The organizers of “Tesla Takedown” promised their biggest world action day this weekend, encouraging thousands of people to protest outside the Tesla exhibition halls, dealers and even charging stations to oppose Elon Musk peacefully in reducing public spending.
As Tesla’s manifestations have spread, the backlash. Activists who hold panels are confused with masked vandals throwing Molotov cocktails. On social networks and in Washington, the distinction fades quickly.
President Donald Trump summoned Tesla’s “domestic terrorism” and threatened to send “terrorist thugs” to Salvador prisons. The American prosecutor General Pam Bondi is committed to continuing “those who operate behind the scenes to coordinate and finance these crimes”, even if evidence suggests that the attacks were carried out by “lonely offenders”. And Musk’s decision to accuse at least one peaceful protester of “committing crimes” on X fueled a public discourse that assimilates protest to vandalism and vandalism with terrorism.
If the government or the application of laws begin to treat all anti-TESLA actions as criminal and peaceful demonstrators could find themselves in the face of consequences intended for extremists.
“Terrorism is a problematic concept in law enforcement because it is differentiated by other violence by its political nature by definition,” Mike German, former FBI special agent on the Brennan Center, told Techcrunch and National Fresh Agent. “This is why we have seen measures to combat terrorism so often resulting in problematic results targeting the civil rights of people engaged in an activity protected by the first amendment, rather than people who commit acts of violence.”
Tesla Takedown demonstrators have always preached non-violence during gatherings and on their website. The declared objective of the movement is not to physically harm Tesla or Musk, but rather to encourage people to sell their teslas, to sell their stock and to stop new teslas.
“The reason why (Musk) is in the position where it is because of its richness, and we think that if we can continue to lead the course of Tesla’s actions, we will hit him where he is important,” said Natasha Purdum, an organizer based in New Jersey, in Techcrunch. “In the end, we consider this as a key to eliminating part of the major destruction that occurs in our federal government, graceful of Doge and Elon Musk.”
Musk is the richest person in the world largely due to their Tesla stock. It holds around 13% of the company, which is now estimated at around 829 billion dollars, which makes Musk’s share of around $ 107.8 billion. This wealth allowed Musk to spend $ 44 billion to buy Twitter, the main platform he uses to communicate to his 219 million followers. Musk also plunged into his own funds to give more than $ 260 million to the America PAC who helped Trump get the elections.
As a person who has spent 16 years as FBI special agent focused on domestic terrorism, the German says that he would not be surprised to see the local police working the hand in GLOVE with working groups on terrorism – like the one that the FBI has just been formed – to monitor Tesla’s demonstrations. According to the Directives of the Attorney General, the FBI does not require a factual basis to suspect terrorism to start carrying out physical surveillance, which includes taking photos of people, cars and license plates, deployment of informants to infiltrate a group, access private databases, etc.
“It is also important to understand that the police in the United States are mainly intended to protect the goods from the rich,” said the German. “Societies in the United States are politically powerful and have access to elected officials and senior law enforcement officials. And when their interests are disputed, in particular by protest, they want to present this as a question of application of the law, rather than as legitimate public concerns concerning their business activities. ”
The FBI refused to comment on Techcrunch’s question on the question of whether the agency takes special measures this weekend.
“We will continue them”
Musk and the Trump administration increased their rhetoric before March 29, when 213 Tesla demonstrations with withdrawal are scheduled in the world, from Colorado and Kentucky to Germany, Minnesota, France and Texas.
Thursday, Musk appeared in Fox News’ “special report” to say that he and Trump will “go after … those who provide money, those who push lies and propaganda”.
Trump suggested that Tesla property attacks have been coordinated to intimidate musk, despite internal assessments of the contrary. Musk also said, without demonstrating proof that some Tesla organizers were financed by Actblue, a non -profit organization that finances progressive causes and democratic candidates.
And Bondi accused representative Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) of “asking for an additional insurrection” after Crockett said that Musk was to be “removed” during a Tesla virtual rally at the withdrawal last week. Crockett made this statement with calls for non-violence and peaceful demonstrations, but whatever, Bondi said that she had to “walk very carefully”.
The German says that this rhetoric is also an old government tip to try to discredit and suppress protest movements by claiming “a handful of acts of violence are the result of the spread of bad ideas, radical ideas”.
Purdum, one of the organizers of Tesla, advised demonstrators to put their well-being first. Let if you feel dangerous, adhere to your local protest regulations, do not integrate, do not follow the police orders and have a lawyer in your rear pocket in case, she said.
“Authoritarian regimes have a long history of assimilation of peaceful protest to violence,” said Stephanie Frizzell, an organizer of Tesla to the withdrawal of Dallas. “The Tesla Takedown movement has always been and will remain non -violent. Their objective is to intimidate us in silence when we oppose the destructive actions of Musk – but the defense of freedom of expression is fundamental to democracy. We will not be dissuaded. “
