Wade on Birmingham

Wade on February 2006

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A last look at the ’06 …

Then and now

Burning sensation: On two fateful nights, nine churches — at least one that had stood for a hundred years — burned in the Alabama countryside. Were the culprits Muslims? Anti-religion? Anti-black? Satanists?!

Turns out that three white college kids from the suburbs of Birmingham got drunk (all underage), killed a cow, stole and torched for fun, for a joke.

Arrested in March, Matthew Lee Cloyd, Russell Lee DeBusk Jr. and Benjamin Nathan Moseley pleaded guilty last week in a federal court, with state court appearances to follow, facing minimum seven years in prison. Upping the stakes were injuries sustained by two firefighters putting out Ashby Baptist Church.

church fires

The churches, with financial help from all over the country, have been rebuilding. Birmingham-Southern College, where DeBusk and Moseley attended, took the lead in fund-raising.

And the conspiracy turned out to be nothing more than spoiled idiot kids wrecking hundreds of lives, including their own, in one stupid spree.

Take a soundbite out of crime: Birmingham city council members went district by district in the year’s first stab (pardon us) at beating crime. The community meetings featured representatives of churches, academia and business under the Cease Fire initiative launched in January.

So far, the meetings have been wildly successful … if by “wildly successful,” you mean “completely homicidal.” With two days to go in 2006, the city has tied 1997 as the deadliest in decades, with 108 homicides.

And counting.

Sled on arrival: Hometown Olympian Vonetta Flowers, along with teammate Jean Prahm, came up short at the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Flowers, who made history in 2002 as the first black gold medalist at the winter games, placed sixth in two-man bobsledding. Shoulda “juiced up” like them baseball players …

Haiku flashback

good on paper (Feb. 11)

Wanted: part-time muse
for literary passion
and light housekeeping.

• • •

Archives: February

Special report: The ’06 … a last look

1 Yip for “Wade on February 2006”

  1. Wade on Birmingham » Blog Archive » Birmingham’s Biggest Crooks: Matthew Cloyd, Russell DeBusk and Benjamin Moseley
    Monday, August 24, 2009, 1:40 am
    1

    […] hours=12 if (minutes Sphere: Related Content Also see:Heads and tales: Off-off-off-campus activitiesWade on February 2006Birmingham’s Biggest Crooks: Gary WhiteBirmingham’s Biggest Crooks: Rube […]

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