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.
You get to a point where maybe it just makes more sense? 8 billion people on this planet. 8 fucking billion. At that scale, truly what is the value of a human life? I’m neither for nor against a death penalty, but I do question at what point do we stop tolerating those who are selfish, entitled, destructive, and violent? When do we stop giving out slaps on the wrist?
We’ve seen similar destructive actions in the past. We all pay the price for one person’s actions.
I do like the idea mentioned above though that this kid should be sentenced to seeding and tending to the growth of a forest of trees.
Maybe also have him pay for the commission of a artistic piece to stand in place of the tree.
You’re too philosophical about this. He fell a tree. Shitty asshole? Yes. Deserving of death? No.
With that logic we could behead people for jaywalking because “hey, there’s 8 billion of us, what’s one less gonna do?”