Two Duke Energy substations in Moore County were shot up this weekend, leaving 45,000 people without power. Duke says repairing the stations could take several days. The sheriff called the attack targeted and said the people responsible, “knew exactly what they were doing.” He imposed a curfew from 9pm to 5am. The governor declared a state of emergency. The FBI joined the investigation since attacking the power grid is a federal offense.
The sheriff listed no suspects, but that didn’t keep social media warriors from speculating with their usual certainty. Some on the left believe the attack was perpetrated by right-wing activists who opposed a drag show that was scheduled for 7pm on Saturday night, about the same time as the first substation was shot up. An activist and January 6 protester named Emily Grace Rainey posted on Facebook “The power is out in Moore County and I know why.” She then posted a photo of the Sunrise Theater which hosted the drag show. Another activist name Sarah Fields posted on Twitter, “A ‘family friendly’ drag queen event was cancelled in Moore County, NC, due to a massive power outage.” She added the hashtag, #imokwithit.
Those posts led to thousands of shares and a certainty among the left that the attack was right-wing terrorism. Conservatives pushed back, saying leftists made the accusations with absolutely no evidence. And they are right, but we do know that right-wing activists supported the attack.
The sheriff’s department talked to Rainey and Sheriff Ronnie Fields said that the post was “false.” After the deputies left her house, Rainey posted, “The Moore County Sheriff’s Office just checked in. I welcomed them to my home. Sorry they wasted their time. 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. God is chastising Moore County.”
Personally, I don’t think God shot up those substations, but if he did, I think he was punishing Moore County for voting for Donald Trump, not the drag show. The county gave Trump an almost 30% margin and a whole lot of those folks in Southern Pines and Pinehurst are smart enough to know better. If He was only targeting the drag show, He would have just shot up the fuse box at the Sunshine Theater. He wouldn’t punish 45,000 innocent people just to get the couple of hundred or so people watching the drag show.
I think God gave up on punishing the world by indiscriminately killing, maiming, and otherwise inconveniencing lots of people every few hundred years because it wasn’t working. About two thousand years ago, He tried a different tactic by sending a guy down here to tell us how to live, not punish us for living wrong. He narrowed down the Ten Commandments to help us focus. He said our priorities should be to love Him with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself. He didn’t tell us what our neighbor might look like or do. I don’t think shooting up a substation and leaving 45,000 innocent people without power follows those commandments.
Maybe He’s given up on that tactic and is going back to the death and destruction thing. If so, I think he’s targeting Republicans. Think about it. In the last few years, all those hurricanes have hit Florida and Texas, not New York. But when He did send one into the northeast, Sandy hit New Jersey. He might have been punishing them for electing Chris Christie.
I’m sorry. I got off track. It seems like the sheriff, governor, and FBI believe this was a terrorist attack, even if they aren’t ready to say that without more evidence. It was, they say, intentional, targeted, and carried out by people who knew what they were doing. Sounds like terrorists to me. Their motive is unclear, but I’ve got three possibilities besides God.
It could have been people who have a beef against Duke Energy or Moore County government. Maybe they were billed wrong or their taxes were too high or maybe they had land taken by eminent domain. In other words, they’re getting revenge for a specific grudge. That seems unlikely to me, but it’s possible.
Maybe climate activists did it. They don’t like Duke Power and maybe they were sending a message. That seems unlikely because nobody has made any claims like that and those groups generally want people to know what they are doing. Besides, climate activists seem to prefer to attack art work these days and I have not heard of too many ecoterrorists in recent years, aside from animal rights folks.
Or maybe the lefty social media folks got it right all along. I suspect they did. I’m betting the perpetrators are Republican sympathizers. That’s certainly the most plausible explanation. Proud Boys, the knuckle-dragging militia-wing of the GOP, have been active in the area and allied right-wing groups were protesting the drag brunch. Organizers of the drag show say they received threats from right-wing groups. In addition, the attacks occurred at essentially the same time that the drag show was starting.
