Church Fires -- GOYA/KOD Stage

The investigators on the Alabama church fires have received around 250 tips that they are investigating.  Nothing fresh has been released to the press yet, and probably won't until someone is actually arrested and/or charged. 

My own thought:  the investigation has reached a modified GOYA/KOD stage, as someone once referred to it in a Time sidebar to a Seventies story on television detectives.  The real cops are often impatient with the ones who sit and spin theories; one detective interviewed said that the true art to catching crooks was summed up by a hand-lettered sign on the wall -- GOYA/KOD, which he said stood for "Get Off Your A**/Knock On Doors."  In other words, get out there and start questioning people.

The problem is, who do you question here?  That's why this is a modified state; the police are reliant on tips, maybe more so than normal, to get a direction to go in.  Hopefully the right call will come in at the right time, and lead them to the culprit(s).

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The focus in most newspaper stories now is the human interest side.  At the churches and Baptist associations themselves, the pain is sinking in, along with speculation on why someone would do such a thing.  Many parishoners are believing an attack against God and religion, pointing to the number of fires that started at the altar.  Many are discounting the "Baptist factor," that the attacks are aimed strictly at Baptist churches, simply because if you throw a rock in this area, you'll usually hit a Baptist church.  The conventional wisdom runs toward kids on a destructive pranking spree or similar ideas, though the fear of something more is still present.

The fires have also raised memories of the burning spree that went through here and other states in the 1990s.  The Birmingham News runs a neat summary of the history on the last page of their current article (ZIP Code registration may be required).

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Peace be to you.

Previous posts:
Church Fires -- Case Proceeds; Notes on Aid to Bibb Churches
Church Fires -- Fresh Blazes to Southwest
Church Fires -- Monday News
Church Fires -- Personal Hypotheses
Church Fires Update -- Reward Offered; Congregations Carry On
Church Fires Update -- 11:37p
Fires Destroy 5 Churches in Bibb County Area

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