[Smedley]

It's not like the top of the tree is going to grow back."

Hmmmmm! I've cut the tops off of dozens of trees, and they've managed to regrow quite nicely. But maybe I don't know as much about trees as the Berkeley police.

[Michael.SF.]

It is a matter of semantics and being precise in the terms. If you cut "the top off" of a tree, the tree does not die. Nor does the "top" grow back. Instead a new branch will grow and direct itself up, thus creating a "new top".

But all that aside, it still strikes me and probably others as asinine to protest the destruction of the trees by causing damage to them.