Maybe all of that is just a coincidence, but, at this point, it seems the most plausible explanation. I’m open to more ideas. Maybe it was just a really stupid prank by a couple of good ol’ boys who didn’t know what would happen, but that’s not what the sheriff thinks. He called it “intentional” and “targeted.” We’ll find out more in the coming days.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
There was a similar attack in Oregon, so I doubt it was the drag show – a larger problem may be developing across the country. We live in dangerous times.
Only someone very knowledgeable about the substations and their operations would have ever thought about shooting at ones in such remote locations as Carthage and West End to effect Southern Pines- so I’m seriously doubtful that the drag show was causative. More likely incidental collateral event.
Seems to me if God goes around punishing people like this, he would make it clear why.
Also, God has more powerful tools than a rifle
I’m in complete agreement, this was no accident. It was a willful deliberate act. It was done with precision and at least a cursory knowledge of how to accomplish it.
How morosely disengaged would you have to be to believe, or think for that matter, that this was unintentional or unrelated to anything or each other? From what I’ve been able to glean, conservative activists have been batting this scenario around in chat groups on-line for a few years now. Turning out the lights as a way of pushing mass chaos and causing whatever it is they think is a good idea. People suffering, afraid, hungry, and being preyed upon by others; yeah, what a good idea.
As for the former psychological warfare officer, according to the article I read, the Sheriff goes out, prays with her and determines she knows nothing. And maybe she does know nothing of the incident. Her background certainly lends nothing to how to manipulate people by inducing stressors through critical infrastructure disruption. Nope. Nothing to see there.
Act of domestic terrorism? Absolutely. Brace yourselves though. Copycat and additional acts will likely be forthcoming. Crazy is as crazy does and this wasn’t perpetrated by a couple of whackaloons meeting in a metal shed plotting the Apocalypse.
Was it a trial run for a larger attack or operation? Let’s hope the FBI can identify and arrest those responsible before we find out. Maybe they should pray on it with the Sheriff. Perhaps God will reveal His plan to them.
Congratulations Sarah Fields, You’re now under investigation by the FBI and possibly Homeland security.
nim
Firing high-caliber weapons into [2-3] substations is not vandalism. It’s not “intentional vandalism” (as opposed to “unintentional vandalism” ). It’s not a “power outage” anymore than blowing up a dam would be a flood. It was a signature act associated with Christian nationalists / fascist Republicans- there have been similar attacks on power grids across the country which readers can Google for themselves. But the act is not defined by who planned and executed the attack.
It was not accidental. It was coordinated. And it occurred in a county that’s splintered by Christian nationalists / veterans having moved into the area and launched culture wars against non-evangelical Christians and non-Christians and the LGBTQI community.
It’s not unique to North Carolina. Check rural. Check evangelical. Check large aggrieved veteran / law enforcement population. Check White.
I saw more Confederate flags and TRUMP signs in upstate (rural) New York than in rural North Carolina during the years I lived there 2019-2021.
It’s not a contest between left, right and moderate voices on social media. Bothsideism misses the point entirely and normalizes political violence.
It was an act of domestic terrorism. Pure and simple. Call it by its name.
We will hopefully know very soon who the terrorists are, and what their intentions were.
In the meanwhile the inability of elected officials to call a spade a spade is serving the interests only of the terrorists and their supporters.
Well said… well said… we will know more soon, but there is a reason folks are jumping to conclusions, but the signs say that there may be truth there.
Interesting ideas… I can add a some more: disgruntled Duke employee, probe/trial run for a larger incident, “hero” or bored employee (in the vein of firefighter arsonist). One thing though that I haven’t gotten an answer to. In the pic that protester posted of people leaving theater with caption of something like “God shall not be mocked,” the photo was taken around 8:45pm, long after protesters left. Why? Was someone waiting for something to happen? I know it was around that time because that is me leaving the theater when they finally called it a night.
The show was more than halfway through when the outage reached SoPi so if incident happened around 7pm as reported, maybe they didn’t realize it would take so long? Just a thought.
Apparently two substations we’re shot, about 45 minutes apart. Maybe they realized the first shot didn’t take out the power at the club & raced over to the other? I found it interesting that the two targets were only 15 minutes apart, but it took the shooter(s) 45 minutes between the two. If it were a coordinated attack by multiple perpetrators the shots would have been simultaneous
Great commentary! It was not a fun weekend.