Idea Re: Get Tree Breaker help he needs, and us help we need

whynot_31 · June 2010

For those new to the "Tree Branch Breaker" topic, here's a brief summary: In Crown Heights and Prospect Heights, a seriously mentally ill man is reported to rip branches off trees. Lots of trees. People state they have seen him, know his name, and know where he lives. It seems calls to the police are ineffective. Here's the thread where all of this has been discussed:

http://brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=56979&start=90

Which leads me to propose the:

"The Community Wide Confrontation of Steve"

I hereby ask all interested parties if they would be willing to:

a. Continue to try to take a picture of him in the act.

b. Collect the broken tree branches from their block.

c. Figure out a good time and date. Alert the media, the community police officer and politicians of the determined time and event.

d. Peacefully bring said branches peacefully to said house in the presence of said media, on the determined time and date.

What say you?

bkchickie · June 2010

I can't keep tree branches in my apartment for a group drop off (although I did see a few branches on the ground on the berm side of Plaza Street East.)

I have an honest question. This guy clearly has a mental problem. How do the four steps you describe above serve to "get Tree Breaker Steve the help he needs?"

whynot_31 · June 2010

A fair question. As discussed in the original thread, our main argument is that the mental health "system" clearly isn't meeting his needs.

...the police don't seem to be doing anything, and I can't imagine them ever arresting a person this ill on such a minor (yet annoying) charge.

[they are limited by restrictions. He is, after all, only hurting trees, not people. But they might be more agreeable to at least transporting him to the ER over and over if he becomes a priority]

...please realize that if he already has an ICM or ACT program assigned to monitor him, they can't tell us because of confidentiality rules, but they may also not be aware how ill he is at present. [But, like the police, it may be because he is not on their list of priorites.]

...on the other hand, if he doesn't yet have an ICM or ACT team in place, lots of ER visits is one way to get him into such a program.
"More trips to the revolving door now, sometimes eventually results in less trips to the revolving later."

Not to be coy, but sometimes a little media attention gets the police and/or social service agencies to be a little more proactive in their interpretation of their responsibilities and abilities.

...the alternative is to say "he'll never get the help he needs and our trees are gonna all be ripped down over the next few months".

mha · June 2010

Someone needs to speak with whomever is his guardian. That's the next best step, if you ask me. It would be laughable if the protest gathers -- placards and all -- and nobody is home.

whynot_31 · June 2010

you are making a placard? First I've heard of those silly things.

...actually, neither he or his guardian needs to be home. Neither would be the target audience.

The audience is the press. The audience of the press is the politicians. The audience of the politicians are the police and social service (aka mental health) agencies. ....yada, yada, yada

If that doesn't work, maybe the pile of tree branches would be so high he couldn't get out to break more branches?

bkchickie · June 2010

I don't know. I see your point, and I don't like what this guy is doing one bit, but the whole idea also seems a lot like a witchhunt and more than mildly threatening. I don't think that he or his guardian could be blamed if he called the cops on people who arrived at his house or apartment and started throwing branches.

Without actual proof that this guy is the tree-branch perpetrator, he (or his guardian) has a great libel case on their hands. At least, that's what I would be thinking if I were the press.

whynot_31 · June 2010

advance notice to media and police would actually make it very unthreatening, and hopefully make the whole tree branch delivery idea even unnecessary. We could go then simply go have a beer instead, sans branches.

Or, we could just pile the branches in a corner somewhere, and have the press conference there.

Do we really have anyone willing to appear on News12, NYC 1, or the Brooklyn Paper under their real name? I think not. ...but politicians love to be in the media over such stuff.

I've reminded people of the camera request, so as the week goes on, we could get lots of proof that "he's the guy". ...he seems to be pretty active, and we seem to have lots of cameras and video cameras available.

Or, we could just live in a 'hood where every branch below arms reach is removed. Seriously, sometimes doing nothing is actually the best choice. This could be the choice chosen.

A few people aren't going to achieve anything. We'd likely need around 20 people to get any attention.

I'd simply go back to posting about the worst pizza in the neighborhood or something, he'd go on attacking trees, and life would go on.

P.S. It seems people are already putting the branches in his front yard. reportedly this is the work of others; Steve just drops the branches when he is done removing them.

MOD · June 2010

I'll participate, but only if I get to see Dude rip a limb off this guy.

king without a crown · June 2010

335 views and only 9 votes????

whynot_31 · June 2010

King without a crown wrote: 335 views and only 9 votes????

335
- 9
- the number of repeat viewers
- the number of times search engines sample the site

equals the number of people who wish to neither vote or participate.

Ain't democracy great.

whynot_31 · June 2010

P.S. the latest word is that Steve's guardian/mother wants help for Steve.

...she has much greater standing in terms of getting a mental health warrant and services than random, bored bloggers.

Folks could meet with her and encourage her to get assistance from local chapter National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. ...and get advice from lots of caregivers in similar situations. http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=your_local_nami&Template=/CustomSource/LocalDetail.cfm&localID=0100159144&fromHL=no&state=NY

...she has standing in civil court to argue for Kendra's law application.

