Tree Branch Breaker

True. Let's hope that this arrest brings an end to Steve's demon-slaying. However, if this continues at all, I think a demonstration might be in order.

So if he's in custody, and actually stays that way this time, has anyone reached out to million trees nyc or parks to inspect and help out all these trees? the broken branches/ torn bark need to be properly pruned and trimmed up so that the trees have the best possible chance of recovering. This on top of all the heat/drought stress over the last month is VERY bad for establishing trees.

MHA wrote: I hope our elected officials see this moment as a test of their efficacy. If they are unable to do anything about it, I hope they are able to explain to US why... They better be very convincing.

If they act so incompetently when a crazy man goes on a tree-killing rampage, what does this say about their ability to deal with other pressing issues in our hood? For example, gun violence?

Looks like he hit a bunch of trees on Vandy between Park and Sterling before he got arrested.

We just have to keep up the full court press. Every time he gets out we have to nail him again as soon as he resumes his destructive behavior. Keep the dude on the other side of the revolving door as much as possible.

Subject: NY Times on the tree vandal's arrest

Here's the complete NY Times article:

[i]July 14, 2010
Arrest Puts End to a War on Brooklyn Trees
By ISOLDE RAFTERY
To the residents of Prospect Heights in Brooklyn, he was simply known as Steve.

He spent the last month stalking the neighborhood streets at night, breaking off the branches of young trees. Sometimes, he broke them off with his bare hands, other times he climbed into the trees and used his weight to tear off their limbs. Recently, he was seen dragging a bag filled with branches.

In the last few days, the authorities said, he attacked 22 trees, leaving most of the debris in a pile around their trunks. The trees — cherries, gingkoes, oaks and maples — looked as though they had been ravaged by a storm. He had attacked dozens more a few weeks earlier.

Residents were furious. They complained to the police, to the city parks department and to Councilwoman Letitia James. They started posting “Steve sightings” on local blogs. A few of them turned nasty and dropped branches into the courtyard outside his mother’s brownstone home.

On Wednesday afternoon, the man, identified by the authorities as Steve Maynard, 35, was arrested in Prospect Park by the Park Enforcement Patrol and taken to the 78th Precinct in Brooklyn. He was charged with criminal mischief, specifically arborcide, the vandalism of public trees. The violation could result in up to $15,000 in fines and up to a year in jail.

Liam Kavanagh, first deputy commissioner for the parks department, said Mr. Maynard appeared to be “one seriously disturbed individual.”

“I don’t know what is the right assistance or intervention,” Mr. Kavanagh said, “but my suspicion is that jail is probably not the answer.”

Mr. Maynard started lashing out against the trees in mid-June, Mr. Kavanagh said, pulling down branches on about 40 of them. On June 18, he was arrested and sent to Kings County Hospital Center for psychiatric evaluation, a park official said.

There were weeks of quiet, and residents tended to the damaged trees. But several days ago, it appeared that Mr. Maynard had returned with newfound enthusiasm. Sixteen trees were damaged in Prospect Park, and six more on residential streets near the Brooklyn Museum.

Ms. James assigned a staff member to the case and has been working with Mr. Maynard’s family. Ms. James said that Mr. Maynard’s mother was distraught when neighbors littered her tidy courtyard with branches.

“Apparently his mother had begged the hospital not to release him, but to no avail,” Ms. James said. One of her aides and a representative from Adult Protective Services visited Mr. Maynard’s mother on Tuesday, but she had not seen her son in two days.

“Unfortunately, the system failed,” Ms. James said. “The question now is how the criminal justice system is going to handle it.”

No one answered the door or the telephone at Mr. Maynard’s house on Wednesday.

As word spread in Prospect Heights that Mr. Maynard had been arrested, feelings toward him softened some.

Philip Silva, a 28-year-old resident and volunteer with the Prospect Heights Forestry Community Initiative, said the trees were ailing, but then again, so was Mr. Maynard.

Mr. Silva said the anger of residents was partly because so many of them took pride in their street trees. He and others had received a license from the parks department to prune the trees themselves.

“No one’s angry at Steve,” Mr. Silva said. “But we need him to get better for our trees to get better.”

