Domestic terrorism: What is it, how is it defined and when to call an incident that
One North Carolina community is still partially in the dark after an attack on two electrical substations knocked out power to more than 40,000 electrical customers Saturday. So is this an act of vandalism or something else?
The Moore County Sheriff's Office held a news conference on Sunday to address the power outage. Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields called the incident a criminal attack perpetrated by cowards. People in the comments of the Facebook livestream of the press conference called it an act of domestic terrorism.
But is it?
Field said his office, along with the law enforcement agencies in the county's 11 municipalities as well as the FBI and State Bureau of Investigation, is conducting a probe into the assault on the county's infrastructure. There have been no arrests in this incident.
"No group has stepped up to acknowledge or accept that they're the ones that done it," he said. "I call them cowards is what I call them."
There are certain requirements for an incident to be defined as domestic terrorism and as of Tuesday the Moore County attack had not been labeled as such.
What is the definition of domestic terrorism?
For an incident to be considered as an act of domestic terrorism, it must meet a set definition. According to the FBI, an act of domestic terrorism must:
Involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of criminal code of the United States or of any state
Appear to be intended to: Intimidate or coerce a civilian population, influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion or affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping
Occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States
When are people charged with domestic terrorism?
Domestic terrorism may be defined in the U.S. Code, but there is no federal charge to bring against those labeled domestic terrorists.
In the U.S., some domestic terrorism suspects have been tried under existing laws with federal prosecutors securing guilty verdicts and getting sentences including life in prison and the death penalty.
The FBI Agents Association, an organization that represents current and retired agents, has been advocating for the U.S. Congress to make a domestic terrorism federal law with criminal penalty.
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Domestic terrorism examples
2019 El Paso shooting
A gunman killed 23 and injured dozens more Aug. 3, 2019, in a targeted attack on Latinos. The shooting occurred at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart.
The suspected shooter? 21-year-old Patrick Crusius who is white.
The former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, John Bash, who announced the federal charges filed against Crusius, said just after the shooting the “horrific crime met the federal definition of terrorism.”
Bash referred to Crusius as a domestic terrorist when the charges were announced during a February 2020 news conference.
The alleged El Paso mass shooter is facing 23 counts of hate crimes resulting in death, 23 counts of use of a firearm to commit murder during and in relation to a crime of violence, 22 counts of hate crimes involving an attempt to kill and 22 counts of use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
Crusius is still awaiting trial.
Ohio: Domestic terrorism plans to attack power grids
In February 2022, three men pleaded guilty in Ohio to domestic terrorism plans to attack power grids.
Christopher Brenner Cook, 20, of Columbus, Ohio; Jonathan Allen Frost, 24, of Katy, Texas and of West Lafayette, Indiana; and Jackson Matthew Sawall, 22, of Oshkosh, Wisconsin; each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.
As part of the conspiracy, according to court documents, the defendants were assigned a substation in a different region of the United States. The plan was to attack the substations, or power grids, with powerful rifles. The defendants believed their plan would cost the government millions of dollars and cause unrest for Americans in the region, prosecutors said. From the conversations, they believed that the possibility of the power being out for many months could cause war, even a race war, and induce the next Great Depression, according to the sentencing memorandum in the case.
“The defendants in this case wanted to attack regional power substations and expected the damage would lead to economic distress and civil unrest,” said Assistant Director Timothy Langan of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division. “These individuals wanted to carry out such a plot because of their adherence to racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist views. When individuals move from espousing particular views to planning or committing acts of violence the FBI will investigate and take action to stop their plans. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to protect our communities.”
The trio is set to be sentenced Jan. 4.
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Identifying domestic hate groups and extremist groups
The Southern Poverty Law Center has spent years keeping a database of known hate and extremist groups in the United States. The SPLC is considered a premier U.S. organization that monitors activities of hate and extremist groups. Several SPLC-designated hate groups include:
neo-Nazi movement
The El Paso Times and USA Today contributed to this report.
Joyce Orlando is a digital producer with the South Digital Optimization Team. She can be reached at jorlando@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: What is domestic terrorism? Definition, what it is, why it happens
