Criminal Vandalizes New York Trees: REPORT

The streets of Queens witnessed a number of alleged criminality in past year. Security camera footage appeared to capture a green-haired man beating a deli employee unconscious in June after they bumped into each other. The victim, 62, was hospitalized. A co-worker said he suffered internal bleeding in the head, as well as a broken nose and lost teeth.

Neighbors were left baffled and heartbroken after an unknown perpetrator left slash marks across two street trees in Ridgewood, Queens. @ElleMcLogan has the story. https://t.co/8cBOzCy4qd

“How can we as a community come together to make sure that nobody is ruining our way of life here? I think that’s the bigger question, what can we do as a community and how we can come together,” Castro said.

“It looks like an attack on our trees,” Jennifer Castro, a local who has lived on the block where the trees were vandalized for over a decade, told the outlet. “It affects us all.”

“Our street trees are living and breathing parts of our communities, and a critical piece of green infrastructure in New York City. Protecting our urban forest is the responsibility of all New Yorkers, and removal, destruction, or damage to any tree should be reported immediately,” Ben Osborne, the New York City Parks assistant commissioner of forestry and horticulture, told CBS News.

Vandalizing a tree can carry a sentence of up to one year in prison and the levying of fines on the perpetrator.

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