sized Michael Jordan t-shirt, either white, or red;
He wears baggy denim shorts that fall below the knee -- sort of mid-shin lengthed;
a black/dark blue tam/winter hat covering a very full head of thick black hair;
He has a relatively unkempt fullish beard;
He's about 200 pounds, 5 foot ten.
He wears white high-top sneakers with red trimmings.
He usually is gesticulating to himself with his hands.