3 teenagers who set fire to several Baptist Churches were arrested on Wednesday. Their explanation was that it was a “joke that got out of hand.”
The arson attacks apparently began when the three got into Cloyd’s sport utility vehicle for a night of deer shooting in Bibb County on Feb. 2, according to Walker Johnson, a federal agent who investigated the fires.
Moseley told agents that the three set fire to five Baptist churches in the early morning hours of Feb. 3. A witness quoted Cloyd as saying Moseley did it “as a joke and it got out of hand.”
Moseley also told agents the four fires in west Alabama were set four days later “as a diversion to throw investigators off,” an attempt that “obviously did not work,” the court papers said.
First off, why are these teenagers going out at night to shoot deer? I’m not a hunter by any means, but I’m pretty sure that when you go hunting, you usually go in the early morning hours of the day so that you have enough light to see what you’re aiming at. Next, what kind of mind equates setting a building on fire with a “prank”? A prank is tying someone’s shoelaces together or making a funny face behind someone’s back. What kind of environment produces a teenager who thinks that destroying private property using arson is nothing more than a joke?
An attorney for Cloyd, Tommy Spina, declined comment on the charges, but added: “This is not a hate crime. This is not a religious crime.”
No, it is a stupid crime. After they’re done jailing the teenagers, I think the authorities need to take a look at the parents. Someone is responsible for the lack of perspective these kids have.
