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Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Elizabeth Zarain Burnette got a question for him, A girl, Yes,

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Speaker 2: you know what's ridiculous?

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Speaker 3: Oh do I yes? I do? Okay AI Yeah, fully ridiculous.

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Speaker 3: Alvin Iverson Yes, for many reasons. Artificial intelligence.

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Speaker 2: Oh, the other AI. We should call it that, the

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Speaker 2: other AI.

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Speaker 3: The other AI. Well, so the other AI truth. And

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Speaker 3: but what's really ridiculous is when you kind of turn

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Speaker 3: AI loose to write things or draw images. You know

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Speaker 3: we've all missed totally. No, it's not well, I mean,

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Speaker 3: unless you're going to mash up AI and an obituary.

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Speaker 2: No, I'm over here like Kurt Gibson going around second

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Speaker 2: pumping my arm.

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Speaker 3: So AI. So someone had a I write this obituary

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Speaker 3: and it is so amazing, and I it and I'm

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Speaker 3: going to read it to you, okay. Brenda Tent retired

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Speaker 3: from living at the age of old, surrounded by family

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Speaker 3: and natural causes. A librarian from birth, Brenda was an

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Speaker 3: avid collector of dust. She had a sweetheart and married

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Speaker 3: her high school. She loved having hobbies and helping her

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Speaker 3: sons to be disadvantaged youths. She had no horses, but

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Speaker 3: thought she did. The church gave her a choir because

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Speaker 3: she sang like a bird and looked like a bird,

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Speaker 3: and Brenda was a bird. She owed us so many poems.

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Speaker 3: The funeral will be held in nineteen seventy seven at

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Speaker 3: Heaven in lieu of flowers. Send Brenda more.

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Speaker 2: Life, ever.

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Speaker 3: I love she had no horses, but thought she did poems.

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Speaker 3: I think we found biobituary when the time comes. Oh yeah,

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Speaker 3: it's perfect. So my fine feathered friend is ridiculous.

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Speaker 2: That's amazing. Okay, Well that segue is really nicely into

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Speaker 2: what I want to tell you today, which is equally ridiculous.

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Speaker 2: If you have a moment, You got a moment, Yes,

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Speaker 2: all right. As storytellers, Elizabeth, yes, we both know how

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Speaker 2: one word, just one ill turned phrase, can ruin a

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Speaker 2: whole story. Oh yeah, right, and sometimes like it's just

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Speaker 2: even a mispronounced word, like on my.

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Speaker 3: Part all the time, sometimes a little bit on purpose.

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Speaker 2: Oh now, in this story, one misunderstood word, it led

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Speaker 2: to a multi year war. It was a bloody affair

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Speaker 2: there for a while. It was really bad, like private

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Speaker 2: security guards were scared for their lives. Elders were going

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Speaker 2: over the barricades to attack the police. It was lawless.

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Speaker 2: It was chaos, Elizabeth, it was wild, and it all

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Speaker 2: came down.

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Speaker 4: To two words, mature trees.

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Speaker 2: This is Ridiculous Crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers.

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Speaker 2: Heiss and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free

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Speaker 2: and one hundred percent ridiculous. Elizabeth Zaren. I saw this story.

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Speaker 2: I told you it tickled my fancy because it kind

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Speaker 2: of has everything. And I say everything, I mean it

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Speaker 2: has like a little of everything. And you know how

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Speaker 2: I love stories that I have a little every sure, right, Well,

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Speaker 2: this one it isn't some you know, sprawling account of

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Speaker 2: mid century America. It isn't a deep dive into the

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Speaker 2: nineteen seventies or nineteen eighties and like either a weird

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Speaker 2: religious culture or some drug thing. No, okay, this isn't

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Speaker 2: a hinge of history story about the sixties. Nor is

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Speaker 2: it a turn of the last century where we look

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Speaker 2: back at the way we once were and how we

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Speaker 2: are still the same. No, Elizabeth, No, miss Dunton. This

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Speaker 2: time this is pure twenty first century lunacy. It's happening

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Speaker 2: now pretty much. Oh wow, Yeah, exactly what it says

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Speaker 2: on the tin. It's a war over trees, Yes, the

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Speaker 2: Great Sheffield Tree War.

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Speaker 3: You know the city of Sheffield, not intimately, I'm aware

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Speaker 3: of it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's in South Yorkshire, named after the River Sheaf,

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Speaker 2: which is the city is built around. So what's Sheffield like, well, Elizabeth,

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Speaker 2: I don't know. I've never been there. I don't know, but.

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Speaker 3: From what I've read, beautiful city, never been.

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Speaker 2: There, very lush with trees, very green. Prior to the story,

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Speaker 2: all I knew about Sheffield is it's home to my

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Speaker 2: favorite English football club, Sheffield Wednesday.

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Speaker 3: Did you do Google Earth like.

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Speaker 2: Like you do and just take like a tour of

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Speaker 2: all the streets and just drive.

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Speaker 3: Around and like a Google you do your due diligence, my.

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Speaker 2: Due diligence of a Google street tour of the city. No,

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Speaker 2: because you'll find out why. Okay, yeah, but I did.

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Speaker 2: I did go look into something I was interested in,

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Speaker 2: which was Sheffield Wednesday. Yeah. You know the blue and

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Speaker 2: striped iconic kit You know them, like the Argentina of England.

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Speaker 2: They used to be Premier League, so you probably would

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Speaker 2: have known them, like you know, back in like the nineties,

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Speaker 2: but they've since been relegated. The second teer Championship League

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Speaker 2: been there for like I don't know forever. In a

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Speaker 2: day anyway, doing research for this one, I found out

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Speaker 2: that my favorite football club started as an offshoot of

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Speaker 2: a cricket club known as the Wednesday Cricket Club.

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Speaker 3: Why Wednesday because they played on Wednesdays?

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Speaker 2: Well yes, but why Wednesday? The club was found at

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Speaker 2: eighteen twenty.

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Speaker 3: Because that's the day that you do Bible study.

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Speaker 2: No good guests though, but this cricket club, right, it

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Speaker 2: started by six cats, six dudes, right, not actual cats.

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Speaker 2: I know how your imagination goes. And so they only

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Speaker 2: had to work half days on Wednesdays. Wednesday half day

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Speaker 2: eighteen twenty work style huh wow. Right, So they'd meet

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Speaker 2: up and they'd cricket it up, and thus the Wednesday

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Speaker 2: name now eighteen sixty seven, having now turned pro as cricketers.

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Speaker 2: Really good club apparently, the Wednesday Cricket Club started the

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Speaker 2: Wednesday Football Club. Why did they do this? Because they

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Speaker 2: wanted to stay in shape for cricket over the winter months. Okay, right,

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Speaker 2: so yeah, the Owls become a club boom. Nineteen twenty

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Speaker 2: nine they become the Wednesday Football Club aka Sheffield Wednesday

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Speaker 2: Football Club. The rest is history, joyous Sheffield Wednesday history.

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Speaker 2: But that's not why I'm here today. Because soccer matches,

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Speaker 2: that's typically what we think of. We thought about, Oh,

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Speaker 2: this is where we're gonna find people mixing it up

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Speaker 2: with the police and private security. Actually, no, no, this

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Speaker 2: wasn't Hooligan's in this story putting security guards on blast, Elizabeth.

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Speaker 2: This was tree loving seniors. Yes, So let's get to

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Speaker 2: these trees.

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Speaker 3: The Sheffield Dangerous game.

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Speaker 2: Oh, they're wild, wild, these humans, especially when they get

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Speaker 2: old and cagy. Now, Sheffield is apparently mad with the

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Speaker 2: green I mean, just stupid, but trees. Like from what

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Speaker 2: I found, sixty one percent of Sheffield is considered a

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Speaker 2: green space.

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Speaker 3: Oh that's cool, that's wild.

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Speaker 2: I thought those were great. They have like two hundred

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Speaker 2: and fifty parks and gardens they know, Okay. I found

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Speaker 2: also a count four point five million trees. That's how

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Speaker 2: many trees.

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Speaker 3: They have in one city.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, in the human population for comparison, five hundred and

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Speaker 2: fifty thousand people. Wow, it's a lot of trees per person. Trees, right,

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Speaker 2: So the afore mentioned four point five million trees, those

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Speaker 2: weren't enough for the locals. They're like Hey, we want more,

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Speaker 2: or at least we want those four point five. Do

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Speaker 2: not cut me down. And thus they went to war.

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Speaker 2: Some would have said Sheffield had too many trees. Coincidentally,

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Speaker 2: those are the same people with the authority to decide

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Speaker 2: how many of Sheffield's trees should be and would be

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Speaker 2: chopped down. Now, you see, the trees were being blamed

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Speaker 2: for all the potholes in Sheffield. The streets were just

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Speaker 2: littered with them. Apparently they started calling the town Pothole

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Speaker 2: City and they're like, no, we prefer Steel City. Oh no,

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Speaker 2: this is terrible. Pothole City is a terrible nickname. We

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Speaker 2: must do something. So something was done. Elizabeth, the city

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Speaker 2: council met, and then they met, and they met, and

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Speaker 2: they met some more, and they met a bunch right.

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Speaker 2: This took years, but eventually studies were commissioned, reports, and

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Speaker 2: then they met some more more years of planning. Finally

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Speaker 2: a general plan of action is announced and it's funded.

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Speaker 2: So the city council they were proud to announce a

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Speaker 2: new one point two billion pound road improvement project. They

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Speaker 2: called it Streets Ahead or Streets Ahead.

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Speaker 3: Wait, billion billion with a B, yeah with a.

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Speaker 2: B, not with an N.

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Speaker 3: One city.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of roads, bridges, big project. It's a

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Speaker 2: multi year project. This was twenty twelve when they announced

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Speaker 2: this funded project. The streets ahead, right, I mean I

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Speaker 2: will stop that, I.

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Speaker 3: Prompted, very Australian.

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Speaker 2: Not well whatever it's supposed to be Cockney leading to Australia.

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Speaker 2: Well no, whatever, Fine. The money was earmarked to upgrade

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Speaker 2: the city sidewalks, Elizabeth street lights, bridges, roads, So one

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Speaker 2: point two billion pounds wow. Now to repair the roads. Obviously,

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Speaker 2: this plan called for the mass removal of trees that

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Speaker 2: lined these roads and were causing the potholes the streets.

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Speaker 2: They would split sidewalks and they caused the potholes by

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Speaker 2: lifting up the road, or so the city council believed.

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Speaker 2: They never expected their infrastructure improvement project would actually become

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Speaker 2: the start of a year's long war. No one anticipated that, right,

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Speaker 2: But as far as the city council saw it is

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Speaker 2: all simple. Old trees would be cut down, new trees

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Speaker 2: would be planted. Boom boom boom. What's the big problem?

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Speaker 2: But Elizabeth saplings, baby trees. They are not the same

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Speaker 2: as full grown trees.

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Speaker 3: That's true, right, They're smaller versions.

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Speaker 2: Just looking at them, you can tell. But in a

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Speaker 2: larger sense full grown trees. We're talking like forty fifty

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Speaker 2: foot tall trees. Right. Oh wow, yeah, these are like

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Speaker 2: some real big daddy.

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Speaker 3: Say, not your typical urban tree.

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Speaker 2: No, these are like British old school like one hundred

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Speaker 2: year old trees. Right. And now these trees would be

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Speaker 2: home to numerous species like you know, squirrels, birds, bugs, whatnot.

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Speaker 2: Full grown tree obviously it offers shade to the whole environment.

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Speaker 2: There's heat reduction because of that's not a big problem

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Speaker 2: in England, but still holsho. But it helps with rainfall

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Speaker 2: run off and controlling them.

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Speaker 3: I thought they I thought they cut down all the

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Speaker 3: big trees to build the ships when England ruled the seas.

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Speaker 2: These are only one hundred year old trees, so they

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Speaker 2: were replanted.

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Speaker 3: These are the grandchildren of those struges when England ruled

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Speaker 3: the seas.

