There were wide expectations that the increasing political divisions in the United States after the second presidential victory of Donald Trump would explode.
But few could have predicted that the inflammation point would be electric cars.
Teslas has become flames with Molotov cocktails, plagued with bullets and disfigured with swastika. The doors and windows at the same time pristineas exposure of luxury electric vehicles are now scribbled with blasphemies and Nazi symbols.
Teslas, once the favorite of the defenders of alternative energy, is now the unlikely objective of political violence. Experts say that while the signage of individual vehicles is unusual, activists who focus on anger in a corporation have a long history in the United States.
No one has been seriously injured in the incidents, but they have increased the alarm of both the officials responsible for enforcing the law and of political extremism experts on where this is directed.
“We have a continuum of activity, some of which we legitimately tolerate, such as bustling and passionate protests,” said Brian Levin, Professor Emeritus at Cal State San Bernardino and an expert in extremism. “But now we are reaching another level of this type of fire and violence, which, without a doubt, has an intimidation effect.”
Tesla attacks have dispersed and do not seem to be coordinated. But the only thing they seem to have in common is the disdain for the owner of Tesla, Elon Musk, and their efforts to fire federal workers and reduce the size of the government.
After Las Vegas was beaten with a series of Tesla attacks, Spencer Evans, a special FBI agent in charge of the Las Vegas office, issued a warning to possible political vandals.
“Specifically for those who might think that something like this is justifiable or potentially even admirable, we want to let him know that it is a federal crime,” he said. “We will come after you, we will find it and we will process it to the maximum extension of the law. I encourage anyone who is considering something like this seriously.”
This is not the first time that corporations or even car brands have been subject to political protest and sometimes vandalism.
Protests on the construction of Energy Transfer of Dakota's access pipes in North Dakota called national attention and thousands of people to camps from months in 2016 and 2017. A jury granted this week damage of more than $ 660 million to the pipeline company in its demand against Greenpeace on the role of the environmental organization in the protests.
In 2003, activists set fire to a Chevrolet dealership and destroyed or disfigured dozens of hummers and other sports utility vehicles, scribbling many with the word “polluting.” The Earth Liberation Front, an association of militant environmentalists, the responsibility of the attacks was attributed at that time, saying that it had intended to eliminate the reason for profits of the companies responsible for pollution.
It was suspected that the same group was involved in a fire that crossed a construction site in San Diego that same year, according to a 2003 Times report.
“During the last decade, the ideologically motivated militants of a spectrum, as well as some unstable and idiosyncratic types, have attacked their expansion attacks not only against traditional, governmental, communication and academic companies, but also increasingly against the powerful corporate objectives or the defense industry they consider political co-conspirators of their adversaries,” Levin said.
There have been growing concerns about political extremism in the United States in Trump's era, especially after the rioters broke into the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an attempt to prevent Congress from certifying the electoral results.
On his first day in office, President Trump granted pardons or switches of more than 1,500 people convicted of crimes on January 6. The pellets and now the efforts to protect Tesla have sent a conflicting message about how the Trump administration will handle the directed political violence, Levin said.
“You can't have it both ways,” Levin said. “If the Trump administration is going to speak, they must walk the walk regarding specific violence. You cannot simply choose which particular ideology prefers when it comes to having a legal response to acts of specific violence.”
Atty General Pam Bondi labeled attacks against Tesla's dealers this week as “nothing less than domestic terrorism.”
Bondi promised to impose serious consequences on those involved in Tesla attacks, including “those that operate behind the scene to coordinate and finance these crimes.”
For his part, Trump suggested that Friday's attacker Tesla should be sent to a noticeable prison in El Salvador.
Although domestic terrorism is defined in federal law, it is not an official criminal statute that entails a specific sanction. Those arrested in attacks so far have been accused under other federal statutes that can take significant time in jail.
Under federal statutes, conspiracy and malicious destruction have a mandatory minimum of five years in prison and a maximum legal fine of 20 years in the federal prison. A position of possession of an unregistered destructive device is punished with up to 10 years.
Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, said it is possible to apply terrorist positions to Tesla's attacks, but it is not how terrorism charges have been presented in the past.
“The Americans have not been accused of terrorism because it can be difficult to enter the head of a criminal defendant and prove why they committed the violent act. It is much easier if they are members or have promised loyalty to a foreign terrorist organization,” Rahmani said.
They are not just exposure rooms that are on alert. A website, Degequest, supposedly published the personal information of Tesla owners in the United States, raising privacy and security concerns for those who have electric vehicles. Since then, the website has been removed.
