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Former college professor accused of serial arson is denied bail in California

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41–50 of 76 posts

Re: Former college professor accused of serial arson is denied bail in California

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of this was done out of greed and political corruption so that developers could build more unaffordable housing for the wealthy - I would say the gp has some merit in their comment.

I have never seen that claim before. My understanding is that lack of wild and controlled burns can be attributed to two factors: 1) Emotion driven environmentalism trumping environmental scientists 2) Political deferral due to the risk of blowback from out of control burns.

I'd add..

3) The urban public likes purty forests to go vacation in.

Re: Former college professor accused of serial arson is denied bail in California

#43

Two points here: - It's interesting how his academic background in criminology is in an area tangentially related to his own alleged social deviance -- maybe a "call of the void" type deal, in the sense that (anecdotally) some people who have a lifetime academic fixation on particular subject matter eventually reveal that it is somehow linked to their own deviant obsessions with it. - It's also interesting how many l…

Dont cross double yellow lines and speed passed any state fish and wildlife ranger either. A good number of state and federal officials are put in enforcement situations and without that authority would be severely lacking in fulfilling their jobs.

I’ve been told that in some states, wildlife and marine ranger have more authority than other law enforcement. Not sure if that’s apples & apples or apples & ooranges though

Re: Former college professor accused of serial arson is denied bail in California

#44
post #33

Does anyone know more about the mental state that inspires people to commit arson? Drug dealing or murder often have selfish or monetary gains; but what is gained from burning the wildlands? Is it a power thing? Calling all armchair psychologists

Bolshevism. This dossier points to a person that believes they are saving the world.

What in the world does this have to do with Bolshevism?

Re: Former college professor accused of serial arson is denied bail in California

#45
post #44
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bolshevism. This dossier points to a person that believes they are saving the world.

What in the world does this have to do with Bolshevism?

Bolshevism is the belief that the system must be destroyed by an onslaught of random chaos before the glorious revolution will be possible.

Re: Former college professor accused of serial arson is denied bail in California

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dont cross double yellow lines and speed passed any state fish and wildlife ranger either. A good number of state and federal officials are put in enforcement situations and without that authority would be severely lacking in fulfilling their jobs.

I’ve been told that in some states, wildlife and marine ranger have more authority than other law enforcement. Not sure if that’s apples & apples or apples & ooranges though

It is very common for park rangers to behave like they are the king of the park. They may have a geographically limited powers, but they consider them absolute.

Re: Former college professor accused of serial arson is denied bail in California

#47
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The affidavit is pretty thorough, even before pulling his cell phone info. "A Forest Service fire investigator determined the Cascade Fire was likely the result of arson. He also noticed that on a dirt road 150 to 200 yards from the fire, a man was struggling to free his car, a black Kia Soul, after the vehicle's rear had failed to clear a partially buried boulder." If you're going to be a wildlands arsonist, best to…

So the whole proof is that he was there at the time? Shouldn't there be more proof especially that they are linking him to "all" the fires now?

The article points out that the person who first spotted the smoke also saw the man walking back from the location of the starting of the fire, about 10 minutes after it started.

Now that they have a warrant and can track his movements, he is coincident with several other fire origins.

Re: Former college professor accused of serial arson is denied bail in California

#48

Does anyone know more about the mental state that inspires people to commit arson? Drug dealing or murder often have selfish or monetary gains; but what is gained from burning the wildlands? Is it a power thing? Calling all armchair psychologists

well it looks like the perp's accademic area was criminology so maybe we could ask him

Re: Former college professor accused of serial arson is denied bail in California

#49
post #41

PG&E will still take all the flack, not much to be gained in suing a nutty professor surviving on EBT.

PG&E will get the flack because they started the fire. Fire had been going for almost a month before Prof. Quackers showed up.

Re: Former college professor accused of serial arson is denied bail in California

#50

Does anyone know more about the mental state that inspires people to commit arson? Drug dealing or murder often have selfish or monetary gains; but what is gained from burning the wildlands? Is it a power thing? Calling all armchair psychologists

Ran into a kid at a birthday party that had an unhealthy obsession with sneaking the matches away. The look on their face when They realized I was watching, and the other parents were distracted, was disturbing. Their parent blew it off, but the obsession was intense.
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