Tag: arson

Disgraced Professor Sentenced for Action That Could Have Trapped Firefighters in Deadly Blaze

A former college lecturer on “criminal justice issues” is going to get some first-hand experience in the subject after he was sentenced to spend five years and three months in prison on Thursday.

Gary Stephen Maynard had pleaded guilty in January to starting a number of fires in California that could have had much more disastrous results than they did.

Maynard, 49, had formerly lectured at Santa Clara University and Sonoma State University, KCRA reported.

The former lecturer admitted to starting at least four fires in July and August of 2021, according to a Justice Department news release, and pleaded guilty to three counts of arson.

One count of arson was dismissed as part of a plea agreement, according to court records cited by The New York Times.

Maynard was charged with starting fires behind firefighters who were working to contain the Dixie Fire, which eventually destroyed more than 1,000 homes and spread over 1,500 square miles, according to KCRA.

“He intentionally made a dangerous situation more perilous by setting some of his fires behind the men and women fighting the Dixie fire, potentially cutting off any chance of escape,” Phillip A. Talbert, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California, said in a statement (available in full below).

It eventually grew to become the second-largest fire in California history, according to the outlet.

“Maynard faced the possibility of up to 20 years in prison and a $750,000 fine,” KCRA reported. “Besides the prison sentence of more than five years, he was ordered to pay $13,081 in restitution.”

His attorney argued that Maynard was “suffering from untreated and significant mental health issues when he set the fires and has sought treatment since then,” according to Fox News.

“A Santa Clara University colleague of Mr. Maynard, who was not identified, told the police in October 2020 that Mr. Maynard was struggling with anxiety, depression, split personality, and wanted to kill himself, the complaint said,” according to The Times.

Keep reading

Canadian man who claimed wildfires were a federal conspiracy admits arson

A Canadian man who claimed forest fires were the result of a government conspiracy has pleaded guilty to lighting more than a dozen blazes during the country’s record-breaking wildfire season, as nearly 100 fires persist in drought-stricken regions.

Brian Paré admitted to 13 counts of arson and one count of arson with disregard for human life at the courthouse in central Quebec, an act that drew away key firefighting resources from nearly 700 fires in the province last summer.

Those blazes, which required the aid of international fire crews, charred more than 4.5m hectares of boreal landscape. Virtually all of those fires were caused by lightning strikes, the Quebec’s fire service says.

But at the courthouse in the town of Chibougamau, prosecutor Marie-Philippe Charron said on Monday two of the 14 fires lit by Paré forced the evacuation of 500 homes, the Canadian Press reported. The largest fire lit by Paré consumed nearly 873 hectares of forest.

Fire officials investigated a string of five blazes in June that had no possible natural cause and broke out days after the province had implemented a fire ban. The 38-year-old Paré quickly became a suspect when he was spotted in the location of the fires and “demonstrated a certain interest in fires” after an interview with police, said Charron.

In June police began watching his social media posts, which frequently focused on the province’s wildfires. He shared content suggesting the record-breaking fire season was the result of government intervention, not climate change. The prosecution said police specialists developed a suspect profile based on the fires – and increasingly, Paré’s seemed a match.

Police later obtained a warrant to install a tracking device on Paré’s vehicle and found he travelled to locations where other fires were started.

After he was arrested in September, he admitted to starting nine fires and “claimed he was doing tests to find out whether the forest was really dry or not”, Charron told the court.

Despite a string of conspiratorial theories over the summer, amplified by Alberta’s premier, nearly all of Canada’s fires were caused by lightning striking the tinder-like condition of forests.

Keep reading

Nearly ONE HUNDRED churches across Canada have been torched or damaged after activists lied that 200 indigenous children were buried under Catholic schools

Almost 100 Christian churches in Canada have been systematically targeted in apparent revenge attacks following a hoax about mass graves containing Native American children. 

In 2021, a horrific story swept the internet as an indigenous group in Saskatchewan claimed to find 751 unmarked graves under the Marieval Indian Residential School, weeks after 215 children were supposedly discovered under another school in British Columbia. 

The schools were run by Christian churches – largely Catholic – and sought to eliminate their students’ Indigenous culture so they could ‘assimilate’ into Canadian society.

However, excavations carried out last year failed to turn up any evidence of bodies, and most experts concluded that claims of mass graves were exaggerated. 

At the same time the excavations failed for the past two years, at least 96 churches have been burned, vandalized and destroyed, seemingly in retaliation, with phrases smeared on the walls including: ‘Where are the children.’

Keep reading

Alleged Hate Crime Victim in Texas Charged with Burning Down His Own House

A Texas man who claimed his house was sprayed with racist graffiti is now facing charges of burning down his own home. Two men, including a family member, reportedly died in the fire, and another person was seriously injured.