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Speaker 2: Yes, no, actually we're gonna get into that when England

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Speaker 2: was you know, rule Britannia.

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Speaker 3: Right.

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Speaker 2: So the these trees, I mean like basically they look good,

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Speaker 2: they feel good. Everybody loves trees, right. The trees are

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Speaker 2: undeniably dope, and they said they can also be one

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Speaker 2: hundred years old, so it's to tie to the past.

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Speaker 2: These people are like, oh, this is our connection to

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Speaker 2: when we had empire and what what you know? So

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Speaker 2: the bureaucrats they didn't quite understand this because they were

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Speaker 2: trying to like quantify the value of a tree, right,

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Speaker 2: And it's really hard to satisfy a bureaucrat with things

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Speaker 2: like it just feels good. So they're like, well, we

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Speaker 2: need numbers. So it's to them the problem was we

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Speaker 2: need we need to remove the trees and replace them

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Speaker 2: upgrade great. Right, So the project of mass tree removal,

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Speaker 2: the streets Ahead project, it gets managed by this group

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Speaker 2: called the Highways Team. Right. They're put in charge of

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Speaker 2: this project. As names go, rather unimaginative, the Highways Team. Right,

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Speaker 2: it's also kind of vaguely bureaucratic. I don't really like.

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Speaker 3: It's kind of threatening to like a highwayman.

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Speaker 2: The Highways Team has decided all your trees must die. Anyway.

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Speaker 2: It kind of sounds like something from Coffka book maybeah

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Speaker 2: Ray Bradberry. I don't know exactly. The Highways Team these

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Speaker 2: trees were a resource to be managed. That's how they

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Speaker 2: viewed it, right. So they're like, Okay, what are we

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Speaker 2: gonna do, how we're going to solve this problem? And

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Speaker 2: how bottom line thinkers that they are mass destruction seem

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Speaker 2: like and I quote the easiest and cheapest option, right,

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Speaker 2: But this is not what the experts and their own

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Speaker 2: report had told them. Because the City of Council Sheffield,

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Speaker 2: they had commissioned to report on the tree population for

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Speaker 2: these four point five million trees, they determined thirty six

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Speaker 2: thousand of these street trees, the ones that actually would

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Speaker 2: you know, be problems for the street or lined the streets,

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Speaker 2: they were the ones that they focused on. Thirty six

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Speaker 2: thousand of the four point five million. Highway teams like, okay,

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Speaker 2: here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna replace them. Now,

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Speaker 2: we need to replace a percentage and they're like, okay,

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Speaker 2: how many a large proportion And so the reports gave

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Speaker 2: an actual hardcore number of this thirty six thousand trees,

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Speaker 2: they said three percent. You should probably replace about three percent.

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Speaker 2: That's how many are dead, dying or diseased. Okay, the

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Speaker 2: rest can be uh, you know, managed, but these need

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Speaker 2: to be immediately felled. That's what the Brits would say,

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Speaker 2: we would say chopped down. But anyway, the trees had

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Speaker 2: to go. So three percent, that's about one thousand and eighty.

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Speaker 3: Trees out of four point five million, out of.

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Speaker 2: Thirty six thousand of the street trees, of the street trees.

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Speaker 2: So we're down from thirty six thousand trees the.

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Speaker 3: Street trees living on the streets.

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Speaker 2: We got yea, yeah, these tupac trees, we had one

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Speaker 2: thousand and eighty of them got to go. That's what

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Speaker 2: the report says. Okay, now, because you know, anyways, as

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Speaker 2: this comes down to the problem, it was, as I

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Speaker 2: said originally up top, there was a misunderstanding about a term,

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Speaker 2: a phrase, one phrase. It was properly understood, this whole

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Speaker 2: war to come could have been avoided. So what was

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Speaker 2: this choice phrase? Mature trees aka trees of a certain age.

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Speaker 2: Now you see, Elizabeth. In the original report, the experts

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Speaker 2: they'd use the term mature trees and over mature trees.

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Speaker 2: You're a gardener, You got a green thumb. You know

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Speaker 2: what that means. It means they're of fruit bearing or

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Speaker 2: flowering age. They got child bearing. Now, seventy four percent

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Speaker 2: of the street trees were termed mature or over mature. Yeah, exactly. Now,

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Speaker 2: the city councilors of Sheffield. They misunderstood this. They read

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Speaker 2: this as aged or as like old biddies, and they

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Speaker 2: they wanted some some younger, sexier trees. So they're like,

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Speaker 2: how do we get some saplings on these streets?

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Speaker 3: Chris, So as.

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Speaker 2: These mature trees were the problem, the city council settled

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Speaker 2: on a plan. That's I told you. They called for

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Speaker 2: a large proportion of the mature trees to be cut

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Speaker 2: down replaced with younger trees for the city's sake. Nowpoort

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Speaker 2: called three percent. City council decided on seventy four percent.

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Speaker 3: Oh big difference.

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Speaker 2: Now, yeah, why, as I said, they wanted younger, sexier

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Speaker 2: trees because these trees of a certain age were just

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Speaker 2: not what they wanted on the streets of Sheffield. They

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Speaker 2: debate this for six years. In the end, none of

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Speaker 2: this matters because the reports experts all it gets ignored.

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Speaker 2: The Highway's team goes out there and decides to beautify

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Speaker 2: the streets. Buzz buzz, let's get the choppers going. Now

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Speaker 2: they'd ignored the most obvious math of trees, Elizabeth. People

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Speaker 2: don't care, oh what a tree is in years, they

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Speaker 2: just love trees and mature trees they love the most.

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Speaker 2: Everyone loves them, haven't they read the giving tree? But

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Speaker 2: a mature tree joined the behold it for animals humans alike.

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Speaker 2: We all love it. And this is England. If anybody's

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Speaker 2: gonna love some old stuff, you would think it would

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Speaker 2: be English people. I mean, am I wrong about this? Okay?

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Speaker 2: So like whatever. So the Sheffield City Council they ignore

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Speaker 2: all of that, and they just said they tell the

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Speaker 2: Highways team go out there, give us some younger, sexier trees,

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Speaker 2: and we need them now. So when the people of

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Speaker 2: the city find out about this plant, what did they do, Elizabeth?

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Speaker 2: They revolted. This was the start of the Great Tree

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Speaker 2: War of Sheffield. Yeah, okay, so I let's simmer down,

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Speaker 2: take all a break, and then we'll dive into this

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Speaker 2: great tree war. Excellent, all right, Elizabeth?

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Speaker 3: Where were we of trees?

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Speaker 2: That's right, the Great Tree War of Sheffield.

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Speaker 3: Yes, okay.

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Speaker 2: At this point it's twenty fourteen, word starts to spread

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Speaker 2: in Sheffield. Residents start talking about the whole scale slaughter

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Speaker 2: of their street trees.

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Speaker 3: Now I have a quick question, when they were going

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Speaker 3: to replace these with the saplings? Were they going to

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Speaker 3: replace it with the same kind of tree or were

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Speaker 3: they trying to find more street appropriate trees.

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Speaker 2: Not California, same trees, just younger ones. Wow, it's give

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Speaker 2: me sexy your younger trees.

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Speaker 3: Usually it's like when they have to take out the

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Speaker 3: ones in the street, it's because they planted ones that

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Speaker 3: have more shallow roots. That's up sidewalks to.

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Speaker 2: Climate. Yeah, nope, same trees, just younger. Okay, so slaughter

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Speaker 2: I use that term. It may sound dramatic, right, I

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Speaker 2: like dramatic, but I want you to be prepared for

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Speaker 2: one's about to come. So why did she feel go

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Speaker 2: to war or street trees? Now, I don't know about you,

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Speaker 2: but i'd expect people they told you in the UK

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Speaker 2: to love trees. Like they have laws that protect your

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Speaker 2: right to just wander wherever you go totally. You know

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Speaker 2: about this, the Rights of Way Act.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you can like cut across someone's field if that's

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Speaker 3: the only way to get from like one open space

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Speaker 3: to another.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the only place is you cannot do this or

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Speaker 2: some crop lands, construction sites, active construction sites, off courses

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Speaker 2: once again, active race tracks once again, active railways, and quarries.

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Speaker 2: So basically anywhere you might get hurt by things that

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Speaker 2: are moving. Other than that you can walk up you

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Speaker 2: have at it. So I thought that was wild. So

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Speaker 2: obviously I thought these people would love trees. City council

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Speaker 2: they did not think that. And they're from there, Elizabeth anyway. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: so mass tree slaughter that they get it started, right,

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Speaker 2: people start to fight back. So one early dynamic in

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Speaker 2: this fight is the city councilor as I said, they

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Speaker 2: assumed their opponents were, you know, Sheffield people that they

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Speaker 2: could manage. They thought they knew these people, and that's

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Speaker 2: one problem. They also thought they knew who they were,

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Speaker 2: so they assumed that their opponents were bored, wealthy white

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Speaker 2: people who were complaining about nothing, right, because apparently Sheffield

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Speaker 2: has a really stark economic divide from what I was reading,

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Speaker 2: the south west side it both some of the greatest

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Speaker 2: wealth in the UK, like some of the twenty percent

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Speaker 2: of the wealth is there, right, it's insane. Conversely, the

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Speaker 2: Northeast is an embarrassment to the Crown apparently, like some

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Speaker 2: of the most economically disadvantaged people in the whole aisle.

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Speaker 2: So from one end to the other, there's this bus

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Speaker 2: line that you can take and the life expectancy on

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Speaker 2: this bus line improvesed by ten years. Wow, just across town.

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Speaker 3: Yeah exactly, Well that's not so different than right here

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Speaker 3: in Oakland.

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Speaker 2: Totally exactly. We would recognize these dynamics.

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Speaker 3: And we had a tree battle not too long ago

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Speaker 3: where at this school that you know, there was a

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Speaker 3: guy cutting down a tree who was obviously there from

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Speaker 3: like the you know, school district maintenance people, and the

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Speaker 3: neighbors were just freaking out like how dare you And

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Speaker 3: then they had to have an arborist come out and

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Speaker 3: break up the protest, who was like, the tree is

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Speaker 3: dead on the inside and it's going to fall on children.

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Speaker 2: It's a danger to the kids.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, listen to the arborous.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, now they'll get You'll see. There's a debate about

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Speaker 2: that because arborus also can be bought off anyway. Anybody's true,

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Speaker 2: everyone has a price. So basically, this Sheffield that we're

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Speaker 2: describing the southwest side is like the Beverly Hills of England,

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Speaker 2: if you will. It's like a land of old, rich

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Speaker 2: people who spend their time enjoying all the green spaces

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Speaker 2: they have, and they will fight for their equally old

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Speaker 2: ass trees. So but no one expected them to fight back.

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Speaker 2: I don't know why. The Highways team, they're convinced they

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Speaker 2: just need to go in there chop down a large

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Speaker 2: proportion of the mature tree. As a Sheffield The Experts

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Speaker 2: Commission reports suggest once again, as I said, only a

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Speaker 2: small percentage streets ahead decides to heck with it, we're

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Speaker 2: going forward. So trouble's brewing. Right off the bat. Seventeen

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Speaker 2: thousand trees would be removed and cut down. That was

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Speaker 2: a plan. Seventeen thousand of the thirty six thousand. Now,

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Speaker 2: if you do the math, that's forty eight point six percent.

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Speaker 2: Seventeen thousand, five hundred of thirty six thousand is forty

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Speaker 2: eight point six percent, almost half of the tree they

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Speaker 2: plan on cutting down. Original number seventy four percent gets

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Speaker 2: down to about fifty percent. They're like, oh that's reasonable, right, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: not reasonable enough. So this is also when dogma and

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Speaker 2: a bunker mentality entered the chat the Highways team. They

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Speaker 2: suggest that they need to fast track the tree removals

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Speaker 2: before anyone gets an idea and they can get a

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Speaker 2: resistance organized. So they plan to cut down five thousand,

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Speaker 2: five hundred trees right off the bat. Just get out

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Speaker 2: there and get the choppers go. And now the plan

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Speaker 2: there's a estimate they'll take five years overall. In the

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Speaker 2: city council, they're please just punge to hear them getting

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Speaker 2: right into it. So they're like, yeah, get going, guys,

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Speaker 2: and the highway teams and already the resistance is organizing,

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Speaker 2: though faster than anyone.

