Summary

A suspect vandalized and set fire to Teslas at a Las Vegas Collision Center early Tuesday in what police call a “targeted attack.”

The assailant, dressed in black, shot at five vehicles, torched two, and left an undetonated Molotov cocktail. They also spray-painted “Resist” on the building.

Authorities have not confirmed a political motive but noted Elon Musk’s ties to Trump. The FBI is investigating, warning that such acts are federal crimes.

Tesla has faced backlash amid Musk’s government role and far-right politics.

  • formergijoe@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    2 hours ago

    This doesn’t seem arson and vandalism to me. It’s clearly a Roman wildfire and Roman artwork. I don’t know why all these conservative snowflakes think that every drop of paint and fire at a Tesla dealership is a politically motivated attack. The paint and fire are clearly autistic, and just acting in the heat of the moment.

  • Demdaru@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    2 hours ago

    They also spray-painted “Resist” on the building.

    Authorities have not confirmed a political motive

    PFFFFFT

  • Monument@lemmy.sdf.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    29
    ·
    16 hours ago

    Honestly, it would be funnier if someone sprayed them with muriatic acid. (Hydrochloride acid)

    The damage to the metal is not fixable (as in, the rust can be cleaned away, but the damaged areas just keep re-rusting). It avoids the issue of insurance payments (just clean it, bro), and of burning the vehicles (releasing pollution). It basically marks the car for life, makes it unsellable, and, full offense, if someone buys one, they deserve a lifetime of annoying maintenance issues. Fuck their gleaming monument to fascism.

    • SynopsisTantilize@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      13
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      12 hours ago

      Ehhhh, that makes it a chemical terrorist attack. If it’s not classified as that now, it will be the first time it’s tried. Plus that’s significantly more dangerous than a Molotov or a gun.

      • Monument@lemmy.sdf.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        4 hours ago

        You know, when I envisioned this, I imagined some person with a 5-gallon sprayer, like they use for yards/pesticides. I sort of assumed they’d be doing it alone, with no one around, and (presumably) with some knowledge/awareness of how those sprayers work - so like, protective clothing, a mask, goggles, and being upwind. But you’re right that it’s dangerous despite all that. And it’s sort of an obvious thing to be carrying around.

        New mental picture of this activity: Jars that have been safely filled at home thrown from a distance while no one else is around.
        Or for discretion, a tide pen that has had the contents replaced. Bonus: It will still remove stains (and the fabric).

        Ultimately, however, it’s not something I’d actually entertain. I don’t see that as an effective outlet for any statement I’d like to make. Surely not for the risk/reward proposition. But it’s darn funny to think about.

        • SynopsisTantilize@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          3 hours ago

          Yeaaaa I was thinking melting hands and faces from back spray lol. Wait, will hydrochloric acid react to plastic? If not you’d need a glass paint pen. Also we’re both on watchlists now :) shit…

          Disclaimer. Don’t actually do any of this. But yes it would be a silly skit on adult swim or something.

          • Monument@lemmy.sdf.org
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            2 hours ago

            That’s sort of the funny thing - I think my experience/exposure to muriatic acid sort of colored how cavalier I am about it. I didn’t check precise concentrations, but a gallon can be had for $10 from a hardware store. I’ve seen guys just pour it on the floor, slosh it around with a mop, and seem to have no care whatsoever about incidental skin contact or getting it on their shoes. (They did wash their hands after, but seemed unhurried to do so.)

            Not that I’m advising cavalier behavior with hydrochoric acid, but perhaps I have a shifted baseline for understanding the caution one should take. (I mean - I’ve never worked directly with it myself, so…iunno.) Also very possible the products I’ve seen are a lower concentration than the ‘bubbling, foaming, melting your face’ concentrations of HCL we might otherwise expect.

            It does come in a plastic bottle - HDPE, I believe, so I think a standard paint pen would work for it. Provided the wicking material was not organic, it would probably survive just fine.

  • elbucho@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    102
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    23 hours ago

    The most fucked up part of this is the fact that the FBI is involved. I’m old enough to remember a time when someone vandalizing a few cars in a lot at 3 in the morning when nobody was around would be a local PD issue, and not the fucking FBI. Seems like it was only a couple of months ago… man, time flies.

    Seriously, though - in a normal world, this would be far below the payroll of FBI agents. They would spend their time investigating terrorist organizations or child traffickers and bounce this shit back to LVMPD and tell Tesla to file an insurance claim. Instead, the head of the FBI is the lackey of the president, who owes his position to the billionaire that owns Tesla, and so now the FBI is serving as Elon Musk’s personal private investigators. It’s disgusting.

    • JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      24
      ·
      15 hours ago

      Well they don’t have to spend their issues on child trafficking anymore because the president supports it and has made extensive use of trafficked children.

      And almost all of the domestic terrorist organizations support the government now, magically.

      They just need something to do now singer crime is “solved” 🙃

    • ohulancutash@feddit.uk
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      22 hours ago

      Those times were 30 years ago as of tomorrow. Since Oklahoma, the FBI has been very interested in domestic political violence and terror.

      • MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        33
        ·
        19 hours ago

        the FBI has been very interested in domestic political violence and terror

        Not super interested in the right wingers most of the time though

      • elbucho@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        20
        ·
        22 hours ago

        Actually 30 years ago as of a month and a day from now (April 19th, 1995). Still, there’s a huge fucking difference between a little light arson and parking a van packed full of explosives in front of a federal building. This is property damage, not terrorism.

        • ohulancutash@feddit.uk
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          21
          ·
          20 hours ago

          It’s politically motivated property damage, which is terrorism. It starts with light arson, and when that doesn’t bring down the government, it escalates and before too long there’s a truckload of fertiliser outside the White House because someone doesn’t know when to stop.

          • nomy@lemmy.zip
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            2 hours ago

            Property damage is not terrorism holy shit you’re actually putting material things on the same level as human lives.

            • Rhoeri@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              2 hours ago

              Terrorism as defined by the FBI clearly defines property damage as terrorism.

              Just because one can make up their own definitions of things, doesn’t obligate everyone else to subscribe to it.

          • Retropunk64@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            4 hours ago

            because someone doesn’t know when to stop.

            The white house can stop fucking people over whenever they want.

            • ohulancutash@feddit.uk
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              2 hours ago

              Trump isn’t happy unless he’s fucking someone over. Should people debase themselves to his level?

          • Goodmorningsunshine@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            6 hours ago

            Because someone doesn’t know when to stop? I believe you stop when the government works for the people again, right? Just because you like what’s happening doesn’t mean the patriotic shouldn’t revolt.

          • Rimu@piefed.social
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            17
            ·
            17 hours ago

            Property damage can sometimes be considered terrorism, depending on the intent, scale, and impact of the act. Many legal definitions of terrorism include serious destruction of property if it is intended to:

            • Intimidate or coerce a population (e.g., setting fire to critical infrastructure to spread fear).
            • Influence a government or international organization (e.g., bombing government buildings to force political change).
            • Cause widespread disruption (e.g., cyberattacks on essential services).

            Tesla dealerships are not critical infrastructure, government buildings or essential services.

            It’s really a stretch to call this terrorism.

            • AA5B@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              3 hours ago

              I wish we had someone who could look at government to cut waste, fraud and abuse, get those guys back on serious crime

          • aesthelete@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            10
            ·
            16 hours ago

            I dunno I just see highly motivated consumers that want to kick the tires and light the fires on these bad boys before signing on the dotted line. It’s similar to how those patriotic tourists toured the capital on January 6th, 2021.

          • elbucho@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            24
            ·
            20 hours ago

            It’s politically motivated property damage, which is terrorism

            By that metric, you could also claim that defacing a political sign during election season is terrorism. Some terrorist drew a mustache on a billboard of one of the candidates in my district. Should the FBI investigate that, too?

            The problem with your slippery slope argument is that it’s fucking stupid. You have to draw the line somewhere. If the FBI is going to investigate every time someone decides to huck a molotov cocktail at a nazimobile, they’re going to have their hands way too full to track down real crimes.

    • arrow74@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      36
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      23 hours ago

      I don’t know, are we sure the Tesla didn’t spontaneously combust? They’re known to do that. Wouldn’t want a manufacturing error pinned on an innocent person…

  • alekwithak@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    33
    ·
    edit-2
    23 hours ago

    Teslas aren’t selling, but playing the victim, pointing the finger, AND collection insurance? Even better.

    I’m sure a few radicals are out there vandalizing a Tesla or two, but I don’t believe for a second this isn’t insurance fraud with a bonus of labelling people who speak out against you as domestic terrorists.

    • painfulasterisk1@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      21 hours ago

      Elon bought the cars in Canada and people figured it out. Now he has no other option than to make organized arson to claim insurance and recoup his losses.

    • the803@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      22 hours ago

      The “RESIST” graffiti is a dead giveaway; people with Fox-addled brians don’t understand the difference between liberals and anarchists (the way insurance adjusters do)

  • ThePantser@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    22 hours ago

    Love seeing this hurting FElon. I just hope people are checking these cars before the battery spontaneously combusts to ensure nobody is sleeping in one we don’t want to give them any reason to turn this into a bigger deal by having a murder involved.