# Idiot college students arrested for setting church fires in Alabama **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 9, 2006, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-college-students-arrested-for-setting-church-fires-in-alabama/347646 "2006-03-09T04:51:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-college-students-arrested-for-setting-church-fires-in-alabama/347646/21 "2006-03-09T14:36:06Z")
Birmingham Southern! My dad’s _alma mater_! You done all us 'Bamans proud, boys! ---
**Author:** ![Tentacle\_Monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba9def/32.png) [@Tentacle\_Monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tentacle_Monster)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-college-students-arrested-for-setting-church-fires-in-alabama/347646/22 "2006-03-09T14:45:47Z")
> [@Taran](#): > > I read that article, getting more and more confused:On the one hand, hunting. On the other arson. The connection? What, you’ve never hunted whitetail with a flamethrower before? Seriously, sterilize those guys for the betterment of society. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-college-students-arrested-for-setting-church-fires-in-alabama/347646/23 "2006-03-09T14:51:20Z")
> [@](#): > > “Moseley stated that after they set fire to the first two churches, they saw fire trucks driving by” Mr. Johnson’s affidavit said. "Moseley said that, after that, **burning the other three churches became too spontaneous."** Spontaneous combustion _before_ it happens? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-college-students-arrested-for-setting-church-fires-in-alabama/347646/24 "2006-03-09T15:16:00Z")
\ Well, you know, I was just going to throw out burning churches as a joke, at first, to gauge your reaction, then maybe see where you went with it… \ ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-college-students-arrested-for-setting-church-fires-in-alabama/347646/25 "2006-03-09T15:19:06Z")
> [@Q.E.D.](#): > > I’m as hard an atheist as any you’ll ever meet. When a church is destoyed by an earthquake, mudslide or meteor strike (as long as _no one_ was injured, so don’t send angry emails!) I get a little tingle of satisfactory smugness. Maybe they should try this as a defense “Were on a mission from God” 🆒🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-college-students-arrested-for-setting-church-fires-in-alabama/347646/26 "2006-03-09T15:22:47Z")
> [@Zabali\_Clawbane](#): > > I personally don’t find it surprising that they were into weed at the least. I find it much less surprising that they were into alcohol. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-college-students-arrested-for-setting-church-fires-in-alabama/347646/27 "2006-03-09T15:25:23Z")
Having college students who are this fucking stupid is going to do Alabama’s reputation ALL sorts of good … To tell the truth, I don’t buy the current story. First of all, burning down a church as a joke? How a joke? What’s funny about that? Second of all, maybe I could see how they could have been fooling/joking around in an empty church and accidentally started a fire and burned it down. Moronic, but as anybody who has ever watched America’ Favorite Home Videos knows, idiocy happens. But doing it FIVE TIMES? Then doing if FOUR MORE TIMES? As a DIVERSION? That’s not stupid, that’s got some planning of some kind behind it. I’m betting there’s more to the story than has come out at present. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-college-students-arrested-for-setting-church-fires-in-alabama/347646/28 "2006-03-09T16:25:01Z")
> [@Nanoda](#): > > [Tell me about it](http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Edmonton/2006/03/07/1476294-sun.html) Holy crap, these four kids swarm a guy on a bus and beat him to death, and their friends say shit like this? > [@](#): > > Outside court, a 16-year-old friend of the accused said he was “very surprised” by the charges. > > “All I can say is that they are young, fun-loving kids who respect their parents,” he said. “And they don’t deserve to be in the place where they are right now.” > > Two 16-year-old girls who also said they were friends of the accused, and had gone to school with a couple of them at J. Percy Page senior high school, defended them. > > “They are good people,” said a tearful Nikki Smale. > > “We know them inside and out and they are good people and they didn’t mean to do it,” said Kayla Sabatine. > > Both girls said they hadn’t spoken to the accused since Wednesday, but had heard from other friends they had been drinking on the night of the alleged slaying. > > “They were drinking and I guess one thing led to another,” said Sabatine. “It was an accident.” ---
**Author:** ![nameless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/779978/32.png) [@nameless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nameless)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-college-students-arrested-for-setting-church-fires-in-alabama/347646/29 "2006-03-09T16:26:38Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > a string of Waffle Houses It’s almost worth throwing away however many years of my life I’d have to spend in jail just to see the headlines for this. Then I’d switch to IHOPs or something and totally throw off the police. ---
**Author:** ![Plynck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Plynck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plynck)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-college-students-arrested-for-setting-church-fires-in-alabama/347646/30 "2006-03-09T16:53:56Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I’m dying to know what the joke was supposed to be. One of the students frantically called the fire department to report a fire in the church. The dispatcher asked, “How do we get there?” The student replied, “Don’t you still have those big red fire trucks?” Yeah, “The Aristocrats” was funnier… ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-college-students-arrested-for-setting-church-fires-in-alabama/347646/31 "2006-03-09T17:07:28Z")
I burning your dogma! ---