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Speaker 3: Expects, and there's a one to one replacement on these trees. Okay.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So in twenty fifteen, the people of Sheffield they

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Speaker 2: take to the long tradition of what we call direct action.

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Speaker 2: Much like a tree. It started with just a small seed,

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Speaker 2: but one loaded with potential. Elizabeth, because it started a

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Speaker 2: place called neither Edge or nether Edge, like nether Lands

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Speaker 2: or you're neither regions, you're nether Yeah, Like I had

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Speaker 2: to guess that's the town, like little village name. I

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Speaker 2: guess inside there's like villages inside of villages because like

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Speaker 2: you know, they're in South Yorkshire. And then inside of

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Speaker 2: Sheffield is this place called nether Edge I assume is

402
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Speaker 2: a neighborhood. Yeah, but it may have been a village

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Speaker 2: that just got consumed. I don't know. Yeah, Anyway, I

404
00:19:44,440 --> 00:19:46,920
Speaker 2: love these British like town and village names. I was

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Speaker 2: looking around that you've lived there. Do you have any

406
00:19:49,240 --> 00:19:52,360
Speaker 2: favorites from your time abroad? Like, for example, the ones

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Speaker 2: I liked there was Devil's Lap Full in Northumberland.

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Speaker 3: Oh, Devil's Lap a town name, Yeah, I like. I

409
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Speaker 3: like the Gorbels and Glass the Goblet. Neighborhood name you always.

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Speaker 2: Hear about, like Stratford upon Avon, where Shakespeare's from. But

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Speaker 2: then I found fudge Pack upon Humber.

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Speaker 3: Stop it fudge pack.

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Speaker 2: Fudge pack upon like fudge pack all one word upon Humber.

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Speaker 2: There's also Hornet. Does that name like Horny Old Road

415
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Speaker 2: in Malvern Wells? Or the Blind Fiddler and Cornwall these

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Speaker 2: are town names apparently. My last one is flesh Shank, Northumberland.

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Speaker 2: I'm from flesh Shank.

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Speaker 3: I still go wow, I'm still processing.

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Speaker 2: So let them all around in your anyway. Back to

420
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Speaker 2: the Great Tree War of Sheffield. A dozen locals they

421
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Speaker 2: band together up and they start trying to save the trees.

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Speaker 2: They the people unite. Elizabeth and these people they know

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Speaker 2: these trees. I mean, I mean, I don't mean personally,

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Speaker 2: but they for some it's it's possessive, it's personal. They

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Speaker 2: were there for these trees. They're tree defenders. Now this

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Speaker 2: group of doesn't. They're elders, mind you, elders with money

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Speaker 2: and time. They go out and confront the tree surgeon

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Speaker 2: hire to remove the trees of a certain age. Now

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Speaker 2: when their demands that the chainsaws fall silent or ignore,

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Speaker 2: the elders took it to the next level. We got time,

431
00:21:12,359 --> 00:21:16,560
Speaker 2: we got money. So they put first their bodies in harms. Way. Yeah,

432
00:21:16,560 --> 00:21:18,479
Speaker 2: they went down and they stood under the tree so

433
00:21:18,520 --> 00:21:20,520
Speaker 2: that no work could be done. They'd be like, oh,

434
00:21:20,600 --> 00:21:23,360
Speaker 2: you'll hit us with falling wood. Right, So I thought

435
00:21:23,400 --> 00:21:25,840
Speaker 2: that you would like this because like Mario Savia immediately

436
00:21:25,840 --> 00:21:28,320
Speaker 2: thought of him, like and him on the steps of

437
00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:31,119
Speaker 2: Sprow hall Uc Berkeley there at sixty four, leading like

438
00:21:31,160 --> 00:21:33,400
Speaker 2: a sit in protest. Yeah, you know the speech, can

439
00:21:33,440 --> 00:21:33,720
Speaker 2: I do it?

440
00:21:33,840 --> 00:21:34,040
Speaker 3: Yes?

441
00:21:34,119 --> 00:21:37,320
Speaker 2: Please? All right? And that brings me to the second

442
00:21:37,440 --> 00:21:41,280
Speaker 2: mode of civil disobedience. There is a time when the

443
00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:44,720
Speaker 2: operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so

444
00:21:44,920 --> 00:21:47,560
Speaker 2: sick at heart that you can't take part, You can't

445
00:21:47,600 --> 00:21:50,080
Speaker 2: even passively take part. And you've got to put your

446
00:21:50,119 --> 00:21:54,040
Speaker 2: bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers,

447
00:21:54,119 --> 00:21:57,600
Speaker 2: upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop,

448
00:21:57,720 --> 00:21:59,920
Speaker 2: and you've got to indicate to the people who run it,

449
00:22:00,359 --> 00:22:03,600
Speaker 2: to people who own it, that unless you're free, the

450
00:22:03,640 --> 00:22:06,480
Speaker 2: machine will be prevented from working at all.

451
00:22:07,320 --> 00:22:08,800
Speaker 3: Love beautiful, right.

452
00:22:09,119 --> 00:22:12,320
Speaker 2: So these old bricks start pulling full Mario Savia on

453
00:22:12,400 --> 00:22:15,119
Speaker 2: these tree surgeons, and they're laying their bodies down on

454
00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:18,920
Speaker 2: their bron I didn't see any footage of them channing themselves,

455
00:22:18,920 --> 00:22:20,760
Speaker 2: but they did everything they could. I mean, I'm sure

456
00:22:20,800 --> 00:22:22,960
Speaker 2: they did do like that cuffing action you know where.

457
00:22:22,800 --> 00:22:26,000
Speaker 3: You put the right They sat under there while they

458
00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:28,280
Speaker 3: were cutting and they said, hell, help somebody.

459
00:22:28,080 --> 00:22:31,399
Speaker 2: Oh I'm down here. Please No. So this human spirit

460
00:22:31,440 --> 00:22:34,080
Speaker 2: of defiance he gets expressed a direct action, right, these

461
00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:37,720
Speaker 2: rich elders of south west Sheffield called upon to save

462
00:22:37,760 --> 00:22:41,400
Speaker 2: the mature trees, putting their bodies upon the gears, the wheels, right,

463
00:22:41,760 --> 00:22:43,720
Speaker 2: the tree surgeons who are just there, they're just there

464
00:22:43,720 --> 00:22:45,359
Speaker 2: to do their jobs. They're like, well, this is not

465
00:22:45,400 --> 00:22:47,439
Speaker 2: what I signed up for, right, Like God, no, you

466
00:22:47,480 --> 00:22:50,280
Speaker 2: feel right now, all right? But they were so real, Elizabeth,

467
00:22:50,320 --> 00:22:52,280
Speaker 2: They were so real and they were so ready to fight.

468
00:22:52,400 --> 00:22:54,399
Speaker 2: So but not on just the like we're gonna put

469
00:22:54,440 --> 00:22:56,480
Speaker 2: down our bodies. They also put their money on the line.

470
00:22:56,520 --> 00:22:59,280
Speaker 2: They went out and commissioned to their own report. Oh yes,

471
00:22:59,359 --> 00:23:02,080
Speaker 2: the local tree defender campaigns. They hire this team of experts.

472
00:23:02,119 --> 00:23:04,919
Speaker 2: They drop an independent report to convince the city council

473
00:23:05,040 --> 00:23:07,520
Speaker 2: in their own language of paperwork and reports. Right, they

474
00:23:07,560 --> 00:23:09,600
Speaker 2: know how this stuff works. They're rich, so they're like, like,

475
00:23:09,640 --> 00:23:13,119
Speaker 2: look the independent report. It points out the storm drainage

476
00:23:13,160 --> 00:23:16,879
Speaker 2: benefits of trees and air quality improvements and the and

477
00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:19,600
Speaker 2: these are like hard to measure intangibles, but they tried

478
00:23:19,600 --> 00:23:23,240
Speaker 2: to convey them as economic value of the trees. Right,

479
00:23:23,320 --> 00:23:26,239
Speaker 2: These rich folks they speak in city councils, they're like, oh,

480
00:23:26,320 --> 00:23:28,359
Speaker 2: yes they have rather than like you know, a tax

481
00:23:28,400 --> 00:23:30,520
Speaker 2: to be cut or better yet like some you know,

482
00:23:30,880 --> 00:23:32,919
Speaker 2: tax free way to improve the society. They look with

483
00:23:32,960 --> 00:23:36,240
Speaker 2: these trees are an economic boon, right, city of council.

484
00:23:36,320 --> 00:23:39,720
Speaker 2: They listen and then they're like, no, they just blow

485
00:23:39,760 --> 00:23:42,720
Speaker 2: them off, right, So back to action, you don't wally

486
00:23:42,760 --> 00:23:45,639
Speaker 2: computer says no. So the city council wouldn't listen to

487
00:23:45,640 --> 00:23:49,040
Speaker 2: paperwork reports, and they did listen to protests and fiery

488
00:23:49,040 --> 00:23:51,639
Speaker 2: shouting voices that came next in public places, and it

489
00:23:51,680 --> 00:23:54,440
Speaker 2: all started amiably, right. They're old Brits, as I said, right,

490
00:23:54,480 --> 00:23:57,159
Speaker 2: Originally they were quite friendly with the tree surgeons that

491
00:23:57,200 --> 00:23:58,800
Speaker 2: they would find. They would of course lay down on

492
00:23:58,800 --> 00:24:00,399
Speaker 2: the ground, but they would also like out there and

493
00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:02,760
Speaker 2: offer them a spot of tea. You know. It was

494
00:24:02,800 --> 00:24:05,960
Speaker 2: all very cordial, open and communicative. And then they only

495
00:24:06,040 --> 00:24:10,360
Speaker 2: take on the democratic engagement path, right because they started

496
00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:13,399
Speaker 2: they tried to do things according to the mechanisms of

497
00:24:13,480 --> 00:24:16,359
Speaker 2: their culture. They tried to use the channels of communication

498
00:24:16,400 --> 00:24:18,679
Speaker 2: they should. They wrote letters to the City Council, they

499
00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:22,359
Speaker 2: filed freedom of information X. But the City Council was

500
00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:24,600
Speaker 2: bogged down by so many letters and so many freedom

501
00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:26,560
Speaker 2: of information X. And also they had the whole problem

502
00:24:26,560 --> 00:24:28,840
Speaker 2: with the years of austerity. They no longer had the

503
00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:31,240
Speaker 2: staff to deal with all these requests. So it becomes

504
00:24:31,240 --> 00:24:33,439
Speaker 2: a paperwork war and they get ground down. Right. So

505
00:24:33,560 --> 00:24:38,960
Speaker 2: now next action teams formed action teams Elizabeth men and women.

506
00:24:39,160 --> 00:24:42,200
Speaker 2: They put words to down, they put their pens down,

507
00:24:42,240 --> 00:24:45,280
Speaker 2: and they picked up their arms and defended the trees.

508
00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:49,880
Speaker 2: Entered Dave Dilner, he formed the Sheffield Tree Action Group

509
00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:53,520
Speaker 2: aka stag Kil there he's one of those old British

510
00:24:53,520 --> 00:24:55,920
Speaker 2: cats who fought in the war, pick whatever war you want.