...she could successfully involve Mobile Crisis; we can't.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/cis/cis_mct_dir.shtml

whatchuwant · June 2010

whynot_31 wrote: P.S. the latest word is that Steve's guardian/mother wants help for Steve.

Where did you see/hear that?

tsarina · June 2010

Hey I'll be a body at the protest.

whynot_31 · June 2010

Whatchuwant-
MHA is claiming mom wants help. Sun Jun 13, 2010 2:33 am EST http://brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=56979&start=135

Tsarina-
Welcome! But if his mom wants help, and we have the Parks Department helping us, that's the way to go about this.

...besides, there are only a few of us at this point. We do not have enough people to attract even desperate media sources.

d_luxx · June 2010

This is just something I think people should consider before staging any type of protest ( even a super peaceful one by concerned neighbors ): sometimes mentally ill people are really paranoid, and if thats the case showing up at the guys house en masse with the broken tree branches and the media could set him off. There is a definite possibility that he won't interpret this event the same way a rational person would. Please consult with someone who is trained in this field before you make a move; it would be really terrible if someone got hurt.

whynot_31 · June 2010

idea of tree branch delivery is hereby nixed due to exciting and encouraging news of ongoing investigation and interest by the NYC Parks police and administration.

Sun Jun 13, 2010 11:13 pm EST
http://www.brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=56979&start=135

They have green uniforms, trash bags, badges, and lots of vehicles with "NYC Parks" painted on the side.

On the other hand, at this point we have only 5 people who would deliver branches. 2 of the 5 are only going because they think there will be attractive people there.

...I know when I am beat. Please unsticky, and unglobal

shhhush · June 2010

Silly idea, but we should make little signs to hang on our trees saying "Steve, please stop hurting the trees. Thank you!"

However, anyone with paranoia would freak the hell out over that.

samosetsal · July 2010

My friend told me that last night a guy was hanging from a branch of a small tree outside her building in Clinton Hill. Her neighbor called the cops and they came but he was long gone. He'd managed to tear off several branches off the tree, so that there was a pile of branches on the ground.

smw380 · July 2010

Subject: STEVEWATCH: TREE VANDAL IN PROSPECT/CROWN HEIGHTS

As many of you know there is a mentally ill man named Steve who lives on Sterling Place between Classon and Bedford who has been literally ripping off the limbs of many of our street trees. He was apprehended a couple weeks ago, but has been repatriated to the Crown Heights and Prospect Heights communities. We need to coordinate our efforts to get Steve back off the streets and in treatment as soon as possible before he decimates the entire neighborhood. To accomplish this objective there are four actions that need to be taken:

1. Filing New Witness Statements
If you or anyone you know has witnessed Steve committing an act of vandalism, please contact Phil Silva IMMEDIATELY via email. Phil is in direct contact with a forester from NYC Central Forestry and the Deputy Director of Forestry for Brooklyn, and he can put a witness in touch with both men to quickly file a witness report. This will, in turn, result in another speedy arrest and hopefully get Steve off the streets immediately. Phil's e-mail address is: [email protected]

2. Tracking Existing Complaints
If you or anyone you know has already filed a complaint with either 311, the NYPD, or the parks enforcement policy, please have them contact Phil IMMEDIATELY. He can compile the case numbers and present them to our contacts at park to make it easier for them to build a single case file.

3. Tracking Photos
If anyone has photos, they should send them to [email protected], where our webmaster can collect them and put them in a single public access venue. We should use those photos in our outreach to elected officials.

4. Outreach to Elected / Appointed Officials
We should encourage all of our neighbors to write to the list of officials that James Goldstein compiled. Emails should be cc'ed to [email protected] so that we can track correspondence and follow up on behalf of our neighbors.

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

We hope these four points will help to coordinate our efforts and ensure a swift resolution to this problem. Please email Phil at [email protected] with any questions or concerns. Also, PLEASE WATER your block's street trees. Our trees are now showing signs of stress. This is a serious situation. We have received only token rainfall during the past month and the lives of many of our young street trees is hanging in the balance. Please lightly loosen the soil around the trees and treat the trees to a five gallon drink of New York's finest.

ripley · July 2010

I think all of these threads should be locked and consolidated into one thread instead of on 3 different boards. It will keep people in sync with the efforts and current events. There is a lot of discussion on this already, particularly in the Crown Heights board over here:

http://www.brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=56979&start=270

smw380 · July 2010

i don't know how to do that, but if someone else can, great. i just wanted to get the word out as far as possible.

elkay_brooklyn · July 2010

a moderator has to do it.

Mods: can somebody combine all of the branch breaking threads from PS, PH and CH into one master thread and lock all of the others?

raulism · July 2010

The branch breaker has been caught:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/15/nyregion/15trees.html

whynot_31 · July 2010

raulism wrote: The branch breaker has been caught:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/15/nyregion/15trees.html

The Raulism is reading and posting on the wrong thread:

http://www.brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=56979&start=360

Mods: can this thread be locked?

MOD NOTE: Locked as requested.

armchair_warrior · July 2010

back in the day if we had any problems with any locals. we grab a bunch of guys and beat the snot out of him. usually deters assholes from robbing you again etc.. or walking into your street. but probably won't work with crazy.

Idea Re: Get Tree Breaker help he needs, and us help we need

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