(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)
Portland Fire & Rescue and the Portland Police Bureau have arrested a man who admits to setting several fires in northeast earlier this year. One of the fires damaged the roof and exterior walls of Lumberyard Bike Park and a storage trailer owned by the nonprofit NW Trail Alliance.
Allen Singerhouse is accused of starting the August 29th fire that began near a vacant lot at NE 82nd and Siskiyou. The fire quickly spread south toward houses and businesses across the street from Madison High School. In the end it caused more than $1 million in damages.
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According to The Oregonian, Singerhouse has been charged with three counts of first degree Arson. Investigators were able to track him down thanks to surveillance cameras from several other fires in the area. They arrested him in his home after finding clothes belonging to him that also appeared in the videos. Singerhouse confessed to intentionally lighting “dozens of fires”.
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Any commenters on Bike Portland that blamed this on people experiencing homelessness should be ashamed of themselves, apologize, and probably donate to homeless services here in Portland. “Toby Keith”, for example: “Fire was intentionally set and the “campers” responsible will never be found. Typical.”
Seems like he was half right.
More like 1/3 right.
Intentional? Right.
Campers? Wrong.
Never found? Wrong.
I was thinking about this too Alex. It’s one of the reasons I wanted to share the update… so that people would notice that the suspect appears to live in a house.
But how does providing a forum for ignorant and hateful anti-bike comments further your mission to inform and inspire?
This site provides a forum for many different perspectives and views. I think one of the strongest aspects of BikePortland is that it is not an echo chamber where everyone is on the same page. That means the comment threads can feel “anti-bike” or “ignorant” and “hateful” to some people. But to me, many of the comments you think fit into those categories are simply people expressing views that are less common and/or controversial in general. If there’s a particular comment you find inappropriate, please send me the link and I’ll consider moderation. Thanks.
You may want to be careful as you dance in the end zone because usually anyone that expresses an opinion will be eating crow sometime regardless of which side of the red/blue line they reside. Crows would be an endangered species if all the bikeportland commentators actually admitted when they were wrong after strongly expressing an opinion that was latter proven to be at least a little wrong. I would love to see more civil conversations on-line. Shaming people for an opinion that turns out to be wrong is not the way I would start.
Who was shamed here?
I upvoted your comment too early, because I assumed there were many commenters blaming campers. Turns out you’re pointing to the only person that made such a comment. Makes me think you’ve got a war going with Toby Kieth. Just doesn’t seem right to make such a blanket statement that points to one specific person. We’re all entitled to be wrong without having to sic society on us. They’ll see this article and know they’re wrong. Or you could go back to the comment and leave this URL as a sub-comment.
Hope this thread is removed.
Toby is known for making outrageous statements on here. You can’t judge the comment section by that guy.
So, had it been a homeless person could we have expected you to come here and apologize for defending the homeless? Would you have admitted that they are a big problem in this city? Would you have cancelled your donation? Kicked the (formerly) homeless person living with you out on the street?
Your comment is no better than those you are trying to shame.
Hey Alex, thanks for calling me out! Your victory, however small, has got have you feeling pretty damn good about yourself. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
That’s some great detective work there. Piecing together multiple video captures to get enough coverage to be able to identify the person, find them, and connect their possessions with the crime. Then continue to use psychology to pick apart their alibi until they reveal a confession. No false suspects, no jumping to conclusions, just real police work.
Why aren’t we giving them more funding so they can investigate the smaller things?
It makes one wonder if facial recognition software is used.