511
00:24:56,200 --> 00:24:59,600
Speaker 2: Being a military man, he still treated yeah, exactly, treated

512
00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:02,119
Speaker 2: everything like part of the war effort. Right. So Dave Dilaner,

513
00:25:02,320 --> 00:25:04,280
Speaker 2: he lives in that well to do southwest, but he

514
00:25:04,359 --> 00:25:07,520
Speaker 2: lives near the heavy equipment depot that the arborous and

515
00:25:07,560 --> 00:25:10,080
Speaker 2: tree surgeons are launching out of each morning. So he

516
00:25:10,160 --> 00:25:12,320
Speaker 2: goes down there every morning and he wakes up and

517
00:25:12,359 --> 00:25:14,880
Speaker 2: he steps on a step ladder and with his binoculars,

518
00:25:14,880 --> 00:25:17,200
Speaker 2: his field goggles, he peers in and he watches the

519
00:25:17,240 --> 00:25:20,680
Speaker 2: tree surgeons leaving. Then he gets on his action group chat,

520
00:25:20,760 --> 00:25:23,199
Speaker 2: his WhatsApp group chat, and he starts giving out from

521
00:25:23,240 --> 00:25:27,159
Speaker 2: his surveillance outpost updates. Right, Yes, Chip and barrio wagon

522
00:25:27,200 --> 00:25:30,000
Speaker 2: heading leaving depot now heading southwest. Right, and somebody else

523
00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:32,000
Speaker 2: will get on the later. We're on a Dave, And

524
00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:33,840
Speaker 2: then they would all go and they would they report

525
00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:36,520
Speaker 2: where they had sightings until they could triangulate where the

526
00:25:36,520 --> 00:25:38,760
Speaker 2: tree surgeons would stop to work. Then they would all

527
00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:41,480
Speaker 2: descend there. So he would start the like sightings and

528
00:25:41,520 --> 00:25:43,040
Speaker 2: the rest would say, oh, yeah, here it is.

529
00:25:43,080 --> 00:25:46,040
Speaker 3: If he's just like watching him leave the depot, why

530
00:25:46,080 --> 00:25:48,080
Speaker 3: doesn't he hop in a car and drive behind them.

531
00:25:48,119 --> 00:25:50,359
Speaker 2: He's watching all of them. There's a kings going out,

532
00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:53,000
Speaker 2: this one's going that way, this this way, this one's

533
00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:54,879
Speaker 2: you know, they got two. They've got a wood chipper

534
00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:56,560
Speaker 2: and a you know, cherry picker truck.

535
00:25:56,359 --> 00:25:58,719
Speaker 3: Or whatever it's. You know, I have flawed that. But

536
00:25:58,760 --> 00:26:00,760
Speaker 3: it's also like he took the easy job.

537
00:26:01,680 --> 00:26:03,760
Speaker 2: You gotta have a spotter instead. Tell me he's like

538
00:26:03,800 --> 00:26:06,000
Speaker 2: basically a field officer. What are you gonna do? All right,

539
00:26:06,080 --> 00:26:09,160
Speaker 2: So the action group, as they said, they leap into action.

540
00:26:09,240 --> 00:26:11,800
Speaker 2: They start confronting tree surgeons standing under the trees are

541
00:26:11,800 --> 00:26:13,480
Speaker 2: supposed to be cut down. The arborous would then have

542
00:26:13,560 --> 00:26:15,080
Speaker 2: to pack up for the day, and those are the

543
00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:17,600
Speaker 2: days called, or they'd have to demand that police show

544
00:26:17,680 --> 00:26:20,280
Speaker 2: up and remove the protesters. It becomes like a whole deal, right,

545
00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:23,240
Speaker 2: So this war had not yet become violent. This was

546
00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:25,240
Speaker 2: still early in the autumn of twenty sixteen, but the

547
00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:27,480
Speaker 2: signs of violence to come they were already there, Elizabeth.

548
00:26:27,520 --> 00:26:29,080
Speaker 2: They were in there. If you knew what to look for.

549
00:26:29,359 --> 00:26:32,200
Speaker 2: The tree surgeon certainly felt it, of course they did.

550
00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:34,240
Speaker 2: They were there on the front lines. They didn't want

551
00:26:34,280 --> 00:26:35,880
Speaker 2: to be, but they were there on the front line.

552
00:26:35,920 --> 00:26:38,159
Speaker 2: So this company, I should tell them, they're called amy

553
00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:41,240
Speaker 2: ame E y Okay. They'd been contracted by the streets

554
00:26:41,240 --> 00:26:45,200
Speaker 2: Ahead program. The streets Ahead they worked for the Highways

555
00:26:45,200 --> 00:26:47,399
Speaker 2: team in the City Council, right, So they asked their

556
00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:50,119
Speaker 2: bosses if they consider some repairs that would minimize the

557
00:26:50,200 --> 00:26:53,400
Speaker 2: number of trees that they needed to remove. The tree

558
00:26:53,480 --> 00:26:55,199
Speaker 2: surgeons were saying, Hey, here's the thought. What if we

559
00:26:55,280 --> 00:26:57,560
Speaker 2: don't do what we do for a living and instead

560
00:26:57,600 --> 00:26:59,080
Speaker 2: you paid us to I don't know, do what the

561
00:26:59,080 --> 00:27:02,080
Speaker 2: people want that would fix things right, And so the

562
00:27:02,080 --> 00:27:04,399
Speaker 2: tree surgeons they're asking not to do their own jobs.

563
00:27:04,440 --> 00:27:06,720
Speaker 2: And the fat of course doesn't fly with the city council.

564
00:27:06,720 --> 00:27:08,240
Speaker 2: They're like, we paid you to cut down trees, cut

565
00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:11,119
Speaker 2: down trees. Streets Ahead and the Highways team they felt

566
00:27:11,119 --> 00:27:13,960
Speaker 2: that the protesters were out of touch and not representative

567
00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:17,360
Speaker 2: of quote, the real residents of Sheffield. So they were

568
00:27:17,400 --> 00:27:20,640
Speaker 2: just a small, loud minority and they should ignore them

569
00:27:20,680 --> 00:27:22,959
Speaker 2: and they should get back to cutting down trees.

570
00:27:23,080 --> 00:27:23,240
Speaker 3: Yes.

571
00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:25,680
Speaker 2: So there's one senior official from the Highways team. He

572
00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:27,720
Speaker 2: will come out in the story numerous times. His name

573
00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:30,160
Speaker 2: is Paul Billington. Here was a real piece of work,

574
00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:33,560
Speaker 2: this Billington. He spearheaded what would become the bunker mentality

575
00:27:33,640 --> 00:27:35,479
Speaker 2: that would take hold. He had that whole classic us

576
00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:37,880
Speaker 2: against them. So wait, what was his name? Do you say?

577
00:27:37,880 --> 00:27:42,120
Speaker 2: Buzz Killington? Buzz Killington? Producer Dave Great to call Buzz Killington,

578
00:27:42,119 --> 00:27:44,960
Speaker 2: my man, Buzz Killington. He decides we need to have

579
00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:48,399
Speaker 2: an early morning raid, something to break the morale the

580
00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:51,919
Speaker 2: Tree Defenders also apparently Buzz Killington's. He wanted them to

581
00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:53,679
Speaker 2: have the police assist them, to really let them know

582
00:27:53,680 --> 00:27:55,800
Speaker 2: they had the state beyond their side. So an in

583
00:27:55,880 --> 00:27:58,840
Speaker 2: house lawyer for the Streets Ahead project he gets word

584
00:27:59,200 --> 00:28:02,480
Speaker 2: of this proposed so this raid that's designed to break

585
00:28:02,480 --> 00:28:04,280
Speaker 2: the hearts and the will of the Tree Defenders, and

586
00:28:04,320 --> 00:28:07,480
Speaker 2: he's like, well, what's my advice? Well, personally, I don't

587
00:28:07,480 --> 00:28:09,720
Speaker 2: believe what is being proposed could in any way be

588
00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:12,400
Speaker 2: considered reasonable. Right, So that was him, but it wasn't

589
00:28:12,400 --> 00:28:15,240
Speaker 2: just him. A communications director also in house had a

590
00:28:15,280 --> 00:28:17,760
Speaker 2: similar reaction when he heard about this planned morning raid

591
00:28:17,800 --> 00:28:20,720
Speaker 2: to break the hearts and minds. He said, my professional

592
00:28:20,800 --> 00:28:21,960
Speaker 2: view is that this is crackers.

593
00:28:22,600 --> 00:28:25,080
Speaker 3: Oh he's a technical term, but rather.

594
00:28:24,960 --> 00:28:26,560
Speaker 2: Than just tell you about all this, Lilizids, I'd like

595
00:28:26,600 --> 00:28:29,800
Speaker 2: you to close your eyes as a picture. It's four

596
00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:33,320
Speaker 2: thirty am on November seventeenth, twenty sixteen. You are standing

597
00:28:33,320 --> 00:28:37,280
Speaker 2: outside of a supermarket near Rustling's Road. You are a housecat,

598
00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:40,520
Speaker 2: a British tabbyer. You're one who's escaped the boredom of

599
00:28:40,520 --> 00:28:43,240
Speaker 2: domestic life for some of the danger of Sheffield streets

600
00:28:43,240 --> 00:28:45,360
Speaker 2: in the small hours of the morning. But you found

601
00:28:45,360 --> 00:28:48,320
Speaker 2: no mice, no early birds, no small mammals to hunt,

602
00:28:48,360 --> 00:28:50,800
Speaker 2: so you've wandered over to the supermarket. You're currently in

603
00:28:50,800 --> 00:28:53,600
Speaker 2: an alley that runs beyond the store, checking the milk bottles,

604
00:28:53,600 --> 00:28:56,280
Speaker 2: hoping to find some milk that's just passed its expiry date.

605
00:28:56,560 --> 00:28:59,240
Speaker 2: You tip over one bottle, no milk spills out. That's

606
00:28:59,280 --> 00:29:02,080
Speaker 2: when you hear it sound of heavy equipment. You cat

607
00:29:02,120 --> 00:29:04,040
Speaker 2: prants over to see what all the noise is about.

608
00:29:04,200 --> 00:29:06,600
Speaker 2: You climb up a chain lake fence and hop onto

609
00:29:06,600 --> 00:29:09,920
Speaker 2: the stone rooftop of the store. As you draw near

610
00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:12,200
Speaker 2: to the edge, you spy a cordon of cups. They're

611
00:29:12,200 --> 00:29:15,720
Speaker 2: shutting down both ends of a quiet, leafy, well treed street.

612
00:29:15,840 --> 00:29:18,240
Speaker 2: The cops are setting up a safety zone for tree

613
00:29:18,280 --> 00:29:22,120
Speaker 2: surgeons from amy. This is a well coordinated early morning ray.

614
00:29:22,160 --> 00:29:25,520
Speaker 2: The target eight mature trees. You walk along the length

615
00:29:25,520 --> 00:29:27,840
Speaker 2: of the roof to get a better view. From the corner,

616
00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:30,480
Speaker 2: you can see the police pounding on front doors. When

617
00:29:30,520 --> 00:29:33,080
Speaker 2: the doors swing open, the bobbies and form the residence.

618
00:29:33,400 --> 00:29:36,280
Speaker 2: They must move their cars. It's five am now at

619
00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:38,160
Speaker 2: this point. At the same time, there's a chorus of

620
00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:41,040
Speaker 2: chainsaws starting to sing delight. You hate all the noise

621
00:29:41,080 --> 00:29:43,600
Speaker 2: that the soap there is. The tree surgeons are going

622
00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:46,200
Speaker 2: at it with a martial energy. They strike early, they

623
00:29:46,240 --> 00:29:49,200
Speaker 2: strike hard. They come in with cherry picker trucks, heavy sauce.

624
00:29:49,360 --> 00:29:52,479
Speaker 2: The terrible buzzing and tearing of tree flesh. It friends

625
00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:55,120
Speaker 2: the quiet of the early morning. If you residents are

626
00:29:55,120 --> 00:29:57,880
Speaker 2: bumbling around on the sidewalk beneath you, here and there,

627
00:29:57,880 --> 00:30:00,280
Speaker 2: a cars starts to life and then drives off as

628
00:30:00,280 --> 00:30:02,680
Speaker 2: the police have struck them where to go. You scratch

629
00:30:02,720 --> 00:30:05,480
Speaker 2: at the gravel of the rooftop bricks, Your tail flicks

630
00:30:05,480 --> 00:30:07,960
Speaker 2: at the receiving darkness. This morning is taking hold. You

631
00:30:08,040 --> 00:30:11,120
Speaker 2: hear a new commotion. A young man and his two comrades,

632
00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:14,160
Speaker 2: two women in their seventies charge the police guard in

633
00:30:14,240 --> 00:30:17,040
Speaker 2: safety zone. The bobbies push back against them as the

634
00:30:17,080 --> 00:30:20,280
Speaker 2: tree defenders try to position themselves beneath the tree surgeons.