Musk has firing again on its social media platform, X, between the guilt of attacks against Democrats and others.
“Has there ever a level of coordinated violence against a peaceful company? I understand that not wanting to buy a product, but this is extreme fire and destruction!” Musk wrote in X.
In San Diego, a person with dark clothes and a red handkerchief around his face sneaked into the Tesla exhibition room in Encinitas before 2 in the morning on Monday and swastika painted with spray in eight vehicles and disfigured the windows of the concessionaire with blasphemies, said Sergeant of the Sergeant of San Diego County. Christie Ramírez.
Ramírez said researchers have not made any arrest.
Several dealers have been disfigured with Nazi symbols, an apparent response to the gesture gesture of the arm while talking in a rally that celebrates the inauguration of Trump in January. Musk denies that the gesture was a Nazi greeting.
In Las Vegas, the FBI and the Las Vegas Metro police began an investigation this week after the Vandals threw Molotov cocktails and fired at least three rounds in vehicles in a Tesla collision center only a few miles from the Vegas strip around 2:45 am on Tuesday, the authorities said.
Several teslas were wrapped in flames and the word “resistance” was painted with spray at the building's doors, Sheriff Dori Koren said. A person called 911 informed having seen a person with black clothes burning multiple electric vehicles.
At least five Tesla vehicles were damaged in the incident, including two completely involved by fire, authorities said.
The FBI and the alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives office are investigating a similar incident in Kansas City, Missouri, where two cyber -trucks caught early on Tuesday. The authorities say that until now there is no connection with the Las Vegas attack.
There have been at least half a dozen similar acts of vandalism in Tesla exhibition rooms throughout the country in recent months.
On March 2, someone scribbled the words “non -musk” in red spray paint in the windows of a Tesla dealership in Owings Mills, Maryland. A day later, seven Tesla load stations in Littleton, Mass.
In Tigard, Oregon, the police are investigating after someone opened fire at a Tesla concessionaire twice in a period of approximately one week. In the first incident, which occurred on March 6, someone shot at least seven rounds, damaging three cars and destroying windows. A bullet crossed an office wall and entered a computer monitor, according to the police.
“Fortunately, this happened overnight when the property was unemployed,” authorities wrote in a press release.
In Seattle, four cybertrucks that were parked in a Tesla lot caught on March 9. In Didham, Massachusetts, three teslas were painted with graffiti and their tires were cut on March 11, police said.
In Lynnwood, Washington, someone with the red spray painted in cybertrucks that were parked in a Tesla center waiting to be treated.
Many of the investigations remain in progress, but at least four people have been accused after allegedly destroying the property of Tesla.
Adam Matthew Lansky, 41, from Salem, Oregon, has been accused of illegally possessing a destructive device not registered after the authorities say that he allegedly tried to destroy teslas in a local dealership with Molotov cocktails. Lansky also allegedly fired several rounds to a building and a vehicle in the concessionaire, according to judicial records.
In Loveland, Colorado, two people have been arrested after attacks against a Tesla dealership. Cooper Jo Frederick, 24, of Fort Collins, was accused of using and possessing a second -grade explosive fire, criminal mischief and attempt to criminal offense after the police say that a incendiary device was lit and threw to a Tesla building, landing between two vehicles.
Lucy Grace Nelson, 42, of Lyons, Colorado, was accused of a charge of malicious destruction of the property for allegedly illuminating a fire near a cyberrtruck in the concessionaire and writing “Nazi” in a signal of concessionaire, according to judicial records.
Daniel Clarke-Pander, 24, from South Carolina, was also accused this month of a fire-cause fire used for interstate trade after prosecutors claim “F-Trump” and “Long Live Ukraine” in a parking lot used for people who charge their vehicles.
The authorities claim that he took out five Molotov cocktails and threw them to the chargers, damaging the devices. It faces up to 20 years in prison, if it is declared guilty, according to prosecutors.
Separately from violence, peaceful protesters have mobilized throughout the country in Tesla dealers.
A group of women who call themselves the “grandmother's brigade” gathered outside the Tesla exhibition hall and the Pullman Street service center on Costa Mesa this month to speak against Musk's participation in the federal government.
“Maybe if we contact each other economically, we can show that the United States cannot be bought for a few million dollars from a rich man,” said Debbie Marsteller, one of the group members.
But Marsteller was surprised by the vandalism that others have unleashed in the concessionaires.
“People who put the swastika Nazis in Tesla cars … It's absurd to me,” he said. “It doesn't help our cause.”
