(respectfully snipped)
Next, we are not in a court of law and the strict rules of evidence are not forced upon us. Speculation is not appropriate for a trier of fact, but for us it is, as long as we always distinguish the rumors from the facts as I have attempted to do.
In addition Andres, if those who collect evidence at a crime scene are so thorough as you suggest, then the search warrant or warrants released to the public are really THIN for a quadruple murder, so I am speculating again that we have not seen an entire list of all of the evidence collected.
First of all, let me state that I'm not attacking you, just the theories. I suspect you know this. But I want to make sure this is abundently clear to anyone reading this.
It doesn't matter if this is a court of law. If we don't apply a standard of logic and reasonableness to our narrative the whole narrative is useless and tainted. There must be some standards as to what we accept as fact and when they fly in the face of reasonableness and logic, when they are completely unsubstantiated and uncorroborated by anything, we are dropping our standards in our community by applying mere gossip.
Are we searching for truth or are we trying to mythologize "Syko Sam"? Are we trying to create a character to pitch to for a horror movie or are we trying to figure out what happened here?
I'm going to point out that the perceived "Thinness" of evidence of the search warrant does not mean that there were scented candles taken and not revealed to the public. I see what you did there.
Nor am I saying that the search warrants are complete catalogs of everything that was taken from the home. I'm just pointing out that there is literally no evidence supporting these scented candles and air cleaning machines.
Whereas you do not like speculation upon possibilities such as a lone skinny cop and scented candles which are rumors up to this point, I find taking any particular stance based perhaps not on evidence that is lacking, but evidence that has not been revealed to us in the same ballpark.
With regard to my opposition to the skinny lone cop theory, I am just poking holes in the story. That's what defense attorneys do: they sit back and poke holes in the prosecutions narrative. I don't really care if you want to speculate on that possibility, but I will address those theories.
That said, the skinny cop theory is entirely different than the "air cleaning machines and scented candle" thing. We know he called the cops over that night. We don't know why. We can neatly explain that as Sam trying to kill the cop. I don't agree with it, but it's not entirely illogical.
Scented candles and air cleaning machines brings me to another outright speculation that they may have been something like those Glade Plug Ins not an advanced air cleaning machine and not a candle that would have to be kept lit and yet would serve the same purpose. Because they are plugged into the sockets, the evidence collectors may not have thought them relevant until they looked through the receipts. Im sure they collected evidence for days, not just one night.
Glade plugins are air fresheners. Not air cleaning machines. There is no mechanical device that cleans the air. Air cleaning machines are expensive, The credibility of someone who calls a glade plugin an air cleaning machine should be questioned.
Now I will be accused of starting the Glade Plug In rumor so please Andres, hear me now or tell me later I am just tossing possibilities around and am certainly not trying to perpetuate rumors. However, I will not set a tone here that will make the local people afraid to share what they have heard regarding the case for fear of being pounced on or accused of tainting a jury pool! So Ill take the hit for them and go toe to toe with you if you want, but all things coming out of Farmville regardless of the source can and should be discussed here so long as facts are distinguished from rumors and I might suggest sticking to a courtroom if that bothers you.
Some can snit about the National Enquirer all day long as not being real news but guess what??? they often get the story right.
I dont think it is prudent to ask people to sit in here and speak only on what is known as fact, when so little facts are known. Speculating on unsubstantiated facts is the same as speculating on only a fraction of the facts. Either way we all know we are uninformed and I can live with that for a while.
If you want to go toe to toe on this issue, that's fine. The problem is the line between facts and rumors gets blurred easily. After all these threads and all these posts, people coming in and out of the threads, skimming to catch up, etc.
If you want to make this a contentious issue, I will lay out my position directly. I would appreciate if you wouldn't frame my argument as "against locals", as you're purposely misstating my point. We don't need to play the whole "reframe the other persons argument to gain support" game. We've been interacting long enough to where I hope we have a mutual respect for eachother. I am against people posting knowingly false information or taking rumors that can be quickly determined to be unlikely to be true and accepting them as truth for the narrative of this thread. We have had several instances of people knowingly or negligently posting false information on this thread for the sole purpose of getting attention and/or purposely clouding the waters of our discussion.
Tell me this: is it prudent to accept rumors that are more likely than not untrue? I am not taking issue with all local rumor. I am taking issue with those that more likely than not untrue.
What's distinguishable between the National Enquirer and this is that the National Enquirer isn't an anonymous source on the internet. It has to take some responsibility for what it says and often does. It wont just disapear forever and cannot misrepresent where it's located. Tell me Ziggy or anyone for that matter: what happened to that woman in her 60s that was elected foreman of the jury and was really going to "throw the book" at Sam?
If someone came here tomorrow claiming to be from farmville and claimed to have information that would be impossible for him to know, lets say relating to forensic evidence, would you take the hit for them? Would you believe that they had this inside knowledge? This is nothing personal to you ziggy, or for anyone from farmville.
Whenever we're presented with information we must look into its authenticity, as both to the source of the information and the content of the information.
Again, i'm trying to not come off harsh, but I feel like you overreacted a bit to my comments. I'm not bullying anyone, I'm just asking for some legitimacy, some logic, some corroboration. The things I'm taking issue with completely lack them.