635
00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:23,000
Speaker 2: You jump across a high space above the action and

636
00:30:23,080 --> 00:30:25,280
Speaker 2: land on a tree limb above the tree slated for

637
00:30:25,520 --> 00:30:28,160
Speaker 2: the chop. You prance along the rough barked limb and

638
00:30:28,200 --> 00:30:30,800
Speaker 2: walk up to the tree surgeon, armed with his heavy

639
00:30:30,840 --> 00:30:34,320
Speaker 2: industrial chainsaw. Standing in the cherry picker box twenty feet

640
00:30:34,360 --> 00:30:36,760
Speaker 2: above the fray. You stare into the eyes of the

641
00:30:36,760 --> 00:30:40,200
Speaker 2: tree surgeon. He stares back at you. You are disgusting

642
00:30:40,280 --> 00:30:42,440
Speaker 2: with what he's doing, but for your own reasons, that's

643
00:30:42,440 --> 00:30:44,720
Speaker 2: a kay. He looks back at you. The gilt crows

644
00:30:44,760 --> 00:30:47,040
Speaker 2: in his eyes. Beneath you, the chopped up chunks of

645
00:30:47,200 --> 00:30:51,560
Speaker 2: seven mature trees. The tree leaves rustle from a small breeze.

646
00:30:51,600 --> 00:30:53,600
Speaker 2: Beneath you can hear the shouting of the tree defenders

647
00:30:53,600 --> 00:30:56,080
Speaker 2: and the cops fighting back. They're going at it somehow,

648
00:30:56,200 --> 00:30:59,040
Speaker 2: the noise all the way slightly as you lock eyes

649
00:30:59,080 --> 00:31:01,600
Speaker 2: with the tree surgeon. Then you see it. The single

650
00:31:01,680 --> 00:31:05,160
Speaker 2: tear runs down his cheek. Handcuffs get slapped onto the

651
00:31:05,200 --> 00:31:07,320
Speaker 2: tree defender's wrist. Cops toss them in the back of

652
00:31:07,320 --> 00:31:09,200
Speaker 2: a police lordy and off they go to be booked

653
00:31:09,440 --> 00:31:12,040
Speaker 2: at the closest jail. You run down the trunk of

654
00:31:12,040 --> 00:31:14,240
Speaker 2: the tree and set up to find some breakfast or

655
00:31:14,280 --> 00:31:17,080
Speaker 2: maybe some danger. You cat prance through the carnage, the

656
00:31:17,120 --> 00:31:21,240
Speaker 2: police tape and the fallen bodies of the trees. Elizabeth,

657
00:31:21,400 --> 00:31:23,520
Speaker 2: can you imagine that early morning scene?

658
00:31:23,600 --> 00:31:25,840
Speaker 3: Oh my heartbreaking, terrible.

659
00:31:26,040 --> 00:31:30,160
Speaker 2: But this morning raid it failed spectacularly because it led

660
00:31:30,200 --> 00:31:33,000
Speaker 2: to a rush of news media images. Imagine old people

661
00:31:33,040 --> 00:31:35,479
Speaker 2: lying down on the ground. Oh yeah, to protect these trees,

662
00:31:35,520 --> 00:31:37,480
Speaker 2: next to the brutality of the saw tooth and the

663
00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:39,920
Speaker 2: cold metal of the blade. Right, big savage chunks of

664
00:31:39,960 --> 00:31:43,400
Speaker 2: tree sawdust piled like puled blood. It looked bad in

665
00:31:43,440 --> 00:31:45,480
Speaker 2: the morning papers. But if you can believe it, this

666
00:31:45,520 --> 00:31:48,040
Speaker 2: has been the idea all along. This is what they wanted.

667
00:31:48,240 --> 00:31:51,080
Speaker 3: Well, if you have to do something in that sneaky way,

668
00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:52,640
Speaker 3: if I'm going to do it at five in the morning,

669
00:31:52,680 --> 00:31:56,800
Speaker 3: then before everyone's awake, you know you're doing something wrong totally. Plus,

670
00:31:56,880 --> 00:32:02,880
Speaker 3: I would imagine that five am is inside of quiet. Yeah,

671
00:32:02,920 --> 00:32:05,480
Speaker 3: you can't start sawing at five in the morning.

672
00:32:05,560 --> 00:32:07,600
Speaker 2: Here, it's eight am. We couldn't turn on power tools.

673
00:32:07,400 --> 00:32:08,680
Speaker 3: Before a right exactly.

674
00:32:08,800 --> 00:32:10,920
Speaker 2: So, yeah, they ignored all of that, and they said,

675
00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:13,640
Speaker 2: we have a bigger impulse to answer to now, if

676
00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:14,960
Speaker 2: you can believe it. As I said, this had been

677
00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:17,480
Speaker 2: their idea. They wanted these graphic images, but the message

678
00:32:17,480 --> 00:32:19,840
Speaker 2: they sent was too strong. It was too graphic. Right.

679
00:32:20,280 --> 00:32:22,840
Speaker 2: A memo would surface later on which confirmed the city

680
00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:25,360
Speaker 2: Council and the Highways Team's cynical view on how to

681
00:32:25,440 --> 00:32:28,120
Speaker 2: best respond to their protesters and I quote removing the

682
00:32:28,120 --> 00:32:30,880
Speaker 2: trees on Rustling's Road remove a symbol of the tree

683
00:32:30,920 --> 00:32:33,880
Speaker 2: campaign instead their morning rate. It became a symbol for

684
00:32:34,080 --> 00:32:36,520
Speaker 2: the tree exactly. Raid was as I said, it was

685
00:32:36,520 --> 00:32:38,120
Speaker 2: never about the health of the trees or even about

686
00:32:38,120 --> 00:32:40,400
Speaker 2: the solving the ostensible problem. Remember this all started with

687
00:32:40,440 --> 00:32:43,760
Speaker 2: fixing the unsafe streets right right now. The police assisted

688
00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:47,200
Speaker 2: raid purely an emotional message composed in the symbolic language

689
00:32:47,200 --> 00:32:49,920
Speaker 2: of a fell tree, chopped up section left, lying in

690
00:32:49,960 --> 00:32:53,000
Speaker 2: the streets ready for the wood shopper, right, an old

691
00:32:53,080 --> 00:32:56,280
Speaker 2: lady on the ground next to it in an agony face. Right.

692
00:32:56,520 --> 00:32:58,400
Speaker 2: This image was meant to break the spirits of the

693
00:32:58,400 --> 00:33:02,400
Speaker 2: tree defenders. Instead galvanizes people country the UK is like,

694
00:33:02,400 --> 00:33:05,880
Speaker 2: what is going on in Sheffield? Right, So they'd moved

695
00:33:05,920 --> 00:33:08,720
Speaker 2: beyond the borders of southwest Sheffield. Now suddenly it was

696
00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:11,200
Speaker 2: no longer rich people trying to save their quiet, leafy

697
00:33:11,240 --> 00:33:13,920
Speaker 2: shaded streets. Now it was the people fighting for the

698
00:33:13,960 --> 00:33:19,160
Speaker 2: green future of Britain. Yeah, yeah, Elizabeth entered the Flying Squad.

699
00:33:19,840 --> 00:33:21,800
Speaker 2: So we'll take a little break because I just wanted

700
00:33:21,840 --> 00:33:25,480
Speaker 2: to tease you with your flying and it's not the

701
00:33:25,520 --> 00:33:48,200
Speaker 2: one you think it is, all right, Elizabeth.

702
00:33:47,800 --> 00:33:53,080
Speaker 3: Oka before we went to b Yes, flying squad, Yes.

703
00:33:53,160 --> 00:33:56,200
Speaker 2: Your guys, your girls, the squad, But it's not that

704
00:33:56,240 --> 00:33:59,240
Speaker 2: Flying Squad. This was a group of protesters who called

705
00:33:59,280 --> 00:34:02,440
Speaker 2: their new action group the Flying Squad. They took it

706
00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:05,120
Speaker 2: back from the police. Why because they knew a good name.

707
00:34:05,120 --> 00:34:07,000
Speaker 2: When they heard it. They're like, you guys aren't using

708
00:34:07,040 --> 00:34:08,920
Speaker 2: it right, We'll take that. So the Flying Squad was

709
00:34:08,960 --> 00:34:11,359
Speaker 2: about thirty people deep and they were ready to fly

710
00:34:11,520 --> 00:34:15,480
Speaker 2: to danger, thus the name. They were spotters, fast responders.

711
00:34:15,560 --> 00:34:17,719
Speaker 2: They chased tree surgeons to the job sites and then

712
00:34:17,719 --> 00:34:19,840
Speaker 2: they stood beneath the trees like everybody else to stop

713
00:34:19,840 --> 00:34:22,400
Speaker 2: the work. But they were unafraid to confront tree surgeons

714
00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:25,680
Speaker 2: or the police. Soon enough, these tree surgeons from Amy, right,

715
00:34:25,680 --> 00:34:27,759
Speaker 2: they feel they have to protect themselves from all these

716
00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:31,920
Speaker 2: bad as. They called them chipper chasers. So some of

717
00:34:31,960 --> 00:34:34,319
Speaker 2: these these tree surgeons would compare it the streets were

718
00:34:34,320 --> 00:34:36,719
Speaker 2: turning into the wild West. They did not feel safe

719
00:34:36,719 --> 00:34:39,759
Speaker 2: in these streets. They're just now they've got these newly

720
00:34:39,840 --> 00:34:42,120
Speaker 2: drafted soldiers in the fight because it's gone nationals. So

721
00:34:42,160 --> 00:34:44,400
Speaker 2: now people are flooding in from other cities and towns,

722
00:34:44,719 --> 00:34:47,440
Speaker 2: and the fight becomes this group, this fighting force I

723
00:34:47,520 --> 00:34:50,160
Speaker 2: few will become so effective that in June twenty seventeen,

724
00:34:50,200 --> 00:34:52,640
Speaker 2: in just one month, the tree shoppers, they were scheduled

725
00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:55,160
Speaker 2: to cut down four hundred and seventy two trees. You

726
00:34:55,160 --> 00:34:57,520
Speaker 2: know how many times they had to stop? Three hundred

727
00:34:57,520 --> 00:35:01,359
Speaker 2: and twenty nine times. Flying Squad was on it. One

728
00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:04,000
Speaker 2: tree surgeon from Amy, he said, of the protesters, it's

729
00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:06,160
Speaker 2: incredibly frustrating. I wanted to do the job I was

730
00:35:06,160 --> 00:35:07,560
Speaker 2: paid to do, not to be the face of a

731
00:35:07,600 --> 00:35:10,360
Speaker 2: controversial policy. I had the colleagues who didn't agree with

732
00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:12,640
Speaker 2: what the council was doing, who were almost believed if

733
00:35:12,640 --> 00:35:15,239
Speaker 2: the protesters turned up for me. I just felt caught

734
00:35:15,239 --> 00:35:16,960
Speaker 2: in the middle and started to dread getting up in

735
00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:19,960
Speaker 2: the morning. I was eventually signed off for stress. He

736
00:35:20,080 --> 00:35:23,640
Speaker 2: had to leave his job. So and we still haven't

737
00:35:23,680 --> 00:35:26,400
Speaker 2: gotten to the worst of the war. So yeah, summer

738
00:35:26,440 --> 00:35:29,239
Speaker 2: twenty seventeen, it gets hot. Sheffield City Council receives a

739
00:35:29,320 --> 00:35:32,239
Speaker 2: final report from the commissioned independent tree Panel, the one the.

