Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Provincetown Burning

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The Cape Cod Times is reporting that 10 fires, suspected to have been set by arsonists, occurred this Halloween. Here’s the link: http://www.capecodon…

According to the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, Halloween has long been associated with an increased incidence of hate crimes, though historically Jewish targets have been at greatest risk. Given recent cases of unsolved and unprosecuted hate crimes and police-perpetrated violence, it is impossible to avoid the implication that haters sensed an opening and seized upon it. However, we can be very sure that the Provincetown Police will not adequately investigate bias indicator evidence, even though a specific bias indicator under Massachusets law calls attention to holidays with special significance for the occurrence of hate crimes.

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  1. I don’t see anything in the CCTimes story that suggests that the fires were in any way directed at the kinds of targets that would give rise to concerns about hate crimes.  Some of the targets appeared to be vacant; others were dumpsters and trash cans.  Do you have information on the targets that was not reported in the article?  Otherwise, this statement

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    it is impossible to avoid the implication that haters sensed an opening and seized upon it.

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    seems to me premature at best.

    • …although lacking the lurid photos of the Cape Wide News, can be found at the Provincetown Banner.

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      The BANNER gives a much clearer time-line as well. 

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      I think people are crying wolf after skimming a less than complete new story.

      • It seems public safety officials are concerned that the arson spree escalated as it went on and might not be over yet. While it’s all well and good to tell folks to keep lights on and be vigilant, that advice is of little practical use to non-resident property owners. Provincetown is made of wood, so the danger of a fire getting out of control seems to be considerable.

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        Since the arson spree started a week before Halloween, it can’t be put down to rowdy trick-or-treaters. I think socioeconomic factors are definitely playing a role, and associated homophobia cannot be ruled out without an adequate investigation. That’s not to say that a lot of folks won’t dispute the reality that homophobia even exists in P-Town (or anywhere else for that matter.)

  2. The story does not indicate any connections to groups covered under the hate crimes laws. But the timing of the arson attacks is consistent with a hate motive. The recent pattern of attacks on gay men is also suggestive. But we are unlikely to know more given a near certainty that the Provincetown Police Department will rule out a possible hate motive without investigation.

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    As a general rule, anti-gay hate crimes tend to be against persons. Gay bars are attacked when there are folks in them, not when they’re empty. Anti-Semitic hate crimes are more often against property. I’m afraid a lot of questions about these fires may go unanswered, which is the primary cause for concern in my opinion.

      • why that might be a legitimate question? (Or perhaps this is just a great sound-bite. “Police profiling!”)

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        Might it be possible that the perpetrators are profiling?

        • Maybe the perpetrators were frustrated by not being allowed to profile their victims, so they set ten fires just to make sure that one of them would get a gay person?

    • It’s also consistent with lighting fires and other vandalism, both minor and major, on or around Halloween, which has been a problem for many years in many places, and AFAIK has not been routinely associated with hate crimes.

      • i wouldn’t necessarily equate fires on halloween with anything beyond the pranksterism that always happens on that night.  but i do agree that it is worth looking to see if the owners of the torched property have something obvious in common.  shouldn’t be that hard to do.  if i had a hate motive that i didn’t want noticed, i’d choose halloween to do my deeds.

          • Are GLBT folks apprehensive about the public safety situation in Provincetown? That would be a yes. Sometimes the uncertainty, and the suspicion that an unacknowledged homophobia is lurking beneath the surface, make the fear even more exquisite.

            • Y’know, it strikes me that if I wanted to strike fear in the hears of the gay populace on Halloween, I’d set fire to the Crown & Anchor or Gov. Bradford – not a couple of half-built condos.

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              Heck, the first grass fire may have been from a chucked cigarette!

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              You are beginning to indulge in ‘exquisite’ fearful talk more appropriate to fifth grade.

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              The Fire Marshal is investigating, despite ‘exquisite’ fears that no investigation would be done – can we see what comes of that?

              • My concerns about the inadequacy of the investigation by the PPD and the state fire marshall will stand unless they can elucidate another theory of motive.

              • that was clear to the Governor’s Task Force on Hate Crimes when a fire was set at a Springfield mosque in the months after 9/11. It’s still the same guy now as it was then.