Subject: Re: NY Times on the tree vandal's arrest

NY Times wrote: A few of them turned nasty and dropped branches into the courtyard outside his mother’s brownstone home.

Nasty, really?

wow i had a friend who was sent up state for being crazy, cause he got into a bar fight and refuse to answer a judges questions. he was in the mental prison i think. it was for many months till he finally gave up and talk to prison docs and they said he was fine etc... yet this guy has years of trouble and nobody can send him away for a long time?

"Mr. Maynard started lashing out against the trees in mid-June"
“No one’s angry at Steve,”

Ha ha - great journalism. :roll:

MHA wrote: Irony of ironies archair warrior. All of the damaged trees that have occurred might as well have been ripped off by Brooklyn's Finest. The police were told about this guy a long time ago, and they did nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Three cheers for the the police department....

Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!

Actually the Police Department did do something, It was the mental health system that failed.Steve had been sent to the hospital several times by the Police and he was subsequently released every time. Unfortunately, Criminal Mischief to a tree probably wont get him any time in jail and if not released already will be out shortly. Being Criminally charged maybe satisfying, but without any Psychiatric services to accompany his short stint in Brooklyns Central Booking, most likely Crazy Steve will return and continue his misdeeds.

Looks like they he got arrested

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/15/nyregion/15trees.html?_r=1

MHA wrote: So his last name is Maynard. Is there some way of determining when someone is arrested or released online? Does anyone know? If there is some way of knowing if he remains locked up, and when he is released, that would be beneficial.

MHA, http://a072-web.nyc.gov/inmatelookup/
I'm not sure whether this online system reports people who are serving a sentance and/or are being merely "detained". ....but yes, the department of corrections and police department is required to disclose who they have in custody at any given time via some method (but I'm sure there is some lag between when they arrest you and info becomes available).

Everyone else,
I'm with KWAC on this one: We both perceive the NYT's online headline of "Arrest Puts End to a War on Brooklyn Trees" as sadly naive.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/15/nyregion/15trees.html. The printed version (found on page A28) is titled "After Arrest in Attacks on Trees, Thinking More Than Oaks Need Help" and is far more insightful.

Mr. Met,
I continue to want to live in your world. I envy the fact that you do not live in the world as I experience it. (I say that without malice toward you. I often truly wish I had a different world view). I almost feel guilt by telling you about how I perceive the world and how it "really works, and does not". ...because I would not want anyone to ruin something good.

ste3021878,
Many court rulings have prevented the long term instutionalization of the mentally ill. Although the solution you propose might be effective, it is not practical or viewed as "politically correct" with in the field. However, your point of view is shared by highly intelligent people whom I hold a great deal of respect for.

Sadly, the disinstutionalization movement was not accompanied by adequate outpatient care. ....as I've mentioned earlier, the problem is that society now presently has neither option readily available. It is truly sad.

Gawker picked this up, showing how truly comic and ridiculous it is.

whynot_31 wrote: [quote=WhyFi]"Mr. Maynard started lashing out against the trees in mid-June"
“No one’s angry at Steve,”

Ha ha - great journalism. :roll:

agreed.

....they got the month and year wrong.

...they got our emotions wrong.

But, as a community, we do get credit for trying to stay within this broken system and not giving into violence despite having very little support from our the 77th pct., and an struggling mental health and social service "system".

Note the "suckyness of each system" (aka mental health and social serivce) causes the other system (aka law enforcement) to no longer want to use it.

KWAC is accurate. A lot of people (including the police) have tried, and then given up for good reason. However, it up to us to tell the police department that giving up not an acceptable option. If we have to participate in this broken system, so do the police.

None of the problem discussed on this thread are ever going to go away.

...Most of our jobs involve beating our heads against a wall. When we get tired of beating our heads against a wall, it is time for us to either be fired or retire.

If we are fired, we get to beat our head against a different wall at a different job.

If we retire, we can lie in a hammock all day.

I know I'm repeating myself here, but even if the system is totally broken, and all that getting Steve arrested accomplishes is removing him from the street for a short time, it is totally worthwhile to continue to keep putting him through that process at every opportunity. If nothing else, keep him on the other side of the revolving door as much as possible.