740
00:35:32,480 --> 00:35:35,080
Speaker 3: Rich real first pay, Oh, okay, what does it suggest

741
00:35:35,400 --> 00:35:36,520
Speaker 3: don't cut down trees?

742
00:35:36,880 --> 00:35:38,880
Speaker 2: Now you know it? Now the City Council they had

743
00:35:38,920 --> 00:35:40,800
Speaker 2: posed this question always as a debate of do you

744
00:35:40,840 --> 00:35:44,280
Speaker 2: want trees or smooth roads? Well, the Action Group STAG

745
00:35:44,320 --> 00:35:46,319
Speaker 2: and they had always said, that's a false debate. We

746
00:35:46,400 --> 00:35:49,880
Speaker 2: can have both. Well, the tree panel, the independent panel,

747
00:35:49,920 --> 00:35:52,800
Speaker 2: they said, that's exactly correct. You can totally have smooth

748
00:35:52,920 --> 00:35:55,840
Speaker 2: roads and trees. So they said, like, you know, I

749
00:35:56,120 --> 00:35:58,280
Speaker 2: understand you want to do the mass removal of trees,

750
00:35:58,320 --> 00:36:01,920
Speaker 2: but that's not necessary really the absolute only way to

751
00:36:01,960 --> 00:36:04,640
Speaker 2: do this. So the City Council's decision to continue chopping

752
00:36:04,719 --> 00:36:07,520
Speaker 2: down trees because they decided, you know what, that's a

753
00:36:07,520 --> 00:36:09,919
Speaker 2: great report and no we're not doing that.

754
00:36:10,200 --> 00:36:12,480
Speaker 3: So and again, were they going to replace these with

755
00:36:12,600 --> 00:36:13,759
Speaker 3: saplings or were they just.

756
00:36:13,719 --> 00:36:16,239
Speaker 2: Gonna they're taking trees out, pulling them out of the earth,

757
00:36:16,239 --> 00:36:19,040
Speaker 2: putting in saplings. Okay, and you're really small like.

758
00:36:19,880 --> 00:36:21,719
Speaker 3: So then they were supposed to fix the roads at

759
00:36:21,719 --> 00:36:22,640
Speaker 3: the same time, and.

760
00:36:22,600 --> 00:36:26,000
Speaker 2: They thought that by doing that, the root structure would

761
00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:28,120
Speaker 2: no longer keep growing and lifting the roads, so then

762
00:36:28,120 --> 00:36:30,480
Speaker 2: they can get a handle of the road row exactly.

763
00:36:30,600 --> 00:36:33,000
Speaker 2: But it turns out it was a little more complicated

764
00:36:33,120 --> 00:36:36,080
Speaker 2: because at this point, basically the city council says, we

765
00:36:36,120 --> 00:36:37,880
Speaker 2: don't care about all this, like, oh, we shouldn't cut

766
00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:40,160
Speaker 2: down trees. We're cutting down trees, So anybody says don't

767
00:36:40,200 --> 00:36:42,919
Speaker 2: cut down trees, they're wrong. Basically, at this point, they'd

768
00:36:42,960 --> 00:36:45,359
Speaker 2: also forsaken the moral high ground because they're just going

769
00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:48,480
Speaker 2: with policy. They're not listening to anybody. So this guarantees

770
00:36:48,520 --> 00:36:51,319
Speaker 2: that violence will now be the next response because they're

771
00:36:51,320 --> 00:36:54,480
Speaker 2: not listening anymore. They're ignoring experts, they're ignoring the process,

772
00:36:54,520 --> 00:36:56,880
Speaker 2: they won't talk to anyone. The people are desperate, The

773
00:36:56,880 --> 00:36:58,600
Speaker 2: people are willing to put their own bodies in danger.

774
00:36:58,640 --> 00:37:01,160
Speaker 2: What's next, They're gonna put your body in danger. So

775
00:37:01,239 --> 00:37:03,240
Speaker 2: this is when the authorities opt to pursue a policy

776
00:37:03,239 --> 00:37:06,319
Speaker 2: that normally is reserved for gang members in southern California,

777
00:37:06,760 --> 00:37:10,520
Speaker 2: they sought an injunction against the protesters, making it illegal

778
00:37:10,560 --> 00:37:12,600
Speaker 2: for them to gather and oppose the tree fellings in

779
00:37:12,640 --> 00:37:15,560
Speaker 2: the mass removal. The new injunctions raimed at specifically sixteen

780
00:37:15,600 --> 00:37:17,880
Speaker 2: of the lead protesters. They were all given letters that

781
00:37:17,920 --> 00:37:19,640
Speaker 2: told them that they would face prison time, they'd be

782
00:37:19,680 --> 00:37:22,920
Speaker 2: financially liable for delays, court costs. It's estimated to run

783
00:37:22,960 --> 00:37:24,920
Speaker 2: into the hundreds of thousands of pounds, as obviously was

784
00:37:24,960 --> 00:37:28,240
Speaker 2: meant to be a scare tactic. Interestingly, the tree surgeons

785
00:37:28,239 --> 00:37:31,200
Speaker 2: from Amy, who would be essentially protected by this injunction,

786
00:37:31,360 --> 00:37:34,120
Speaker 2: they opposed it. They're like, don't do this, this is dumb. Instead,

787
00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:37,920
Speaker 2: they offered to carry the costs themselves of finding alternative

788
00:37:37,960 --> 00:37:41,080
Speaker 2: solutions to fix the streets without removing trees. They're now

789
00:37:41,120 --> 00:37:45,120
Speaker 2: willing to become street fixers. The Highways team they hear

790
00:37:45,160 --> 00:37:47,480
Speaker 2: about this plan to concede to the protesters, and they

791
00:37:47,480 --> 00:37:50,680
Speaker 2: take a hard line stance. So enter the sunken cost fallacy.

792
00:37:50,800 --> 00:37:53,279
Speaker 2: Now it's the user to them bunker mentality and the

793
00:37:53,280 --> 00:37:57,719
Speaker 2: sunken cost fallacy teaming up the executive buzz Killington or

794
00:37:57,880 --> 00:38:00,799
Speaker 2: the Billington He writes an email that's speaks directly to

795
00:38:00,880 --> 00:38:02,799
Speaker 2: this when he says, and I quote, given we spent

796
00:38:02,840 --> 00:38:04,879
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty thousand pounds to get this far,

797
00:38:04,960 --> 00:38:07,880
Speaker 2: we don't really have a choice. Oh yeah, okay, we

798
00:38:07,960 --> 00:38:09,200
Speaker 2: spent that much. Gotta go through with.

799
00:38:09,160 --> 00:38:10,960
Speaker 3: It, even though these guys are saying they'll fit the

800
00:38:10,960 --> 00:38:12,760
Speaker 3: bill for this exactly, so it isn't.

801
00:38:12,600 --> 00:38:15,160
Speaker 2: Really about the money, since they've nixed Amy's offer to

802
00:38:15,160 --> 00:38:17,800
Speaker 2: save the city council money by paying for their own costs.

803
00:38:17,800 --> 00:38:20,359
Speaker 2: But this point, Billington and the others from the highway team,

804
00:38:20,520 --> 00:38:23,120
Speaker 2: they're loaded for Bear Elizabeth. They're going up for a hunt.

805
00:38:23,160 --> 00:38:25,680
Speaker 2: So they want the war. They want Amy and the

806
00:38:25,719 --> 00:38:28,880
Speaker 2: Tree Surgeons to understand what side they are on. Billington

807
00:38:28,960 --> 00:38:31,239
Speaker 2: rights to Amy and his Tree Surgeons on November sixth,

808
00:38:31,280 --> 00:38:34,600
Speaker 2: twenty seventeen. You are losing the battle. The council is

809
00:38:34,719 --> 00:38:37,000
Speaker 2: very frustrated at the current policy of turn up and

810
00:38:37,080 --> 00:38:39,360
Speaker 2: pack up. So what do they do. They were so

811
00:38:39,440 --> 00:38:43,840
Speaker 2: incensive they start not paying Amy. They withheld two point

812
00:38:43,920 --> 00:38:46,920
Speaker 2: five million pounds of the promised contract. They're like the

813
00:38:46,920 --> 00:38:49,120
Speaker 2: over five month period, they're just not paying them. They're like,

814
00:38:49,200 --> 00:38:51,080
Speaker 2: unless you start doing stuff, we're not gonna pay you.

815
00:38:51,120 --> 00:38:52,839
Speaker 2: And they keep complaining and saying like it's because you're

816
00:38:52,880 --> 00:38:54,440
Speaker 2: not you turn up and pack up. Yeah, but they

817
00:38:54,480 --> 00:38:56,640
Speaker 2: can't do anything, so they're now putting the pressure on

818
00:38:56,680 --> 00:39:00,200
Speaker 2: them their own like associates. Yeah yeah, anyway, seeing which

819
00:39:00,239 --> 00:39:02,680
Speaker 2: way the wind blow. That same November, Amy hired private

820
00:39:02,719 --> 00:39:05,800
Speaker 2: security to protect their tree surgeons from the anger and

821
00:39:05,840 --> 00:39:08,719
Speaker 2: the ire of the protesters, and they they are given

822
00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:11,960
Speaker 2: the right to manhandle the protesters because in accords with

823
00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:14,880
Speaker 2: the injunction, this works, you have to get out of

824
00:39:14,920 --> 00:39:17,040
Speaker 2: the way of the tree removal. So at this point

825
00:39:17,080 --> 00:39:20,399
Speaker 2: the Great Tree War becomes an endurance fight who could

826
00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:22,960
Speaker 2: outlast the other. Amy and his tree surgeons also begin

827
00:39:23,040 --> 00:39:25,560
Speaker 2: to track and document all the protesters. So now the

828
00:39:25,560 --> 00:39:30,120
Speaker 2: protesters start donning masks, disguises, they adopt out rageous accents.

829
00:39:30,160 --> 00:39:33,759
Speaker 2: They're speaking in Glasswegian accents for no reason. It's just amazing, right.

830
00:39:34,120 --> 00:39:36,120
Speaker 2: So this is also when the bunnies, the geckos, and

831
00:39:36,160 --> 00:39:39,240
Speaker 2: the squirrels enter the picture. Well, you may be wondering,

832
00:39:39,520 --> 00:39:41,000
Speaker 2: did I just have like a snow white moment? What

833
00:39:41,040 --> 00:39:42,480
Speaker 2: do you mean? The bunny, the geckos, so that the

834
00:39:42,480 --> 00:39:46,840
Speaker 2: protesters they self sorted into three animal forms bunnies, geckos,

835
00:39:46,880 --> 00:39:50,520
Speaker 2: and squirrels. Elizabeth, see the bunnies, they they're bounders, so

836
00:39:50,560 --> 00:39:53,120
Speaker 2: they are responsible for hopping and bounding over the garden

837
00:39:53,160 --> 00:39:55,560
Speaker 2: walls and all the erected metal barriers, and then they

838
00:39:55,560 --> 00:39:58,160
Speaker 2: would help to keep the protesters away from the safe

839
00:39:58,200 --> 00:39:59,880
Speaker 2: zones beneath the trees is to be cut down. So

840
00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:02,680
Speaker 2: they top over these barriers and then go hey and

841
00:40:02,680 --> 00:40:05,800
Speaker 2: they hop a hug up against the trees. That's the bunnies.

842
00:40:05,920 --> 00:40:08,799
Speaker 2: The geckos, they would thrust themselves against walls, you know,

843
00:40:08,840 --> 00:40:10,600
Speaker 2: like how they stick to a wall, and they would

844
00:40:10,600 --> 00:40:12,279
Speaker 2: make it to the barrier couldn't be closed and other

845
00:40:12,280 --> 00:40:14,920
Speaker 2: people could prush through or whatever. That's the goes. Then

846
00:40:15,040 --> 00:40:17,480
Speaker 2: we have the squirrels, as you can might imagine, they

847
00:40:17,480 --> 00:40:20,360
Speaker 2: would bravely climb the trees and perch in the branches,

848
00:40:20,360 --> 00:40:22,799
Speaker 2: making it impossible to cut the tree down. They were

849
00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:26,400
Speaker 2: the bravest of the freedom fighters in the green tree. Yeah.

