Man in Tree refers to a widely viewed standoff between an American man named Cody Lee Miller and local law enforcement on March 22–23, 2016, in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

. Miller scaled a large sequoia tree near a major downtown intersection and remained there for over 24 hours, rebuffing rescue and negotiation attempts and tossing debris at onlookers. The situation disrupted Seattle traffic patterns, became a trending topic across social media, and attracted national attention from news outlets. Miller's treatment by police and coverage by the media has spurred further debate on the adequacy of mental health care in the USA.

Details

Miller climbed an

giant sequoia ''Sequoiadendron giganteum'' (giant sequoia; also known as giant redwood, Sierra redwood, Sierran redwood, California big tree, Wellingtonia or simply big treea nickname also used by John Muir) is the sole living species in the genus ''Sequoiade ...

in a Stewart Street

traffic island A traffic island is a solid or painted object in a road that channels traffic. It can also be a narrow strip of island between roads that intersect at an acute angle. If the island uses road markings only, without raised curbs or other physical ...

outside the historic former

Bon Marché ''Bon'', also spelled Bön () and also known as Yungdrung Bon (, "eternal Bon"), is a Tibetan culture, Tibetan religious tradition with many similarities to Tibetan Buddhism and also many unique features.Samuel 2012, pp. 220-221. Bon initiall ...

flagship store in downtown Seattle, early on March 22, 2016. He remained there for nearly 25 hours while police forces attempted to coax him down. Miller responded to dialog attempts by throwing sequoia cones, branches he had torn from the crown, and fruit remains, some of which hit passersby. The falling debris and the intervention efforts gridlocked roadways in downtown Seattle’s center, forcing multiple buses to find alternate routes. The event garnered significant media attention, prompting viral

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

parodies, live streams of negotiation efforts, and national news coverage. After over 24 hours, Miller descended the tree of his own accord at around 11:45 AM on March 23, where he was given food and taken into an ambulance. Miller was subsequently charged with third-degree assault and first-degree malicious mischief but was found incompetent to stand trial after a psychiatric competency evaluation.

Impact

Man in Tree generated nationwide interest, with news stations feeding live streams of the event and Twitter users elevating the hashtag "#ManInTree" to trending status. The event also rekindled discussion of the country’s mental health system. After the incident, Miller’s mother said that he was "obviously sick" and that psychiatric care would be more appropriate than jail time. Online periodicals helped spread this perspective in hopes of reorienting the conversation around systemic reform. Additionally, Congressman Tim Murphy (R, PA) cited Man in Tree when calling for Congressional action on his proposed Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act (H.R. 2646). Tree experts evaluated the sequoia afterward and found that the ordeal inflicted roughly $7,800 worth of damage to the tree.

References

External links

* {{coordinates, 47.612167, -122.338762, display=title March 2016 events in the United States 2016 in Seattle History of mental health in the United States Individual trees in Washington (state) Year of birth missing (living people)