‘Intentional Vandalism’ Leaves 40,000 Without Power in N.C.

[Ivy]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/power-outage-in-moore-county-north-carolina-caused-by-vandalism

 

“I told them that God works in mysterious ways and is responsible for the outage. I used the opportunity to tell them about the immoral drag show and the blasphemies screamed by its supporters. I told them God is chastising Moore County, thanked them for coming and wished them a good night. Thankful for the LEOs service, as always.”

 

Two hours earlier, Rainey had posted the message: “The power is out in Moore County and I know why.” And around the same time, she posted a picture of the Sunrise Theater, which was putting on the sold-out drag show, with the caption “God will not be mocked.”

 

 

Some other reports don't mention the Drag Show.

https://www.fayobserver.com/story/news/crime/2022/12/04/moore-county-power-outage-investigated-as-vandalism/69699328007/

 

Twitter thread on it.

 

[VickySGV]

Sooo-- a deity is now providing gun men to shoot out power installations on demand??  I would like to hear what happens when that is used as a defense in court.  Actually it has been used before to no benefit of the accused person.

 

NOTE, I am a practicing Episcopalian Church member.

[Marcie Jensen]

This is from the second article: "Last night, unknown individuals vandalized at least two substations in Moore County with criminal intent. Motive for this crime remains unknown.

 

From this, it appears that the local authorities have no idea as to who did this or why, despite interviewing a local conservative, and apparently an evangelical Christian, activist. Ms. Caraballo's conclusions are simply a matter of ill considered opinion not supported by fact. Presently, there is no evidence connecting "fascists" to this act (although I suspect othe4rwise). Nor is this an example of "terrorism." Rather, it is a criminal act of the basest sort.

 

Additionally, as a practicing Presbyterian (someday I may get it right) minister, I can state categorically that most denominations including the Episcopalians, Lutherans, Nazarenes, Methodists etc., do NOT condone this sort of hateful stuff. It's antithetical to everything Christ taught. It's too easy to condemn an entire faith for the actions of a few; this includes Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and countless others. Perhaps it's time to let the investigation run its course before we start rushing to judgment.

 

And for the record--God, by whatever name or faith--doesn't provide gunmen to shoot power stations or anything else. Especially in Christianity. Let us remember that one of Jesus' titles is "Prince of Peace."

[Ivy]

I certainly am not implying that this was a Christianly motivated incident.  In fact I believe the majority of Christians would condemn it.

 

I also think that the people being questioned have "plausible deniability" even if they know about it.  I do think it is worth noting that there was a recent incident in this same part of the state, with armed men protesting a "Drag Brunch".

Of course the perpetrators would have to actually be caught, and convicted which I'm not so optimistic about.  It seems to have been well coordinated, so it was apparently not a "lone wolf" thing.

 

I live in a fairly red county in NC myself.  (The dems sometimes don't even bother to field candidates)  I have been pretty open about my life.  To get my name changed recently, I had to post it all at the courthouse publicly.

When I was in Wallyworld this morning a guy gave me the hairy eyeball.  I just brushed it off, but then when I got home I saw this stuff.  Now I'm beginning to wonder…

[Ivy]

Apparently the Proud Boys were instrumental in getting an event cancelled in Ohio yesterday.

 

https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/local/2022/12/03/royal-oak-school-drag-storytime-canceled-proud-boys-protest-columbus/69691753007/

 

Guess there's a trend here now.

[awkward-yet-sweet]

I'm always confused when people who do threats or vandalism target something that is completely unrelated to what they disagree with.  How is the electric company responsible for a drag show? 

 

In my area, when the electric company decided they were going to steal people's land (eminent domain), they were reminded that their infrastructure stays intact at the pleasure/cooperation of the local population.  A direct threat, clearly related to what was going on.  That made sense, in a way.  THIS does not.  Christianity has nothing to do with it, but perhaps mental illness might.  🤨

 

Ecclesiastes 3 tells us there's "A time to kill, and a time to heal.... a time to tear and a time to mend... a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war, and a time for peace."  There's room in my faith for war and violence, as a last resort when it is the correct time for those things.  The correct time, for a specific and rational purpose.  How on earth people randomly come up with "today is the day I shoot out the electrical transformers in the name of Jesus" is beyond me.  It would be interesting to analyze the pattern of thought that generated that one. 🤔 

 

 

[Ivy]

19 minutes ago, awkward-yet-sweet said:

How is the electric company responsible for a drag show? 