            • It sounds like it’s thrilling, and more fun to have a general fear of hate crimes.  Maybe on Halloween it’s understandable to find fear exquisite.  I just watched the Exorcist a few nights ago, hoping for that exquisite fear.  But this is real life, and this is like perpetrating the hate crime yourself, because it’s thrilling to suspect unacknowledged homophobia lurking below the surface.

      • While Devil’s Night might be a tradition in Detroit, this wave of arson is unprecedented in Provincetown. Still it is clear that motivations are not as simple to comprehend as in the garden variety gaybashing, where 3 kids beat up an older gay man while calling him a “faggot.” The striking thing about the malicious intent is that it was so diffuse. It’s hard to speak of targeting in any sense when the arson is so widespread.

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        A powerful undercurrent in Devil’s Night is socioeconomic dissatisfaction expressed with a “mad at the world” sort of indiscriminacy. Provincetown has seen serious socioeconomic tensions related to rising property values and the purchase of properties by non-resident owners, usually gay or lesbian. Many longtime residents have been displaced; others struggle to pay soaring property tax bills. If there is rage at what some locals have derided as the “gay takeover of Provincetown” and malcontents wanted to lash out, a wave of arson fires would suit them nicely. And while it would be hard to start 10 fires in P-Town without affecting somebody who is GLBT, the hatred could be unfocused.

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        The maddening thing is that we are unlikely to get any answers. So we can speculate all we want. The only thing I can say with certainty is that something is seriously wrong in Provincetown.

      • the only time of year gays could get away with going out in public in drag and generally just being open.  this is much less so now in certain parts of the country, like MA, but is still the case in many places.  halloween functioned as a sort of carnival.

        • forgot to mention that for this reason, halloween used to be galled gay christmas. 🙂

  3. Cape Cod Today’s police log is also covering this.  They report that the fire Marshall is ALREDY investigating.

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    Read the POST.  The various stories about P-Town fires are interspersed with other incidents, and include photos of the locations, and sometimes the fires.

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    It strikes me that one propery owner is dead, and the place recently changed hands, and was involved in a ConCom dispute.  Lots of ‘motive’ there.  And lots of info that the Times didn’t report, probably due to space constraints.

  4. …please get a grip.  Ten fires can be anything from a bunch of conflagrations to a bunch of trash can fires, to any combination thereof.

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    If you want serious fires, check out Southern California, Greece, or even Southern Italy.  It was suspected that the fires last summer in Italy were set by the Mafia to drive out honest hostelries so that the Mafia could buy the properties up at bargain-basement prices.  I doubt very seriously that anything similar is going on in P’town.

    • a black church in a highly desirable location in seattle was torched numerous times.  they never had any troubles until they began declining the incessant buyout offers made by developers. 

    • This is more like Devil’s Night in Detroit, a longstanding Halloween tradition. And yes, gays have long celebrated Halloween with particular gusto, in cities including San Francisco, New Orleans, New York, and Provincetown. Violence at these gay celebrations has noticeably increased in recent years, but it isn’t clear that hate is the dominant motivating factor.

  5. …it strikes me that it is extremely counter-productive for gay people (of whom I am one) to yell “hate crime” every time a crime is (a) committed against a gay person or (b) is committed in an area that is frequented by gay people. 

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    As far as I’m concerned, without evidence that actually suggests that the perpetrators have commited the crime based on a racial, religions, sex, sexual orientation, or other motive, the people who immediately yell “hate crime” are actually belittling crimes that are crimes that are actually so motivated.

    • If it weren’t for unpopular gay activists pointing out the possibility of hate motives for otherwise unexplained crimes against GLBT people, we’d never have had sexual orientation-bias recognized as a contributing factor in crimes. Recall the San Francisco study that Di Fi put out in the early 1980’s that said gays and lesbians were no more subject to violence than the general public?

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      I would never raise the question of a hate crime without the presence of bias indicators, which structure the relevant inquiry and protect against baseless allegations. Your comment doesn’t seem to be concerned with bias indicators, just dissing gay activists. You may think you’re doing a service by disputing that hate might be playing a role in unsolved crimes. But the worse thing we have to contend with is the all-too-frequent tendency to deny anti-gay hate crimes when they happen. And I’m sad to say that being gay does not exempt you from the denial reflex.

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      Can you spot the bias indicators presented in the Provincetown arson fact pattern?

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