850
00:40:26,440 --> 00:40:28,160
Speaker 2: So their success has been set up the stage for

851
00:40:28,200 --> 00:40:31,000
Speaker 2: the violence to come, because now we're getting actual engagement

852
00:40:31,080 --> 00:40:33,799
Speaker 2: and tactics and strategies and groups and you got commandos.

853
00:40:33,840 --> 00:40:37,759
Speaker 2: So this leads to the Battle of Meares Brook Park

854
00:40:37,840 --> 00:40:42,680
Speaker 2: Road January fifteen, twenty eighteen. The city Council has been

855
00:40:42,680 --> 00:40:45,400
Speaker 2: putting pressure on Amy to stand tall right, to do

856
00:40:45,480 --> 00:40:47,320
Speaker 2: the right thing, and to do this, they've authorized the

857
00:40:47,440 --> 00:40:50,319
Speaker 2: use of reasonable force, so the private security are now

858
00:40:50,440 --> 00:40:53,480
Speaker 2: basically unofficially deputized by the city council to rough up

859
00:40:53,480 --> 00:40:56,160
Speaker 2: the protesters. This means they can grab the bunnies and

860
00:40:56,200 --> 00:40:58,239
Speaker 2: toss them out of the safe zones. They can they

861
00:40:58,280 --> 00:41:01,120
Speaker 2: can pull geckos off the wall. They can grab squirrels

862
00:41:01,120 --> 00:41:03,440
Speaker 2: out of the tree, which is not gonna go good right.

863
00:41:03,520 --> 00:41:05,560
Speaker 2: This is also they don't have to worry about legal consequence.

864
00:41:05,560 --> 00:41:07,719
Speaker 2: They're like, we got you, you just rough them up.

865
00:41:08,200 --> 00:41:10,120
Speaker 2: This all comes to a head in the Battle of Mirrors,

866
00:41:10,160 --> 00:41:14,120
Speaker 2: Brook Park Road. The crowd that day big, angry, loud, raucous.

867
00:41:14,160 --> 00:41:17,600
Speaker 2: They were energized by recent successes. The private security equally

868
00:41:17,719 --> 00:41:21,640
Speaker 2: energize conflicts guaranteed. One bunny, an older married woman in

869
00:41:21,680 --> 00:41:24,400
Speaker 2: her sixties, hopped over a barricade entered the safe zone.

870
00:41:24,520 --> 00:41:27,120
Speaker 2: She's grabbed by private security. In response, she flops on

871
00:41:27,160 --> 00:41:29,600
Speaker 2: the ground right. Her husband sees this, but he only

872
00:41:29,600 --> 00:41:31,160
Speaker 2: sees his wife on the ground. He misses that she

873
00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:33,360
Speaker 2: throw us up on the ground, and he just sees

874
00:41:33,360 --> 00:41:35,839
Speaker 2: the menacing private security or like you know, standing over

875
00:41:35,960 --> 00:41:40,000
Speaker 2: her like a husband. He charges the barricade, knocks it down,

876
00:41:40,040 --> 00:41:43,279
Speaker 2: and then twenty other protesters like basically poured like like

877
00:41:43,360 --> 00:41:45,600
Speaker 2: you know, sheep through a gate with him. They all

878
00:41:45,680 --> 00:41:47,960
Speaker 2: rush in there. Now the elder husband gets to his

879
00:41:48,000 --> 00:41:49,840
Speaker 2: wife's side. He helps her up to her feet, but

880
00:41:49,880 --> 00:41:51,759
Speaker 2: they have to pretend not to know each other, because

881
00:41:51,760 --> 00:41:53,319
Speaker 2: if they know each other and their husband and wife

882
00:41:53,320 --> 00:41:55,399
Speaker 2: will be identified and then the injunction will put them

883
00:41:55,400 --> 00:41:57,360
Speaker 2: in jail. So they got on the go. Are you

884
00:41:57,360 --> 00:41:59,640
Speaker 2: all right, whoever you are? So they're having this like

885
00:41:59,719 --> 00:42:03,200
Speaker 2: fake exactly. It's a really sweet anyway. News media is

886
00:42:03,200 --> 00:42:05,640
Speaker 2: there on hand. They're snapping photos of this confrontation. They're

887
00:42:05,680 --> 00:42:08,440
Speaker 2: seeing all this. The photos are amazing, the elders on

888
00:42:08,480 --> 00:42:11,359
Speaker 2: the ground, the menacing boots of private security above them,

889
00:42:11,600 --> 00:42:15,839
Speaker 2: the UK, the whole country, the United Kingdom. Rather, they

890
00:42:15,920 --> 00:42:18,799
Speaker 2: are outraged as this story becomes national news. Now it's

891
00:42:18,800 --> 00:42:20,920
Speaker 2: just green Britain and they're beating up the elders. This

892
00:42:21,040 --> 00:42:24,200
Speaker 2: is terrible. Sheffield City Council, the Highways team, they have

893
00:42:24,280 --> 00:42:27,120
Speaker 2: to lick their wounds and regroup for the next front

894
00:42:27,160 --> 00:42:29,840
Speaker 2: in the ongoing tree war. Right, so the tree surgeons

895
00:42:29,840 --> 00:42:31,800
Speaker 2: at Amy, they announced that they plan to pause the

896
00:42:31,840 --> 00:42:34,120
Speaker 2: tree removals. They say, Okay, we're gonna just pause and like,

897
00:42:34,160 --> 00:42:36,520
Speaker 2: let's think about this for a month. The Highways team

898
00:42:36,560 --> 00:42:39,160
Speaker 2: they go, no, we're not doing that. I'm thinking about anything.

899
00:42:39,200 --> 00:42:41,480
Speaker 2: So the executive of Old Buzz Killington, he sends an

900
00:42:41,520 --> 00:42:43,920
Speaker 2: email to the in house council, a lawyer for the

901
00:42:43,920 --> 00:42:46,200
Speaker 2: Streets Ahead program, going like what are we gonna do

902
00:42:46,239 --> 00:42:49,800
Speaker 2: about this subject line? Please print and then delete.

903
00:42:50,400 --> 00:42:52,200
Speaker 3: Oh to a lawyer.

904
00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:53,360
Speaker 2: He sent to a lawyer.

905
00:42:54,640 --> 00:42:57,960
Speaker 3: You know, like the lawyer gets it and just you.

906
00:42:57,920 --> 00:43:02,120
Speaker 2: Can't do this to me. So in email Killington, No

907
00:43:02,320 --> 00:43:04,960
Speaker 2: Buzz Killington, he recommended they try a new approach. He

908
00:43:05,040 --> 00:43:07,840
Speaker 2: recommended that they ring the trees, as in ring barking.

909
00:43:07,960 --> 00:43:09,680
Speaker 2: You know, this is where you basically take out a

910
00:43:09,719 --> 00:43:11,800
Speaker 2: big gouge in the tree all the way around and

911
00:43:11,920 --> 00:43:15,040
Speaker 2: interrupts the flow of the nutrients up and down the

912
00:43:15,080 --> 00:43:18,279
Speaker 2: bark or inside the bark basically, so the tree just dies.

913
00:43:19,280 --> 00:43:22,120
Speaker 2: It's basically it's like cutting its throat. So he puts

914
00:43:22,160 --> 00:43:24,359
Speaker 2: in his email quote the tree is killed and dies

915
00:43:24,400 --> 00:43:26,400
Speaker 2: over a number of months, it would move all trees

916
00:43:26,440 --> 00:43:28,920
Speaker 2: into the dying category. It means that stag can no

917
00:43:28,960 --> 00:43:31,799
Speaker 2: longer claim that they were defending healthy trees. The in

918
00:43:31,920 --> 00:43:35,680
Speaker 2: House Council Elizabeth ruled this out as an extreme taxic. Yeah. Yeah,

919
00:43:35,920 --> 00:43:39,560
Speaker 2: like we can't start killing no anyway. So we're in February.

920
00:43:39,680 --> 00:43:42,239
Speaker 2: Now we have claims of sabotage on the part of

921
00:43:42,280 --> 00:43:44,800
Speaker 2: the protesters. Allegedly an elderly couple they offered some of

922
00:43:44,840 --> 00:43:46,920
Speaker 2: the tree surgeons some hot tea, and the tea was

923
00:43:46,960 --> 00:43:50,600
Speaker 2: loaded with laxatives, so the tree surgeons would have to

924
00:43:50,960 --> 00:43:53,960
Speaker 2: rushing to the porta potty that couldn't work. Now the

925
00:43:54,040 --> 00:43:56,120
Speaker 2: elderly couple says this is not true.

926
00:43:56,160 --> 00:43:58,479
Speaker 3: I don't know if this just can't handle their teeth.

927
00:43:58,520 --> 00:44:00,239
Speaker 2: They're just crappy on their own. I don't know. They're

928
00:44:00,280 --> 00:44:02,880
Speaker 2: blaming us. Now the case of the crappy tea becomes

929
00:44:02,920 --> 00:44:05,280
Speaker 2: another national news story. So now they're just looking silly,

930
00:44:05,280 --> 00:44:07,320
Speaker 2: they're looking mean. They're not looking good in any of

931
00:44:07,400 --> 00:44:09,520
Speaker 2: these news stories. At the same time, violence is becoming

932
00:44:09,520 --> 00:44:13,080
Speaker 2: more common, so they're looking brutish and laughable security guard

933
00:44:13,080 --> 00:44:15,680
Speaker 2: has his wrist broken. Age protesters are being sent to

934
00:44:15,719 --> 00:44:19,279
Speaker 2: the hospital for medical treatment. By March twenty eighteen, Shiftfield's

935
00:44:19,280 --> 00:44:22,200
Speaker 2: head of communication writes another email, put simply, there is

936
00:44:22,239 --> 00:44:25,239
Speaker 2: no good picture of older residents being arrested. There is

937
00:44:25,280 --> 00:44:27,960
Speaker 2: no good way to photograph a tree lying in the street.

938
00:44:28,480 --> 00:44:31,440
Speaker 2: He's like, we are losing the great war. We are

939
00:44:31,480 --> 00:44:33,759
Speaker 2: losing the public, we are losing the information war.

940
00:44:33,880 --> 00:44:35,160
Speaker 3: The optics they're terrible.

941
00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:37,960
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, the optics are gone. They lost those. So

942
00:44:38,000 --> 00:44:40,120
Speaker 2: the tree surgeons they informed the city Council they will

943
00:44:40,120 --> 00:44:42,080
Speaker 2: no longer be able to quote keep calm and carry on.

944
00:44:42,440 --> 00:44:45,680
Speaker 2: They're same for the South Yorkshire Police. They're like, look,

945
00:44:45,719 --> 00:44:48,400
Speaker 2: we're bailing on your war. It's draining our resources. This

946
00:44:48,440 --> 00:44:51,440
Speaker 2: is ridiculous. The Forestry Commission of the Nation opens an

947
00:44:51,480 --> 00:44:54,920
Speaker 2: investigation determined if the tree removals even legal or not. So.

948
00:44:55,040 --> 00:44:57,520
Speaker 2: Now this is the end of March. The tree surgeons

949
00:44:57,520 --> 00:44:59,960
Speaker 2: at Amy they announced they would pause all tree removals.

