A suspicious fire destroyed a $65k backhoe left at the Meadowcreek Parkway site last night. #
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
foursix and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
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Hmmm… I wonder if it is the same person that hit Hollymeade Towncenter way back when. No ELF Banner this time, but then that group has been defunct for a while and they’d probably prefer to be charged under Arson charges rather than “ecoterrorism”.
My only hope is that they catch who ever did this and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. There is absolutely no justification for this type of conduct.
It sounds like the work of those ELF (Earth Liberation Front) guys. I bet they’ve got a branch office in C’ville. The demographic here is a perfect fit for them.
Okay, so if some guy torched his girlfriend’s car because she cheated on him, then shouldn’t we treat that arson with the same severity?
Really arson is arson, and while it’s a crime that should be punished, I think it ranks lower than crimes that cause physical harm to people. Essentially it’s just vandalism on a bigger scale.
Regarding ELF, it never really was an “organization” per, so it’d be hard for Charlottesville to have a “branch office” of it. It was just a model that people could follow, with no real central leadership.
Can’t say I approve, but on the other hand-can’t get too upset-reminds me of a scene in Ed Abbey’s The Monkeywrench Gang(if one assumes this is a protest against the Parkway). After all,sure that some felt the same way aabout the Boston Tea Party.
On the other hand, the fanatical anti-abortion people also feel the same way about ends justifying means when they kill abortion providers like Dr. George Tiller. Or is that different because it targets people instead of property? Are there degrees of terrorism?
Personally,I think eco-terrorism should be a term applied to those who trash the planet, polluters and the like. It could be said,”he who destroys human creation is called a vandal; he who destroys Nature’s creation is called a developer.”
I don’t think the word “terrorism” should apply to property damage, with the possible exception of an implied threat to human life. For eample, if they’d torched the bulldozers and left a note saying “You’re next!” then that would be terrorism.
Another telling characteristic is that terrorism tends to target innocent civilians. Strapping a bomb to yourself becoming a human weapon isn’t by itself terrorism. After all, it isn’t essentially any worse than dropping explosives from a plane. Once you walk into a crowded market and blow yourself up, then it’s clearly terrorism. Then again, dropping a bomb on the same market is just as wrong, and also terrorism in my book. We just have a cultural aversion to suicide attacks, and thus tend to mix up the two concepts.
HollowBoy also makes a good point that one person’s “Terrorist” is another person’s patriot or “freedom fighter”. There’s no doubt that the Sons of Liberty also engaged in tarring and feathering, which is a pretty brutal way to die. Incidentally, It’s always been a mystery to me why our revolution succeeded and resulted in a stable government whereas most others in the world rarely do…
As to the killing of physicians that perform abortions, I think it’s clearly terrorism, and quite different from torching a bulldozer or damaging some logging equipment. Our country has a long history of civil disobedience and passive resistance resulting in many of our most cherished freedoms. Thus, I think that form of speach should be constitutionally protected, but only in the sense that if you commit arson then you should be charged for arson, and nothing more (with some exceptions noted above).