A San Jacinto County grand jury returned a true bill indictment against Waterwood resident Mario Roberson, Sheriff Greg Capers told Breitbart Texas on Tuesday. The grand jury charged Roberson with Felony Arson after an investigation by the Texas State Fire Marshal’s Office into a June 10 fire that left two people dead and another seriously injured.

San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers told Breitbart Texas that a warrant for Roberson’s arrest has not yet been issued. “We can’t do anything until we have a warrant for his arrest,” Capers explained. “The best thing Roberson can do would be to turn himself in.”

Roberson claimed earlier this year that his home was sprayed with graffiti that included racial slurs, KTRK ABC 13 reported.

Keep reading

Texas Synagogue Arsonist Who Confessed to Crime in His Journal Sentenced For Hate Crime Charges

A Texas man was sentenced today to 10 years in prison and three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $470,000 in restitution for a hate crime and arson in which he set fire to the Congregation Beth Israel Synagogue in Austin, Texas, on Oct. 31, 2021.

Franklin Sechriest, 19, of San Marcos, pleaded guilty to a hate crime and arson charges on April 7. Sechriest admitted that he targeted the synagogue because of his hatred of Jews, and journals recovered from the defendant were replete with virulent antisemitic statements and views. Sechriest also possessed several decals and stickers expressing antisemitic messages.

“This defendant is being held accountable for this depraved, antisemitic attack on Congregation Beth Israel, a community with a rich history and heritage that dates back to 1876,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “This hate-filled act of violence against a house of worship was an attempt to sow fear in the Jewish community and was intended to intimidate its congregants. Attacks targeting Jewish people and arsons aimed at desecrating synagogues have no place in our society today, and the Justice Department will continue to aggressively prosecute antisemitic violence.”

“No one should have to fear that their daily lives will be inflicted by hate-fueled violence, or that their place of worship and community could become a target of hate,” said U.S. Attorney Jaime Esparza for the Western District of Texas. “We stand firmly committed to those impacted by this arson, and my office will continue to combat criminal acts of hate while seeking justice for the victims.”

“Hate crimes have the power to devastate and terrorize entire communities. To target a place of worship, a space meant to be a sanctuary in every sense of the word, is one of the most heinous acts that can be committed,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Doug Olson of the FBI San Antonio Field Office. “We remain dedicated to investigating hate crimes and will continue to work relentlessly to hold responsible those who would commit violent acts based on hate.”

Keep reading

Odd Colorado Ruling Upholds Internet Keyword Search Warrant

What would your internet searches reveal about you if others could scrutinize and second-guess them? It’s something to think about, given that the big search engines, like Google, store search histories and make them available to the authorities. In fact, as happened in a recently decided Colorado case, police can start from search terms of interest and pressure tech companies to surrender the identities of anyone who has surfed for specified keywords. The decision is chilling for anybody who has ever pondered their online history in the hands of a stranger—or who just cares about privacy.

“Today, the Colorado Supreme Court became the first state supreme court in the country to address the constitutionality of a keyword warrant—a digital dragnet tool that allows law enforcement to identify everyone who searched the internet for a specific term or phrase,” Jennifer Lynch and Andrew Crocker of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) reported on Monday. “The case is People v. Seymour, which involved a tragic home arson that killed several people. Police didn’t have a suspect, so they used a keyword warrant to ask Google for identifying information on anyone and everyone who searched for variations on the home’s street address in the two weeks prior to the arson.”

Keep reading

Maui, Yellowknife, Teneriffe, Rhodes: Who is Behind the Spate of Wildfires Caused by Arson?

The leftist media rushed to blame a series of devastating wildfires on “climate change”. Arson was involved in several cases, however, leading some observers to question the possible motives for the spate of blazes.

Terrrible tragedy struck the city of Lahaina on Maui on Aug. 8, with at least 144 dead and 1000 people still missing, including many children. Speaking on Daily Wire, pundit Michael Knowles said that arson is “the most likely culprit … apparently, in the mind of Hawaiian officials.”

“For years now, people have intentionally set fires all over Maui. As Maui Mayor Michael Victorino noted just last year, fire and police suspect someone is intentionally setting them. Just a couple weeks ago, Hawaiian police responded to two fires on Maui. One started by an unattended cooking fire, the other, apparently, intentionally set. Shortly after which point, according to investigators, quote, a male operating a green all-terrain vehicle was seen leaving the area.”

Last week, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police stated they had “charged four female youths with arson” after major wildfires around Yellowknife, Northwest Territory, Canada.