I mean, this?

People are on life support and stuff - oxygen etc.   

 

One of my daughters lives in that area.  She and her kids are staying with one of my sons till they get power back up.  They've been told it may take till Thursday.   

 

And all for what?

[VickySGV]

The authorities are emphasizing in the more responsible press outlets that at the minute they DO NOT have solid leads to a motive for this.  What they seem to be finding is that this was done to specific items of the station that would take the whole thing down.  My own experience with electrical work is that this was not the random damage like they would get from even a major local storm, and that is what they are now reporting and is the reason for the severity of the damage.  The Drag Show is still a possibility but other things are still in the mix. 

[awkward-yet-sweet]

1 hour ago, VickySGV said:

 What they seem to be finding is that this was done to specific items of the station that would take the whole thing down.  My own experience with electrical work is that this was not the random damage like they would get from even a major local storm, and that is what they are now reporting and is the reason for the severity of the damage. 

 

Correct me if I'm wrong (I'm an artist not an engineer), but from what I understand, a few well-placed bullets could do that.  Make a hole in each transformer.  The things are cooled by gallons of mineral oil inside.... Once that oil leaks out, it overheats and no longer works.  The reporter said there was a smell of oil, which makes sense if that was the method.  Unless I'm wrong, I don't think this would take a great deal of technical knowledge....

[VickySGV]

@awkward-yet-sweet I hope you are right on this, but patches and replacement of the oil go pretty fast.  The things that will take the time are control panels for the switching apparatus involved.  I live a couple of blocks from such a switching facility and friends of mine have been the people who maintain them and I am snoopy as all get out on that stuff.  I have seen into the guts of  onsite control panels and what is in them and having to put one back together is a nightmare.  I do hope you are right.

[Carolyn Marie]

As a former (reserve) police officer, I can think of a couple of reasons why someone would want to shoot up a power station: a) because young people with guns and too much time on their hands (or liquor in their stomachs) might think it was fun; and b) to knock out the power so as to break in and steal copper wire, which is very valuable.  I took several such reports of wire theft back in the day.

 

As to the religious retribution-as-cause nonsense, I doubt it.

 

Carolyn Marie

[Marcie Jensen]

@Carolyn Marie. what you're saying makes sense. Particularly the part about theft as a motive. While I've not heard of stealing the copper wire from electrical transformers, I can say that stealing copper pipe and wire from abandoned/condemned buildings is growing more and more common. It's become a real issue in the Phoenix area over the past several years. I also doubt the religious retribution-as-cause. That's what we used to call "low hanging fruit" in the intelligence community.

[Ivy]

1 hour ago, Marcie Jensen said:

I also doubt the religious retribution-as-cause.

Could just be a coincidence.

 

It does seem to be overkill just to stop a drag event.  Looks like they could just knock out the power to the building, or that block.

 

My paranoia does kick in sometimes.

I mean, it could have been a test run for something worse.  IDK.  I'm pretty sure it wasn't just a prank though.

 

There's too many idiots running around, armed to the teeth.  I own firearms, but I'm talking like a bolt action rifle or a shotgun.  I'm too old for combat anyway.

 

We seem to be descending into some kind of collective madness.  I have theories about that, but this is not the place for them.

[awkward-yet-sweet]

@Carolyn Marie   @Marcie Jensen Copper theft is definitely a thing... But I was under the impression that the majority of overhead transmission wires were aluminum due to cost and weight.  My husband's company does commercial and public electric projects.  I recall him mentioning something about it, especially one underground project where all wiring was aluminum to deter theft.  

 

 

Which leaves us back at low-hanging fruit for wanton destruction.

[Marcie Jensen]

@awkward-yet-sweet. Yes, you're correct about transmission wires, they are mostly aluminum; particularly residential service mains (ie: from the power pole to the house). The vandalism was directed at the transformers, though. Electricity is transmitted at about 50000 volts A/C if I recall correctly. Residential power is delivered at 220 volts A/C. The transformers' function is to "step down," or reduce the voltage, the service main wires' function is to deliver the stepped down power. The internal wiring of the transformers can be either copper or aluminum. Copper is more common in transformers because it's more efficient as a conductor.