The homeless man who set fire to the Christmas tree outside of the Fox News building in Manhattan has been set free by the presiding judge because, according to Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bayley, he was “not charged with a bail-eligible offense.”
Craig Tamanaha, a 49-year-old vagrant from Hawaii, was charged with several misdemeanors, including arson, criminal mischief, reckless endangerment, and criminal trespass. He caused about $500,000 in damage, according to a Fox spokesperson.
Tamanaha claims he didn’t do it and then went on an incoherent rant in front of reporters.
He denied the arson and hurled obscenities at reporters before asking them for a cigarette.
“The moms that want to rape their f—ing daughters — they set it on fire,” yelled the man, who had also allegedly exposed himself outside the Ghislaine Maxwell trial last week.
Tamanaha climbed up the 50-foot tree and lit it on fire using a piece of cardboard.
#BREAKING: The Fox News Christmas Tree is on fire in NYC pic.twitter.com/xfWdFgdQIS
— Leonardo Puglisi (@Leo_Puglisi6) December 8, 2021
Related: Grinch Torches Fox News ‘All-American Christmas Tree’
Fox News issued a statement before the arsonist’s mental state was known.
In an internal memo, Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott told colleagues that the broadcaster’s “All-American Christmas tree outside our building on FOX Square was set on fire in a malicious arson attack.”
Scott said the 50-foot tree had just been lit on Sunday night.
She said FOX News would “not let this deliberate and brazen act of cowardice deter us, adding that work was underway to rebuild and install a new tree “as a message that there can be peace, light and joy even during a dark moment like this.”
The “malicious attack” raises some interesting questions. How much was Tamanaha influenced by the vicious political and media campaign against Fox? Judging by the Twitter reaction, it’s hard to make the argument that it wasn’t.
i added some music to make the fox christmas tree fire a bit more festive
(you’re welcome) pic.twitter.com/012yVRgtPU
— hi, i’m cory 👋🏾 (@burncoryburn) December 8, 2021
Turned the Fox News Christmas tree fire into a 10 minute yule log video: pic.twitter.com/zL9zo350rF
— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) December 8, 2021
For everybody wondering what the Fox Christmas tree looked like after the fire, here you go. (Fake tree for Fake news, fitting.) pic.twitter.com/pYwgvflXOg
— Sarahbelle (@SMontjoie) December 8, 2021
Tamanaha may have been eligible to be released without bail. But given the obvious mental illness of this man, wouldn’t taking him off the streets have been more compassionate?
This is not a bail issue as much as it’s a mental health issue. People like Mr. Tamanaha should not be walking the streets unsupervised and almost certainly unmedicated. There has to be a solution to the problem of mentally ill people living on the streets besides incarcerating them against their will or letting them roam free.
The standard “not a danger to himself or others” is totally inadequate as we’ve seen time and time again. But with the left in charge of our major cities and dictating mental health policy, rationality on the issue is not an option.
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