Auburn Trees Poisoned, Perpetrator apprehended

[Oxilon]

Roll tide.

[jojo]

Originally Posted by Danny Serafini

I could get on board with this line of thinking if he had cut the head off of Uga or Bevo or something of that nature, but there's a big difference between animal life and plant life. What you're basically saying is landscaping is murder (exaggerated I know, but still). I took a small tree out by my house last year, does that make me a potential danger to humans?

I think he's just having a hard time understanding the malicious nature and blind, hate-filled heart it requires to assume a moral authority that says it's ok to do something like "Al' did... There's just a blackened, rancid crisp where this guy's conscience used to be and it's hard to comprehend how a person could be so hate-filled. I think most people are there with Roy....

[BuckeyeRed27]

Apparently the guys kids are named Bear and Crimson.

[jojo]

Originally Posted by BuckeyeRed27

Apparently the guys kids are named Bear and Crimson.

And apparently he never actually attended The University of Alabama.....

[BuckeyeRed27]

Originally Posted by jojo

And apparently he never actually attended The University of Alabama.....

Well that's not that shocking.

[Chip R]

Originally Posted by BuckeyeRed27

Apparently the guys kids are named Bear and Crimson.

Not Walker and Texas Ranger?

[IslandRed]

Originally Posted by Roy Tucker

No, its not a tragedy in the sense of human life loss. But it is a stupid tragedy to kill off these irreplaceable trees. Some things just can't be replaced and I imagine these trees can't.

Agreed. This is property damage on another level -- it can't be fixed. There's no insurance company that can write a check for new 130-year-old oak trees. New trees can be planted but it won't be the same until a current Auburn student's great-great-grandchildren are going there.

[WMR]

Originally Posted by IslandRed

Agreed. This is property damage on another level -- it can't be fixed. There's no insurance company that can write a check for new 130-year-old oak trees. New trees can be planted but it won't be the same until a current Auburn student's great-great-grandchildren are going there.

Agree wholeheartedly with you and Roy. These trees will have an assessed value, likely into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, but their actual value is much higher than that because they CANNOT be replaced.

I found a really interesting article discussing the motivations behind destroying 'irreplaceable' pieces of nature and/or history. While I think this man's motives are easily discerned, the article still fascinated me so I will share it with you guys...

This search for lost intimacy is precisely what makes the targets of these attacks—ancient trees and rock formations—precious in the first place. They have no purpose or intrinsic value; they simply are. This imbues them with a kind of sacrality. They are precious in part because they remind us that another reality exists beyond the one constructed by man.

Bataille argues that sacrifice is also motivated by the search for lost intimacy. The deliberate and wasteful destruction of something useful, precious, or socially significant defies the logic of the order of things. It creates a hole in mundane reality though which, under the right circumstances, a moment of transcendence can be experienced. Furthermore, the efficacy of the sacrifice is directly proportional to the senselessness of the destruction. Ironically, the social value ascribed to these sites made them ripe for sacrifice. Had the vandals been the only ones on Earth who knew about the Eye of the Needle, it may never have occurred to them to destroy it. Certainly, no sadistic impulse could be satisfied by destroying something that no one was able to appreciate. Instead these sites were the locus of communities, traditions, and histories stretching back centuries. It is this shared meaning that is the true target of the vandal’s sacrificial impulse.

http://www.religiondispatches.org/ar...y_a_holy_tree_

[Hoosier Red]

Originally Posted by Danny Serafini

I could get on board with this line of thinking if he had cut the head off of Uga or Bevo or something of that nature, but there's a big difference between animal life and plant life. What you're basically saying is landscaping is murder (exaggerated I know, but still). I took a small tree out by my house last year, does that make me a potential danger to humans?

Your tree can be replaced. Also, you did it to your own property.

If my neighbor has a super cool restored car, that he worked on for 10 years and takes a lot of pride in, the value is not just in the dollar figures associated with the car,(which would be significant) but in the value he places in that car.

If I went and stole the car, then drove it off a cliff, and then called him up to brag about it, there would be value lost. Not just in the assessed value of the car, but in the value he placed in the car which he won't be able to get back, and in the value of destroying the car for no reason other than malicious intent.

If the trees weren't valuable, he wouldn't have bothered to poison them.

[Brutus]

At the end of the day, it's vandalism and should be treated as nothing more, nothing less.

[RedFanAlways1966]

Originally Posted by Brutus the Pimp

At the end of the day, it's vandalism and should be treated as nothing more, nothing less.

True. Give him the maximum sentence for this crime. If it is 30 days in jail, that is fine.

Oh... make sure his cellmate is a 6'5", 350 pound guy whose nickname is Aubie. A guy who also has a huge War Eagle tattooed on his entire back. And make sure he knows what his new 30-day roommate has done. Justice for this stupidity will be served.

[jojo]

Originally Posted by RedFanAlways1966

True. Give him the maximum sentence for this crime. If it is 30 days in jail, that is fine.

Oh... make sure his cellmate is a 6'5", 350 pound guy whose nickname is Aubie. A guy who also has a huge War Eagle tattooed on his entire back. And make sure he knows what his new 30-day roommate has done. Justice for this stupidity will be served.

He'll have plenty of LSU fans in the general population that will want to be his friend.

[jojo]

Originally Posted by Brutus the Pimp

At the end of the day, it's vandalism and should be treated as nothing more, nothing less.

At the end of the day its environmental terrorism that could impact human health.

Again, raise your hand if you want tebuthiuron dust in your eyes or tebuthiuron in your drinking water (or in the eyes and water of your children or pregnant loved one)....

Even if it were "just" vandalism, it's property damage on a scale that it will change the face of Auburn's campus...ie. Samford Hall to Toomer's corner-the place where graduation pictures are taken and marriages performed will be defaced... this isn't just like keying a car even if this idiot act didn't also impact the environment.

[Brutus]

Originally Posted by jojo

At the end of the day its environmental terrorism that could impact human health.

Again, raise your hand if you want tebuthiuron dust in your eyes or tebuthiuron in your drinking water (or in the eyes and water of your children or pregnant loved one)....

Even if it were "just" vandalism, it's property damage on a scale that it will change the face of Auburn's campus...ie. Samford Hall to Toomer's corner-the place where graduation pictures are taken and marriages performed will be defaced... this isn't just like keying a car even if this idiot act didn't also impact the environment.

Experts on the subject have said that none of those things are really a concern.

For me, a crime is a crime. Terrorism is just a silly adjective to describe things we already know are wrong. Committing a criminal act of any kind shouldn't need the added "terrorism" label slapped on.

He vandalized property. He should be punished for that. Not as some environmental terrorist.

[The Operator]

It's more than just vandalism, if you ask me. It's destruction of property.

The guy didn't kill anyone, but he did irreparable damage to a portion of land owned by a university and should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

If you go and release termites in someones house and it gets destroyed, you may not have killed someone, but I'd bet there'd be a nice hefty punishment in store for you.

I think it's more than just trees. It's part of campus aesthetics. People get very attached to college campus surroundings, they relate it to one of their happiest times of their life. It's a huge place for Auburn's fans. Now it's going to be destroyed. It's something you can't just replace.

Obviously, he shouldn't face the electric chair but I hope they hit him to the fullest extent of the law.

I'm an OSU fan who hates Michigan, but I'm not going to take a wrecking ball to The Big House. There's a difference between being a loyal fan and a psycho, in my opinion.