950
00:45:00,040 --> 00:45:02,799
Speaker 2: At this point, five thousand, six hundred trees have been

951
00:45:02,840 --> 00:45:06,160
Speaker 2: chopped down. That was fifteen percent of the total. That's

952
00:45:06,280 --> 00:45:09,400
Speaker 2: five times more than the three percent that was recommended anyway,

953
00:45:09,440 --> 00:45:12,399
Speaker 2: the Great Tree War is now over. Time to win

954
00:45:12,480 --> 00:45:16,520
Speaker 2: the peace, Elizabeth. In May there were local elections. The

955
00:45:16,560 --> 00:45:20,719
Speaker 2: City Council suffered stunning losses. Oh new leadership put new

956
00:45:20,760 --> 00:45:23,919
Speaker 2: people in charge of the Streets Ahead program. They open

957
00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:27,040
Speaker 2: up peace talks with the Tree defenders. Their first meeting

958
00:45:27,040 --> 00:45:29,960
Speaker 2: takes place in September. Months later, the peace talks require

959
00:45:30,000 --> 00:45:32,560
Speaker 2: a mediator because things are still so hot. The mediator

960
00:45:32,640 --> 00:45:36,520
Speaker 2: is the Bishop of Sheffield. Stop it, yeah, Son. More

961
00:45:36,560 --> 00:45:39,680
Speaker 2: months passes did peace talks go on and on. By

962
00:45:39,680 --> 00:45:42,800
Speaker 2: December twenty eighteen, the two groups released a joint statement.

963
00:45:43,080 --> 00:45:45,640
Speaker 2: Going forward, the city Council would work with residents to

964
00:45:45,680 --> 00:45:48,799
Speaker 2: create a reasonable solution for the remaining trees. The next year,

965
00:45:48,840 --> 00:45:52,120
Speaker 2: a new team of experts they convene. They select twelve

966
00:45:52,160 --> 00:45:54,439
Speaker 2: trees at random, and they inspect them. And the team

967
00:45:54,480 --> 00:45:57,719
Speaker 2: finds that the streets could be repaired without removing any

968
00:45:57,760 --> 00:46:00,400
Speaker 2: of the trees. You See, they'd always assume that the

969
00:46:00,440 --> 00:46:02,920
Speaker 2: trees were the problem and it was the roots, but

970
00:46:02,960 --> 00:46:06,560
Speaker 2: no one had actually tested that theory. Oh, when they

971
00:46:06,560 --> 00:46:09,280
Speaker 2: did check it, when someone actually did look, the problem

972
00:46:09,400 --> 00:46:11,960
Speaker 2: was the streets themselves, because prior repairs had always just

973
00:46:11,960 --> 00:46:14,319
Speaker 2: poured more asphalt on top of a broken asphalt, and

974
00:46:14,360 --> 00:46:16,640
Speaker 2: then more asphalts. Some of the areas they checked were

975
00:46:16,640 --> 00:46:18,440
Speaker 2: a foot thick the road surface.

976
00:46:18,719 --> 00:46:20,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the issue.

977
00:46:21,000 --> 00:46:23,000
Speaker 2: So after inspecting the twelve trees, they found that many

978
00:46:23,000 --> 00:46:24,880
Speaker 2: times not only did the trees not need to be

979
00:46:24,920 --> 00:46:27,520
Speaker 2: cut down, but the repairs could be performed the same

980
00:46:27,600 --> 00:46:31,960
Speaker 2: day as the inspection. Oh, the years of bitter conflict, violence,

981
00:46:32,000 --> 00:46:34,040
Speaker 2: threats of prison time could have all been avoided if

982
00:46:34,040 --> 00:46:36,520
Speaker 2: the city council had considered the actual task in hand,

983
00:46:36,719 --> 00:46:39,120
Speaker 2: instead of falling into their our side, your side, our side,

984
00:46:39,280 --> 00:46:42,799
Speaker 2: and then weird language problems like mature trees. I don't

985
00:46:42,800 --> 00:46:46,160
Speaker 2: know about it, some younger trees. So Elizabeth, what's a

986
00:46:46,320 --> 00:46:47,640
Speaker 2: ridiculous takeaway here?

987
00:46:47,760 --> 00:46:50,400
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness. You know, I'm thinking about it, and

988
00:46:50,400 --> 00:46:53,279
Speaker 3: it's like I understand obviously, you know, like I love

989
00:46:53,840 --> 00:46:55,160
Speaker 3: plants and trees.

990
00:46:54,920 --> 00:46:56,279
Speaker 2: And they occasionally do need to be taken out.

991
00:46:56,320 --> 00:46:58,799
Speaker 3: They do, And I think that's sometimes you get, you know,

992
00:46:59,200 --> 00:47:01,680
Speaker 3: a little bit too enamored of the notion of saving

993
00:47:01,680 --> 00:47:04,080
Speaker 3: everything and it can't be saved. You know, some things

994
00:47:04,440 --> 00:47:06,680
Speaker 3: grow better after being cut back severely.

995
00:47:06,880 --> 00:47:07,600
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you know.

996
00:47:07,680 --> 00:47:11,800
Speaker 3: The whole crape myrtle, crape murder thing. But in terms

997
00:47:11,800 --> 00:47:14,720
Speaker 3: of if you're removing these trees, you know, I'm feeling

998
00:47:14,760 --> 00:47:17,640
Speaker 3: like you don't want them to take out mature trees

999
00:47:17,680 --> 00:47:19,040
Speaker 3: that are in their prime.

1000
00:47:19,120 --> 00:47:20,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're fruiting fire, so.

1001
00:47:20,160 --> 00:47:21,719
Speaker 3: You have to be okay with you know, they don't

1002
00:47:21,760 --> 00:47:23,840
Speaker 3: live forever, sure, and I think a lot of people

1003
00:47:23,920 --> 00:47:26,040
Speaker 3: lose sight of that, and particularly if they're going to

1004
00:47:26,080 --> 00:47:29,440
Speaker 3: replace them. You know, that's a huge thing. They're not

1005
00:47:29,520 --> 00:47:30,960
Speaker 3: just paving everything.

1006
00:47:30,640 --> 00:47:32,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, but they think think of the effect of losing

1007
00:47:32,840 --> 00:47:35,879
Speaker 2: all that the leafy, shady stret You can take all

1008
00:47:35,920 --> 00:47:37,920
Speaker 2: the trees down on a street, not just one or

1009
00:47:37,920 --> 00:47:40,319
Speaker 2: two and you're replacing those, but all eight on one

1010
00:47:40,360 --> 00:47:43,040
Speaker 2: side of the all those houses outside of the street,

1011
00:47:43,040 --> 00:47:45,399
Speaker 2: they have a much different experience impact and they can't

1012
00:47:45,440 --> 00:47:46,920
Speaker 2: just pick up their helme and move. So the trees

1013
00:47:46,960 --> 00:47:48,879
Speaker 2: become part of their environment and they saw them as

1014
00:47:48,960 --> 00:47:49,520
Speaker 2: their trees.

1015
00:47:49,600 --> 00:47:52,160
Speaker 3: And you do need it for you know, pollution abatement

1016
00:47:52,719 --> 00:47:56,640
Speaker 3: and just you know, just chealthy air quality and everything. Yeah,

1017
00:47:56,680 --> 00:47:57,040
Speaker 3: so you.

1018
00:47:57,040 --> 00:47:59,840
Speaker 2: Can see both sides. But I can do it all

1019
00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:06,200
Speaker 2: what it look at you, Well, the deal, Elizabeth, is

1020
00:48:06,280 --> 00:48:08,600
Speaker 2: this for me? I thought it was just basic because

1021
00:48:08,600 --> 00:48:10,680
Speaker 2: I pointed out ridiculous that it all came down to

1022
00:48:10,719 --> 00:48:13,480
Speaker 2: the word mature trees. And then yeah, the whole our side,

1023
00:48:13,480 --> 00:48:15,799
Speaker 2: my side, like instead of getting down And I always

1024
00:48:15,800 --> 00:48:17,439
Speaker 2: point this out whenever I'm trying to have an argument

1025
00:48:17,440 --> 00:48:19,160
Speaker 2: with somebody, is what are we actually fighting about? And

1026
00:48:19,200 --> 00:48:20,520
Speaker 2: what how do we get to a win? Like how

1027
00:48:20,520 --> 00:48:22,440
Speaker 2: do we want there to be? Like what is the result?

1028
00:48:22,760 --> 00:48:24,160
Speaker 2: And then if we can get to that, we can

1029
00:48:24,200 --> 00:48:26,000
Speaker 2: figure out what the obstacle is. And sometimes it's not

1030
00:48:26,040 --> 00:48:27,799
Speaker 2: so much about my side your side, but what do

1031
00:48:27,840 --> 00:48:29,440
Speaker 2: we both have to do to get there? And then

1032
00:48:29,480 --> 00:48:31,680
Speaker 2: you don't think of it as compromised. As I've told you.

1033
00:48:31,840 --> 00:48:33,840
Speaker 2: I try to stand shoulder to shoulder somebody and we

1034
00:48:33,880 --> 00:48:35,719
Speaker 2: both look at the problem as opposed to across the

1035
00:48:35,760 --> 00:48:37,799
Speaker 2: table where it seems like only one side of the

1036
00:48:37,840 --> 00:48:39,960
Speaker 2: table can win. That's all they had to do is

1037
00:48:40,000 --> 00:48:41,920
Speaker 2: just look at the problem standing shoulder to shoulder, and

1038
00:48:41,960 --> 00:48:44,480
Speaker 2: boom done. They would have seen like, oh, it's the roads.

1039
00:48:44,600 --> 00:48:46,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, and when we live in a time of us

1040
00:48:46,719 --> 00:48:47,360
Speaker 3: in them.

1041
00:48:47,200 --> 00:48:49,680
Speaker 2: And exactly speaks to our times.

1042
00:48:49,800 --> 00:48:52,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just pre COVID.

1043
00:48:52,560 --> 00:48:55,239
Speaker 2: That's the only big difference Anyway, there you go. That's

1044
00:48:55,280 --> 00:48:59,880
Speaker 2: what I got for you. I'm telling you shed light,

1045
00:49:00,080 --> 00:49:03,560
Speaker 2: good shob. You can find us online Ridiculous Crime, Twitter, Instagram,

1046
00:49:03,640 --> 00:49:06,759
Speaker 2: Uh yeah, we also have website ridictascrime dot com and

1047
00:49:06,840 --> 00:49:09,040
Speaker 2: if we like to talkbacks on the iHeart app, so

1048
00:49:09,080 --> 00:49:11,960
Speaker 2: download that lead talkback or send us an email at

1049
00:49:12,000 --> 00:49:15,399
Speaker 2: ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. As always started with

1050
00:49:15,960 --> 00:49:20,000
Speaker 2: Dear elizad Zaren is so cool. Now. Anyway, there you go.

1051
00:49:20,040 --> 00:49:28,359
Speaker 2: That's all we got, catch you next crime. Ridiculous Crime

1052
00:49:28,440 --> 00:49:31,000
Speaker 2: is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaron Burnett's produced and

1053
00:49:31,120 --> 00:49:34,440
Speaker 2: edited by our Man in Flesh, Shank Northumberlin, Dave Kusti.

1054
00:49:34,680 --> 00:49:38,080
Speaker 2: Research is by Marissa Trees, are Life Brown and Andrea

1055
00:49:38,200 --> 00:49:40,799
Speaker 2: Have they never read the Giving Tree Song? Sharpened Her?

1056
00:49:41,120 --> 00:49:43,640
Speaker 2: Our theme song is by Thomas the Tree Doctor Lee

1057
00:49:43,920 --> 00:49:47,040
Speaker 2: and Travis Captain of the Flying Squad Dutton. The host

1058
00:49:47,120 --> 00:49:50,799
Speaker 2: wardrobe provided by by five hundred executive producers are Ben

1059
00:49:50,960 --> 00:49:53,560
Speaker 2: I got the chopper, You get the copper Bowlin and

1060
00:49:53,680 --> 00:49:55,879
Speaker 2: Noel let me add him Brown.

1061
00:50:00,040 --> 00:50:00,399
Speaker 3: M hmm.

1062
00:50:00,719 --> 00:50:06,560
Speaker 2: Bridicrious Crime say it one more time, Budiqueous Crime.

1063
00:50:07,560 --> 00:50:10,880
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts

1064
00:50:10,920 --> 00:50:14,480
Speaker 1: from iHeartRadio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

1065
00:50:14,560 --> 00:50:16,000
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.