**Author:** ![Siege](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@Siege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siege)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-college-students-arrested-for-setting-church-fires-in-alabama/347646/32 "2006-03-09T17:18:42Z")
The impression I got from the linked article is these guys seem to be seeing themselves as some sort of modern day Hellfire Club, dedicated to proving their superiority to the local yokels. Basically, they strike me as kids with too much money, too much time, and too high an opinion of themselves. I’d suggest they’ve been reading too much British history, but I suspect it’s actually too many Marvel Comics. Then again, I’m old enough to remember Marvel’s Phoenix saga. Here’s this peasant’s response to these lads who’d fancy themselves superior: :rolleyes: Get back to me when you grow up and learn what true superiority is. CJ ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-college-students-arrested-for-setting-church-fires-in-alabama/347646/33 "2006-03-09T18:54:23Z")
**EddyTeddyFreddy** : Yeah. I can’t find the thread right now, but that guy with the hatchet in that bar a month or so ago had friends saying similar stuff about him. :rolleyes: Seems like every time… ---
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-college-students-arrested-for-setting-church-fires-in-alabama/347646/34 "2006-03-09T19:26:35Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > I’d like to offer a retraction. In the Pit thread I started on this a month or so ago, I postulated that the fires were started by either racist bastards (silly on the face of it, since 5 were predominantly white churches,) or meth-addled redneck losers. > > I was wrong. They were affluent college students. Sorry, all you racist, meth-addled redneck losers. 🙂 > > A “joke?” What the motherFUCK, you numbnuts? I wouldn’t be too quick to retract, going to college doesn’t mean you can’t be a racist, redneck, meth-addled loser ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-college-students-arrested-for-setting-church-fires-in-alabama/347646/35 "2006-03-09T19:33:38Z")
> [@Plynck](#): > > One of the students frantically called the fire department to report a fire in the church. > > The dispatcher asked, “How do we get there?” > > The student replied, “Don’t you still have those big red fire trucks?” Holy smoke! ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-college-students-arrested-for-setting-church-fires-in-alabama/347646/36 "2006-03-09T19:42:06Z")
> [@Thudlow Boink](#): > > Holy smoke! Have you been burning churches, too? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-college-students-arrested-for-setting-church-fires-in-alabama/347646/37 "2006-03-09T19:47:33Z")
I got the impression from a news story (no cite, TV, probably CNN) that their lawyers are trying to spin this to prevent the case being considered a hate crime. There was also some mention of “excitement” or “incitement” as the arsonists watched the fire trucks, which led them to start more fires. Almost a Twinkie Defense. :rolleyes: It’s much better for them to call it a joke that got out of hand. I didn’t register to read the article. On what do officials base their belief that race wasn’t involved? Because they said so? Because they don’t fit the profile? ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-college-students-arrested-for-setting-church-fires-in-alabama/347646/38 "2006-03-09T19:51:02Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > I didn’t register to read the article. On what do officials base their belief that race wasn’t involved? Because they said so? Because they don’t fit the profile? Because the churches burned were white and black churches. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-college-students-arrested-for-setting-church-fires-in-alabama/347646/39 "2006-03-09T19:53:35Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > On what do officials base their belief that race wasn’t involved? Because they said so? Because they don’t fit the profile? Because they torched both predominantly black and predominantly white churches? The way I heard it, four of the first five churches were mainly black. Maybe you’re saying that they burned the four white churches later, so people wouldn’t suspect they burned black churches earlier for racial reasons. I guess anything is possible, but if that’s how this went, they’re competing for a spot in the dumb crook hall of fame. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-college-students-arrested-for-setting-church-fires-in-alabama/347646/40 "2006-03-09T20:16:41Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > I find it much less surprising that they were into alcohol. Pot and beer are often combined though. At least around here they are. I’m thinking it’s something more than pot or beer that has brought such stupidity about though. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear later on that they messed around with some kind of huffing, or bagging etc. Those deeds are Beavis and Butthead dumb. That level of Jackassery takes serious “dedication” to achieve. ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-college-students-arrested-for-setting-church-fires-in-alabama/347646.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-college-students-arrested-for-setting-church-fires-in-alabama/347646.md?page=3)