Posted on 12/20/2004 1:26:42 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
....."We do not know a motive as of right now," said Kelly Long, a spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Baltimore. "Every option is still open."
Three of the suspects, 20-year-olds Jeremy Daniel Parady of Accokeek, Michael McIntosh Everhart of Waldorf and Patrick Stephen Walsh of Fort Washington, are scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt today.
A fourth suspect, Aaron L. Speed, 21, a security guard from Waldorf who worked at the construction site, was arrested Thursday. Speed has said that he was upset about how his employer, Security Services of America, treated him after his infant son died of an intestinal illness earlier this year.
...."Everything is still being looked at," said Michael Campbell, a spokesman for ATF in Washington.
The Associated Press, quoting an unnamed source, reported that two of the suspects arrested over the weekend allegedly made racial statements. The four suspects are white and most of the families moving into the development, an enclave of $400,000 to $500,000 homes about 35 miles from Washington, are black.
No hate crime evidence
Campbell said that if investigators thought there was evidence of a hate crime, they would have added a charge. "These suspects are being charged with arson, not a hate crime," he said. "Some people are really trying to push the race issue, but it's just not there yet." ....
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
This story keeps getting more and more curious. First we heard it might be ecoterror. Now we hear it was a disgruntled employee. But it might be racially motivated! Whatever the case, I hope the families succeed in rebuilding. Americans have been rebuilding burned homes since the early settler days. It's sometimes just a fact of life, unfortunately.
An awful thing was done to these homeowners but what's worse, is the attempt to make it racial.
Whatever madness it was, I suggest this subdivision setup a close neighborhood watch program, arm itself well, and monitor their individual street views with video cameras. Settlers looked out for each other in the old days. Now that we have wild savages burning houses again, it looks like it's time to bring back the old survival skills.
Oddly enough, the Washington Post article doesn't mention racism as a motive except very obliquely. The WP article focuses more on firefighters as arsonists. However, according to the WP article, more may be involved in the torching.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12371-2004Dec19.html
...but that in turn makes a better story which attracts more readers (print media) and/or views (electronic media) which, in turn, boosts numbers which, in turn, can be used by said media (medii?) to tweek more $$$ from their advertisers.
Remember: "Follow the money."
"arm itself well"
In Maryland?
Maybe a little better down here in Chuck County, but this is a tough state on gun-owners...
Can they make this a gated community? Why didn't they do that to begin with?
It's highly likely that they people who did this have no idea why they did it -- except that they could. And because no human life was lost or at risk, they won't be punished and they will get on every talk show in the country to "explain" that 'it was a joke' or 'we were kidding' ...
And the only thing 'racial' about it would be if the perps were Black and they started screaming "racist" to avoid even the moderate sentence they will get for what they did -- providing they can find a jury that will convict them.
And I'm not registering with the Baltimore Sun to read the rest of the article.
Do firebugs usually work in groups? I thought that it was mostly a solo thing. Be interesting to see if any money changed hands for this.
Not expensive enough houses to make it a gated community....
Oh my god, now it's a hate crime. This story is gonna get big! I'll bet the msm are drueling all over themselves right about now.My prognostication, expect articles on the resurgance of racism and violence directed against minorities followed by a tie in with the conservative/republican movement.
An average price of $500K is not a wealthy community? And a bunch of trailer park boys trying to burn down a neigthbourhood of wealthy Blacks will be a good segue from the Scott Petersen thing, if we don't get the Baby Stealer Chronicles instead.
Pitiful. Really pitiful.
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