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Police say they caught the Brighton Tree Ninja greenhanded - again
By adamg on Tue, 01/05/2016 - 1:06pm
UPDATE: A Brighton Municipal Court judge released him on personal recognizance for the newest case, but ordered him held at least until a Jan. 13 hearing, after revoking his bail on the April case, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.
Boston Police report detectives on tree stake-out duty caught the alleged Brighton Tree Ninja attacking a tree on Peceable Street Monday evening.
Detectives observed the target of their investigation, Joe Rizza, 66, of Brighton, enter private property at 27 Peaceable Street and damage a tree by snapping a branch off with his hands. Detectives then approached the suspect and placed him in custody without incident.
Rizza was free on bail after the last time police nabbed him, allegedly for attacking a tree with a hammer in April.
Rizza was charged with willful and malicious destruction of property for the most recent incident.
Police say they are investigating at least six other recent cases of vandalism against trees in the area surrounding the BPL Brighton Center branch and that they expect to charge Rizza for those attacks as well.
Rizza, an enemy to all trees, has been skulking around Brighton Center for more than a decade attacking trees, often by cutting them in such a way that they die slowly.
Innocent, etc.
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Comments
Photo?
Is there an available photo of this freak?
tree killer Joe Rizza
Check this out:
http://www.whdh.com/story/26607604/hank-investigates-tree-ninja
Hank Phillipe Ryan from WHDH
Hank Phillipe Ryan from WHDH News has the story on him in 2014. You can watch the video here to see what he looks like:
http://www.whdh.com/story/26607604/hank-investigates-tree-ninja
Hank asked him in person why he's doing it, no answer.
In the clip, Hank interviewed Rizza's father who clearly said his son is mental.
She Was The Wrong Reporter For That Story ...
... they should have sent Susan Tran.
What could be the connection in the mind of a person doing it?
What could be the connection in the mind of a person doing that activity?...
It's Been Disconnected Or Is Not In Service At This Time
Machine Intercept Recordings featuring Jane Barbe
We should all encourage him to use his talents.
With that said, Christmas tree farms need seasonal workers every year. They don't themselves down.
He's obviously mentally ill
It's time for some consequences and some treatment.
I still think
His probation should be to send him to a township in Maine and put his tree malfease to good use. He's got a talent, let's put it to constructive work people!
Good Use?
Tree farmers don't hack their trees so that they'll die over the course of time. This guy isn't sawing down trees, he's mortally wounding them with a hatchet.
Send him to the desert in southern New Mexico where there's nothing for him to cut down.
Send him to
Bridgewater
And keep him there
Cacti
Damaging a cactus is actually a Class Four Felony in New Mexico, with a maximum penalty of just under four years for a first-time offense. So, seriously, we should send him there.
Well, OK, how about ...
A certain wildlife area in southeastern Oregon that's in the news these days that apparently has almost no trees at all.
They can always work for
They can always work for Quincy DPW, where tree ninja-ing is done by the city.
Fuck is wrong with this guy?
Fuck is wrong with this guy? Who hates trees that much?
Why aren't the property
Why aren't the property owners suing his ass? The courts don't seem to know what to do longterm when it comes to repeated vandalism crimes committed by this guy. Is there any possible way some of these trees could have been rehabilitated? Is this just going to keep happening ?
>Is there any possible way
>Is there any possible way some of these trees could have been rehabilitated?
Trees get most, if not all of their water and nutrients through capillary action in the new growth layers just under the bark (which is why they grow thicker and thicker every season and have growth rings). Damaging this layer anywhere on the trunk is like putting a tourniquet on a limb--everything upstream ends up dying. If the damage is minimal, the injury can be patched up a bit with a sealer in hope that the vessels remaining around the circumference make up for the injury, but this turd is tenacious and he would probably screw up any attempts at repair anyway.
If he were cutting tires/smashing car windshields and house windows with this much zeal, he'd be in jail. What he's doing is actually more costly and shitty than that, at least they way I look at it. Mental illness or not, he's been a pest to the community for years now. I hope that there's a way to have him put far away from trees for good, but that's up to law enforcement/judge.
It's incredibly frustrating to hear about this creep and the inability to have him committed over and over again.
It will be poetic justice
It will be poetic justice when he chooses to climb up a tree high enough to slip and fall on the pavement, breaking his back and other bones in his body. Hopefully a mistake of his own making like that can cripple him for good. Remember he's 66 years old now. At that age, your body will not heal as fast compared to when your are young. Not to mention generally your body is also slowing down. The older you get, smarts count more. And Joe Rizza clearly is NOT smart from the get-go. I have confidence he will eventually slip up where he will seriously injure himself and can never harm trees again.
Oh, aren't you a caring person
Also somebody who doesn't know the first thing about this guy, so maybe you're just working out your own little fantasies here. He doesn't climb into trees; when he wants to reach someplace high, he goes out with one of those long pruning things.
Adam, did you even watch this
Adam, did you even watch this news story...
http://www.whdh.com/story/26607604/hank-investigates-tree-ninja
Check out the 0:57 mark... he does climb into trees to do damage.
He did climb into trees
The most recent incidents have been at ground level. Maybe his age is catching up with him.
In any case, I'm not sure the best method of dealing with somebody who's mentally ill is rooting for his permanent maiming or death.
Throw the book at him
Yes, the dead tree edition
Has anyone figured out what
Has anyone figured out what this guy's issues with trees actually is?
Not sure that's an option
The thing is, it's still property crime. I think it's fairly straightforward to have someone sent to Bridgewater for crimes against people, even minor ones, if there seems to be something nutty about it, but I'm not sure that judges have that discretion for property crime. A judge might be able to strongly hint to a (no doubt court appointed) defense attorney that if the defendant doesn't voluntarily undergo evaluation (at the least), the court will hit him as hard as it can for every possible property crime he's committed, and it'll go much harder for him. But I'm guessing it may not be possible to compel him to undergo evaluation for a property crime.
a limb for a limb.
How might a tree that got attacked be rehabilitated/improved ?
How might a tree that got attacked be healed/rehabilitated/improved ?