Discussion for article #238051
Shameful…
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I’ll bet my soc. sec. check it wasn’t an “electrical” fire. And it didn’t start in a trash can. I would be surprised if it was weather caused.
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Where is the religious freedom contingent? Now here is a cause that should be right up their alley.
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It’s WRJWD: What Republican Jesus Would Do.
Repent and reload…Praise Jeeeezusssssuh’
Every cop show or crime procedural has taught me one consistent rule: there’s no such thing as a COINCIDENCE. So a string of seven fires? What would - sherlock, bones, gibbs, castle, archer, hammer, marple, monk, poirot, wolfe, and drew - think?
Fire was last night and an unnamed official (following the link to the AP article) is already saying it’s “likely not arson”? Well all right then! (snark, if it isn’t obvious)
Oh yeah? Bullshit it was lightening. I don’t buy that for a NY minute.
There are an average of 5 fires a day at religious institutions in the US. Five. Per day. Always. So this is not a “coincidence”, it’s just the norm. The only difference for these is that the media is for some reason giving them press even before they are investigated. That’s irresponsible.
Same thing with the historic church in Minneapolis a couple of years ago. Huge story, must have been arson. Total outrage. Turns out there were storms in the area, and lighting struck it. In fact, video of the lightning strike was taken by a person in the neighborhood. Yet people will still say “remember when the KKK burned that church down in Minneapolis” thanks to the media.
This one appears to be lightning, investigators have already said it was not arson, and there were clearly storms in the area. And several others of this “string” have been declared as not being arson (lightning, electrical, etc.). And even for arson, if some homeless person starts a fire by accident with a cigarette, that is still arson, but it’s not a hate crime.
I’m not saying some nut might not burn a church in a hate crime. But let’s report it when and if it happens, not assume it was arson and a hate crime with zero evidence.
Oh, and on people using “TV” as “reality”, that is funny. As an example, for 2011 in NYC, there were 35,000 police officers. 62 police discharged their weapons. That’s 1 out of 564 cops that discharged their weapon. Now if you watch TV, about 99% of cops discharge their weapons. Why? Because TV is entertainment, not reality. Despite 6,000 gun arrests and 1,510 criminal shootings, the police only had 36 incidents where they use their weapons. No weapons use makes for boring TV.
EDIT: Looks like I interpreted the comment I replied to incorrectly, but I’ll leave the info up anyway for review by others. But my apologies to Doc Z…
Shades of George Wallace…ACTS of George Wallace groupies. George may not be here in the physical but his SPIRIT LIVES ON. This ain’t the 60’s.
The police are investigating??? Surely this act and several more in the past few days would qualify as an of TERRORISM. Why aren’t the FEDs involved?
Lighting strikes start 22,600 fires per year. About 26% of them are structures, or over 5,800. That’s about 16 per day.
http://www.nfpa.org/research/reports-and-statistics/fire-causes/lightning-fires-and-lightning-strikes
Additionally, this is peak season for that (summer months), and there was lightning in the area. Lightning forensics so far have 4 strikes in the immediate area of the church at 7:18 PM. And there has been zero detection of any accelerants.
Multiple agencies are on site investigating. Black people are part of those crews. If they find out it was arson and a hate crime, you will know about it. There are not 40 or 50 people all collaborating in a “cover up”. That’s just silly.
At this point lightning is the likely cause. 10% of church fires are from lightning. 33% are from bad wiring. Churches are usually old, and their timbers are quite flammable. And wiring is usually poor.
If they find out otherwise, we will know. I’m not saying it’s not possible it was a hate crime, just that all indications at this point are that it is not.
It is being investigated by 50 firefighters, local police, the FBI and 5 agents from ATF. I’d call that a pretty thorough investigation. In fact, any time a church has a fire, ATF are automatically assigned to investigate.
At this point none of these recent fires, which are in no way out of the ordinary since churches have fires 5 times per day on average in the US, has any evidence of being a hate crime. 3 only are said to be possible arson, and in that case it could be a lit cigarette someone did not put out properly, etc.
And every cop show or crime procedural was a work of fiction, written by members of WGA. These shows promulgate such ideas as:
- Circumstantial evidence is somehow weak sauce. (You do know that it’s the best evidence there is? That everything but eyewitness testimony, the kind most often utterly mistaken, and [a subset of the same] confessions, often coerced or otherwise falsely given, is circumstantial? Including DNA in semen found on the victim of a rape-murder?)
2)Defendants often get off on technicalities. (You do know that technicalities are cited far more often to defeat appeals and writs by convicted defendants than by defendants in winning an appeal or writ?)
And so forth, ad nauseam. Basing any belief or statement about the real world on fricking police shows is incredibly stupid naive.*
Of course the seven church fires appear suspicious. The story states that in several of them the evidence points to arson. How, exactly, does that support your presumption (and it’s obviously way more than an mere suspicion to you, for no discernible reason) that in this, single case, the federal law enforcement official was lying about whether the evidence supports a suspicion that arson was the cause? The simple answer is this: it doesn’t. You are jumping to conclusions in a way that may well cast doubt in reasonable minds on other cases where arson is believed by investigators to have occurred.
Stop muddying the waters with your snide, self-satisfied bullshit, and let them get on with their investigation. You are being part of the problem, not part of the solution.
.* I say this as one whose sister is a member of WGA. She has written a few cop shows in her time, and has tried to avoid these idiotic tropes in her writing. But that avoidance is rare, and can be overruled by show runners on a whim. If you want TV that’s fictional, but accurate in presentation of the facts of the work involved, you’ll pretty much have to stick to Emergency!
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Um… you guys… sarcasm? humor?? Jeez… lighten up. Wow… I really didn’t expect such vitriol here. I’m so glad your sister is a writer, joelopines. So, that clearly qualifies you to judge bullshit.
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Did not read it as sarcasm…especially with the other absurd comments on here by people who “already know” what happened… So, I offer my apologies. I’m keeping my post up so others can get educated on frequency and causes of fires…but I’ll edit the end to show I interpreted your comment wrong.
The “Invisible Empire” strikes back!
Three of the seven fires have already been declared arson; I think three of the remaining four are still of undetermined origin.
Thank you. I appreciate that you have the grace to apologize. I really did not expect my comment to be taken the least bit seriously, hence the silly list of cop shows and fictional detectives. Oy.