State-Sponsored Terrorism and the Attacks on Our Infrastructure
Domestic terrorists have been targeting the power grid for years. The American public continues to ignore the warnings
Recently, domestic terrorists attacked the power grid in Moore County, North Carolina bringing to the forefront the seriousness of growing unabated extremism in the U.S. Many independent journalists have been warning about this for years and it wasn’t until Donald Trump decided to run for president that legacy media began scant reporting on it. Even now, they ignore the rise in recruitment efforts being employed by hate groups and Christian nationalist extremists alike.
Legacy media, like police, are reactionary.
The faux-outrage machine is well-oiled and only speaks on extremism when a mass shooting or other terrorist attack occurs. Meanwhile, attacks on members of marginalized communities are happening dozens of times a day. Whether it’s verbal harassment or physical aggression, most hateful attacks are either underreported or not reported at all. Especially when those attacks are committed against marginalized groups by police or angry white men.
On November 30, The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a bulletin warning of potential terrorist attacks after the mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs. They cited statements made in posts on far-right extremist channels and even on social media such as Twitter and Facebook where users expressed interest in attacking infrastructure.
“Targets of potential violence include public gatherings, faith-based institutions, the LGBTQI+ community, schools, racial and religious minorities, government facilities and personnel, U.S. critical infrastructure, the media, and perceived ideological opponents,” read the statement.
On forums such as 8 Chan and private messaging apps like Telegram, some were seen praising the Colorado Springs shooter, which, much like many others who applauded previous domestic terrorists, is alarmingly normalized. Others were interested in how the attack on the power grid in North Carolina was carried out triggering a new host of warnings.
Yet, none of this is new. In 2020, talk of attacking infrastructure exploded on far-right channels after the civil rights protests in the summer of that year. Chatter increased throughout the fall and into the holiday season leading to the Christmas morning bombing in Nashville, Tennessee. That bombing did extensive damage and exposed vulnerabilities in the nation’s communications infrastructure, particularly for emergency services and first responders.
Despite the constant warnings about these types of attacks, neither federal nor local law enforcement appears to have taken any precautionary measures even today. Year after year, the threats are there and nothing is done to “harden” our infrastructure against being vulnerable to small-arms fire - an absurd thought for the richest country on the planet. However, it goes without saying that if the people making these threats were Black or Brown they’d be in jail or dead.
Instead, we have police, judges, and prosecutors who routinely participate in what amounts to state-sponsored terrorism. The intent of the legal system to refuse to reign in a man who claimed to be the next “mass shooter” after making a bomb threat against his mother a year before he committed the terrorist attack in Colorado Springs speaks volumes.
Similarly, the Ahmaud Arbery case was the same way. If not for the lynch mob thinking the video we all saw of his murder would exonerate them, they would have gotten away with it. Not only did the police just shrug off a lynching in broad daylight, but the prosecutor and judge were all in on deciding not to prosecute three men who decided to show their true Klan selves to the world.
Breonna Taylor’s packages were being tracked using information purchased from a private company, Amazon, to create a false suspicion that would lead to her death. Botham Jean was murdered in his own home and Amber Guyger tried to use the power granted to her by the state to try and get out of a cold-blooded murder. All with the help of her union representative who has access to the crime scene before most first responders did.
When we talk about state-sponsored terrorism in the U.S., we’re talking about elected officials and law enforcement's intentional inaction to stop these terrorists. Many officers and/or agents, oftentimes in leadership positions, align themselves with the beliefs of those who would do the country harm. Based on social media posts and reports from North Carolina, there are suspects that police have apparently been treating with kid gloves and what they claim is “prayer”.
When an area woman claimed to know what happened with the attack on the power grid in a social media post that suggested maybe she even knew who was involved, Moore County Sheriff, Rooney Fields, dismissed the idea of her being involved saying, “Yes, we had to go and interview this young lady and have a word of prayer with her, but it turned out to be nothing,” while all but dismissing far-right actors in the attack.
In addition, we’ve seen cops high-five members of hate groups and escort them through cities and towns across the country, whether permitted or not. We’ve exposed police, judges, elected officials, and more as members of hate groups. Reports of gangs within police departments across the country have also exploded in recent years. And yet, society remains silent.
It’s no wonder that questions among marginalized groups about who is actually safe on our streets routinely come up. The answer is always the same: straight white Christian men.
Arturo is a writer, journalist, and publisher of The Antagonist Magazine. You can find him on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Meanwhile, the FBI refuses to take the minimal step of declaring violent militia groups to be 'domestic terrorists'. Their bulletins are as empty as Garland's tiresome rhetoric...no one takes proactive action for fear of right-wing reaction (and MSM's incessant amplification of bad-faith actors).
There is zero examination, ever, of our oft-vaunted 'free speech', but what have we gained from a definition that refuses to excise hate speech, as most other democracies do (as a matter of common sense). Hence, Germany can prosecute those planning a coup, while the US is unable to even indict those who planned and incited a coup.
This country was built on hatred of anyone who isn't a straight white Christian male. It is up to all of us to fix that terrible legacy and change things for the better.