“Around 10:03 p.m., RCMP officers on patrol spotted a fire near Long Lake and called the Yellowknife Fire Department. The cause of the fire has been determined to be arson. A witness in the area reported seeing two men running from the area wearing black clothing. The Northwest Territories Police Dog Service attended in an effort to track the suspects but they were not located. No further description of the men could be provided and this matter remains under investigation. 

 At 11:21 p.m., the Yellowknife RCMP received a call reporting that four females were attempting to light a fire in a small green space on Burwash Drive. RCMP officers immediately attended the area and located the four youth females. RCMP arrested all four and found aerosol cans and lighters in their possession and near the scene. Video of this incident was captured on a nearby camera at a private residence. All four of the female youths have been charged with arson.”

Keep reading

Majority in fires in Greece were started by ‘human hand’, official says

The majority of the fires which have ravaged Greece in recent weeks were started by “human hand”, one of the country’s top climate officials has said.

Greece’s climate change minister said 667 fires had erupted, as wildfires scorched hundreds of square miles of land outside Athens, on the island of Rhodes, and elsewhere this month.

Vassilis Kikilias told a news conference the vast majority of fires “were caused by human hands” and said they were “arsons either by criminal negligence or by intention”.

It comes as at least nine countries across the Mediterranean have been hit by wildfires, as extreme heat hitting the region has seen temperatures top 40C.

However, officials have also highlighted the role of climate change in the recent extreme heat across many European countries.

Mr Kikilias warned earlier that the climate crisis “brought us this unprecedented heatwave”.

Keep reading

Despite Multiple Arson Arrests, MSM Continues to Blame Canada Wildfires on ‘Climate Change’

Despite the arrest of multiple arsonists, the mainstream media in Canada seems intent on attributing the nation’s recent wildfires to “climate change.”

As wildfires continue to spread across western, and now central and eastern Canada, burning forestland and homes, the mainstream media continues to imply that climate change is the main culprit, despite a growing number of reports showing that arsonists have been arrested for allegedly setting dozens of fires.

“Several arsonists have been arrested in the past weeks in different provinces for lighting forest fires,” People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier tweeted. “But the lying woke media and politicians keep repeating that global warming is the cause.” 

The severe nature of the wildfires has caused Canadians to wonder why they have spread so rapidly, especially as many of the affected areas are not typically impacted by wildfires of this degree or at this time of the year.

In the past months, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have arrested several arsonists who have been charged with lighting fires across several provinces including Nova Scotia, Yukon, British Columbia, and Alberta. The motive behind lighting the fires is unclear.  

One Albertan, John Cook, has been arrested and charged with 10 counts of arson after setting a string of wildfires in and around Cold Lake, a hamlet near Edmonton. 

In addition to damaging vehicles and structures, Cook was charged with setting aflame the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Cherry Grove, Alberta. 

A Vancouver man charged with arson has been released until his trial on October 9, with Cpl. Michael Gauthier asserting that he is not a risk to light further fires.

“This incident was not random in nature and we do not believe there is risk to other members of the public or businesses from the individual who was arrested,” Gauthier stated.

Keep reading

As Folks Rot in Cages for Weed, Cop Gets No Jail for Setting Home on Fire, Killing Two Dogs Inside

In a world where people are rotting in cages for possessing a plant, is it really that surprising to see a former Indiana State Police trooper walk free after admitting to heinous crimes such as arson, animal cruelty, and insurance fraud? Well, that’s exactly what happened, and this glaring discrepancy in the justice system highlights the deep-rooted corruption, double standards, and “blue privilege” that plague our society.

Jeremy Galloway, the ex-ISP trooper, was sentenced to four years on Thursday. However, he won’t be spending a single day behind bars, according to court records. Instead, Galloway will serve the first two years of his sentence on electronic home monitoring, the third year on reporting probation, and the fourth year on non-reporting probation. This lenient punishment comes as a result of Galloway pleading guilty to all charges as part of a plea agreement.

In October 2019, Galloway maliciously set fire to his Tell City home, killing his dogs in the process. Despite the severity of his crimes, Galloway was only placed on administrative leave without pay during the investigation, before ultimately resigning from his position as an ISP trooper. This slap on the wrist is a stark contrast to the draconian penalties faced by individuals who are caught with a mere plant.

The irony of this situation is unmistakable. While Galloway avoids prison for causing destruction and death, countless individuals who have never harmed a soul are languishing in cages for simply possessing or using cannabis. These people are not arsonists, they’re not cruel to animals, and they’re not committing fraud – yet their lives have been upended by a deeply flawed and outdated legal system that seems to protect its own at the expense of justice.

Keep reading