Oh Yeah, This Is Our Future, Folks

My advice to my friends and colleagues? Stay healthy or die young. Yes, this is our future and I sure as hell don't want them watching over me. When I read stuff like this, I am EVER SO GRATEFUL that I never had loathsome brats of my own.

And these were college students from prosperous homes! They did it "as a joke." Gee, I was a real crack up as a college student but I never set houses of worship on fire. Nosireebob. Oh, how I've missed out. I know it's a bad pun, but I hope they fry. And I hope that a big guy named Bubba makes them his bitches.
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3 College Students Arrested in Alabama Church Fires

By RICK LYMAN
Published: March 8, 2006
Three college students from the prosperous suburbs south of Birmingham, two of them 19 and one 20, were arrested today in the burning of nine Baptist churches in rural Alabama last month that federal officials say was a prank that spun out of control.

Arrested a few hours later was Matthew Lee Cloyd, 20, a student at the nearby University of Alabama-Birmingham whose mother was the owner of the 2000 Toyota 4Runner that had left the tracks, federal agents said in an affidavit accompanying the criminal complaint against the three men.

The identities of the accused came as a surprise to investigators, who had speculated that the arsons were the work of people intimately familiar with the remote rural roads where the fires were set, not products of Birmingham's upper-middle class, one the son of a doctor and another of a county constable.

"This is just so hard to believe," said Alabama Fire Marshal Richard Montgomery. "My profile on these suspects is shot all to heck and back."

Gov. Bob Riley said he was happy to learn that the fires were "an isolated incident" and not an organized attack on religious beliefs or Baptists. Speaking at a news conference announcing the arrests, he said the last five weeks had been "a pretty tough time" for church-goers.

James Cavanaugh, an official of the federal Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agency said the arrests were the result of following forensic evidence, rather than being given information. "We did not have a tip," he said.

One thing investigators had believed from the beginning was that there was no racial motive behind the arsons, as there had been to a string of church fires throughout the Southeast in the mid-1990's. And that, they said, was borne out.

Four of the churches burned in the early hours of Feb. 3 in Bibb County, about an hour south of Birmingham, had predominantly white congregations, while one was black. All four of the churches burned the morning of Feb. 7 in an even more remote stretch more than 90 minutes southwest of Birmingham, had black congregations.

But officials said the second round of burnings had been an attempted diversion, to draw investigators farther away from Birmingham.

Mr. DeBusk and Mr. Moseley appeared briefly before United States Magistrate Robert R. Montgomery in the Hugo Black Federal Courthouse in downtown Birmingham this morning. Both were slender and pale, with dark, floppy hair. Mr. DeBusk wore blue jeans and an orange hooded sweatshirt over a white T-shirt, Mr. Moseley a blue polo shirt over jeans.

They were ordered to return to court on Friday when a lawyer would be appointed for them if they had not already hired one and the issue of bail would be discussed. In the meantime, they were ordered to remain in custody.

According to the affidavit signed by Walker Johnson, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, analysis of the tire tracks had led agents on Monday to the home of Michael and Kimberly Cloyd on Birmingham's south side. The tire tracks matched a set special-ordered for Ms. Cloyd's 4Runner, but she told agents that her son, Matthew, was the vehicle's principal driver.

Ms. Cloyd told agents that her son had told her he had not set the fires, but knew who did. Dr. Cloyd said his son told him on Monday that he had been present at the arsons and knew who set them.

But a witness, unidentified in the affidavit, told agents that Matthew Cloyd said he and Mr. Moseley "had done something stupid," adding that it was something Mr. Moseley had done "as a joke and it got out of hand."

Agents later interviewed Mr. Moseley who, they said, confessed to setting the five fires in Bibb County with Mr. Cloyd and Mr. DeBusk. "Moseley stated that after they set fire to the first two churches, they saw fire trucks driving by," they said. "Moseley said that, after that, burning the other three churches became too spontaneous."

Agents said Mr. Moseley told them only that he and Mr. Cloyd had taken part in the second string of arsons, four days later. "These four churches were burned as a diversion, to throw investigators off," Mr. Johnson wrote in his affidavit. "Moseley said the diversion obviously did not work."

Mr. DeBusk, who was interviewed and arrested a short time later, also admitted behind present at the five arsons on Feb. 3, as well as kicking in the doors of two of the churches. He said the three had been out shooting deer in Mr. Cloyd's S.U.V. prior to the fires.