FBI arrests two people for an attack on a power substation in Washington state

 

Powerlines in California. NPR/AFP/Getty. 

The FBI has arrested two men for an attack on a power station in Washington state. NPR. The men attacked a power substation and took out power for thousands of people on Christmas Day. Their motive was to knock out power so they could rob a cash register at a local business. The men, Mathew Greenwood and Jeremy Crahan, were charged with federal conspiracy charges to damage energy facilities. Greenwood also got a charge for an unregistered gun. The attack came after a string of similar attacks on the west coast and in North Carolina, raising fears of domestic terrorists. 

My Comment:

This news broke yesterday but with the Speaker of the House drama sucking up almost all media attention, most people probably missed it. Given that the story is still ongoing I won't be writing about the drama in Washington until it's finished. 

This story is an incredibly stupid one. The plot was apparently successful but it sure did backfire on these two robbers. Instead of getting away with the crime the brought the feds down on them and pissed off an entire town. Was it worth it do get the contents of a single cash register? Assuming they are convicted they will be in prison for a long time.

However, it is significant to realize that domestic terrorism isn't the only reason to attack a power station. Though these two men failed, I guess cutting the power could be used if you wanted to get away with a crime. Doing so seems like a very bad idea because it would bring the feds on you pretty fast, but in some cases criminals might thing it is worth it. Perhaps the motive for the other attacks on the west coast and the attack in North Carolina was similar?

It sounds like the two men were captured because of "cell phone" records. My guess is that the FBI was able to get a warrant for the geolocation of their phones, meaning they probably had them with them for some reason. Either that or they were dumb enough to be discussing their crime and the feds were already monitoring them for some reason. Either way, it's just another example of criminals not actually thinking. 

I can understand why the feds were so on top of this case. The attacks on power substations must have been a huge priority for them. Of course these attacks have caused quite a bit of damage and they put a lot of people that are dependent on power at risk. People with medical conditions and the like could have died during these attacks.

But the bigger priority for the FBI is trying to undercut the effectiveness of these attacks. The quick capture of these suspects might convince people that these attacks are as easy to pull off as they think. That's obviously wrong, these guys got caught because they were idiots, but it's a motivation for the FBI. 

Still, I do think this is another case of the demand for domestic terrorists being higher than the actual supply. Everyone, even me, thought that this was some kind of domestic terrorist attacks, though I personally thought it was more likely a left wing one than a right wing one. Either way, everyone was wrong in this case and it was just a couple of stupid criminals.