Comment by phendrenad2

1 day ago

If anyone's wonder if this guy was really the cause of the Palisade's fire: No, probably not. His reportedly erratic and eccentric behavior tells me he's probably not mentally capable of standing trial. Normally the government would just shrug, call it an act of nature, and move on. But for some reason they're going out of their way to pin this fire on someone.

I don't know how they would establish causality (for the major fire and deaths) beyond a reasonable doubt when the fire he set was seemingly put out and the entire region is a tinderbox. Whatever his crimes, he seems like a convenient scapegoat for larger systemic failures.

If I can tin-foil-hat a bit, wouldn't it make sense if ruling the fire an act of arson would be favorable to someone with power, such as the Malibu landowners or the insurance companies? If anyone wants to "cui bono" their way to an article about it I'd be interesting in reading that.