this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2023
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A 16-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage in connection with the felling of the 300-year-old Sycamore Gap tree in the north of England.

Officers arrested the teenager amid an outpouring of sadness over the destruction of the landmark, which has been a feature of the site at Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland for hundreds of years. The boy is in custody and assisting officers with their inquiries, Northumbria police said on Thursday.

Locals and national park authorities said they were “struggling to see the logic” in the destruction of a sycamore which had long become “part of this area’s DNA” and had gone through thousands of changes of seasons.

The tree, believed to have been about 300 years old, was made famous when it appeared in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner.

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[–] [email protected] 139 points 11 months ago (2 children)

There is no logic, only destruction.

[–] [email protected] 144 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I’m really not a big fan of the teenage phase some go through where they think it’s fun to be edgy and crap on other people’s hobbies and interests.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It can be frustrating to see, but they have a tonne going on biologically. I’ve had a bunch of friends, nieces & nephews that have all been horrible when teenagers, then grow up to be fantastic, kind people.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 11 months ago (2 children)

That's because they learned where being an asshole gets them.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Some don’t. And, the people around them suffer. If this kid gets a slap on the hand, it sends a message: “you can do whatever you want with no consequences.”

[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago (19 children)

This kid will not be getting a mere slap, no matter what police do. This kid will be shunned almost completely from the local community.

[–] spacecowboy 10 points 11 months ago

As he should.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago

Teenage angst and contrarianism is it's own form of (backwards) logic.

[–] [email protected] 91 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (10 children)

Make him replant sycamore trees, then work for the forest druids/nearest national park during summer vacations. His spirit sounds troubled.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago

Before allowing him into national forests to work in them to pay off a debt I’d probably make sure he has no matches on him first

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[–] [email protected] 89 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I dislike you 16-year old boy, Sycamore Gap Feller.

I dislike you as I dislike Brock Turner, Convicted Rapist.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 11 months ago (2 children)

What a bizarre and completely unnecessary comparison to make..
(to be clear - cutting down a tree, however pointless and destructive, is in absolutely no way shape or form comparable to raping women)

[–] [email protected] 42 points 11 months ago (10 children)

You can still dislike someone for doing something heinous, even though the crime isn't comparable.

Wanton destruction of a living being of historical and cultural significance isn't any more or less acceptable than violating someone's agency and personhood, marring them for life.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Both crimes involve permanent harm that cannot be repaired.

Just because you can't connect the two crimes in your head, doesn't mean someone else can't. Get out of your own head.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Sure, but he's not wrong. It's still bizarre and unnecessary. There's no need to generalize every freaking situation. It eventually waters down language IMO.

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You mean Convicted Rapist Brock Turner, now going by the name of Convicted Rapist Allen Turner, who was sentenced to six months but only served three for what his father called (and I quote) "twenty minutes of action"? That Convicted Rapist Brock Allen Turner?

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[–] [email protected] 75 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Punish the kid by forcing him to plant 300 new sycamore saplings but using a toothpick instead of a shovel.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Punish him by making him watch Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves 300 times.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

No need to be so savage... he's just a kid!

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[–] [email protected] 68 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Just let him pay for the purchase and transplanting of a similar quality tree of 300 years.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 10 months ago (1 children)

We moved a 260 year old oak 50 yards to save it when building a new City Halland police station.

It cost $250,000.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago (2 children)

So about the same as US student loans? Sounds like a good amount of debt to put him in.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 10 months ago (5 children)

putting people in serious, permanent financial financial trouble with no real chance of escaping is famously effective at treating criminality

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Also today some people got arrested for putting a hole large enough to drive a truck through in the Great Wall of China. Today is bad day for ancient walls.

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 10 months ago

He’s just a pissed off, angsty, angry teenager. Make him plant 300 trees as community service in the presence of arborists and maybe he’ll learn something good for the rest of his life. Jail won’t help this tree, our world, or him.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Education. Please educate your kids.

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 10 months ago

The punishment should be that he becomes Johnny Appleseed and has to spend the rest of his life crossing the country planting trees

[–] [email protected] 43 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Just look at that tree:

That even looks too good to be real. Probably one of the best places for such a tree to grow.

How do you just decide, "Yep, let's cut it down!" here? Did he take drugs? Like, I mean, all of them.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 11 months ago (8 children)

Insane question, could the tree be saved by splicing it back into the trunk? Like you can do with small trees?

[–] [email protected] 47 points 11 months ago (2 children)

If they had found it right after it had been felled, they might have had a slight chance if they already had a crane nearby and ready and a firehouse.

Trees are basically a huge ring of tubes to carry water/sap/ tree blood, a thin layer of living wood between the bark and the dead wood inside from earlier growth. The tree relies on those tubes always being full of water because it doesn't have any way to push the sap around actively. The water evaporates from the leaves, buds, any part of the tree not covered by bark, and this pulls water from the bottom of the tree up to replace it. (Technically the water moves up due to capillary action of the close molecular interactions of the H2O and the tiny size of the tubes so it doesn't need a lot of "pull")

But if these tubes get cut, an air bubble gets in and that flow is interrupted. It's difficult or impossible for a plant to recover flow in that tube. If the cut is kept wet, it can keep air from blocking the tube, which is wide you are advised to trim flower stems under running water and never let them dry out if you are keeping flowers in a vase.

If a tree loses most of all of these tubes to air bubbles, it can't really recover. This is why "ringing" a tree kills it and also why there is a strict limit on the number of times you can tap a Maple Tree for syrup.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

Not OP, but thanks for taking the time to thoroughly answer a question I had as well.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 11 months ago (8 children)

16-year-old boy [...] struggling to see the logic

What logic?

had gone through thousands of changes of seasons [...] 300 years old

300 years is only 1200 seasons.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)

"Has gone through thousand of change of seasons" just doesn't have the same ring to it

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I'm fine with a lenient punishment. If it turns out he did it to get attention, I'm happy to grant him that wish by an exceptionally harsh punishment, so much so that more little shits wanting to make society worse and being rewarded for it, will see that the risk is too high. Don't go into female only carriages in Japan, don't cut down trees, don't do dumb stunts against homeless people, etc.

Half the time it's paid actors, but when it's not, throw the book at them, or force extended community service to remedy the harm they do. Financially penalise any monetary gain made from such stunts. Etc.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (1 children)

So the various theories I’ve read are:

  • kid is retarded.
  • kid is acting on behalf of family.
  • kid is blamed for family’s act.
  • kid was fired from local ranger service and wanted revenge.
  • all of above.
[–] [email protected] 33 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Kid wanted to be tiktok famous.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Like he said, kid is retarded.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Hey now, that's offensive to retarded people. They're smarter than wanting to be TikTok famous.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago

Believe it or not, straight to jail.

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