Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Coatesville PA: terrible things

for a year, Coatesville PA was terrorized by a string of arsons, culminating in the arrest of 6 people, some of them firefighters, responsible for $3 million in damage, scores of homeless people, and the murder of an elderly woman.

you can read some basics HERE, but i also found it fascinating searching for psychology profiles on arsonists, including the taboo subject of how many are firefighters (though to be fair, there aren't exactly studies of how many arsonists are plumbers, etc), but worst of all, how some theorize the economically depressed Coatesville was victim of a type of gentrification through terrorism

1 comment:

Randall Nichols said...

I missed this post somehow, but I love stuff like this. Not "love" in the, you know, glad for these poor folks' suffering sort of way, but I'm just always interested in the dynamics of on-the-rocks, small communities.

Picture's just awesome, too.