Thousands of electric customers in Washington State had their power cut off as a result of attacks on four substations around Tacoma yesterday. Power stations are the target of far-right fascist groups aiming to provoke civil unrest in furtherance of their politics. From the linked article:
"The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department described the early morning attacks on two Tacoma Public Utilities substations and a Puget Sound Energy facility as acts of vandalism, with those responsible unidentified.
It is unknown if there are any motives or if this was a coordinated attack on the power systems,' the sheriff’s department said in a statement.
The agency estimated that the number of affected homes and businesses was 14,000 at one point Sunday when there were three substations affected.
The sheriff's department described a fourth incident Sunday about 7:21 p.m. at another Puget Sound Energy substation.
'The suspect(s) gained access to the fenced area and vandalized the equipment which caused the fire,' the sheriff’s office said in a statement. 'There are no suspects in custody at this time.'"
You can be certain that radical right- wing domestic terrorist groups are coordinating these attacks, which have been occurring for weeks. From the above linked article:
"...Oregon Public Broadcasting and KUOW public radio of Seattle reported that separate attacks on six substations operated by Portland General Electric, the Bonneville Power Administration, the Cowlitz County Public Utility District and Puget Sound Energy in Washington and Oregon had taken place mid-November. The incidents are alleged to have included breaches of utility properties, the outlets said.
On Dec. 3, vandals attacked two Duke Energy substations in Moore County, North Carolina, leaving 45,000 customers in the dark for more than three days, officials said. People with guns opened fire and, in one case, breached a facility, they said, and they remained outstanding nearly a month later."
Last February, three white supremacists pled guilty in Ohio to a plot to attack power stations, in an attempt to start a race war:
"Federal prosecutors in Ohio said the three planned to disrupt the electricity grid in order to sow civil unrest and economic uncertainty in furtherance of their white supremacist cohort. They hoped to cause unrest and trigger a race war, but the plot never really got past the planning stage, prosecutors said."
Think of any lawless pro-Trump militia, white supremacist / anti-Semitic organization, or QAnon creeps and you likely have the profile of these saboteurs. When they're found, they need to be indicted, convicted and sentenced to long terms in prison.
(photo: A Tacoma Power crew works at an electrical substation that was damaged. Ken Lambert/The Seattle Times via AP)
