Government Seeking Wild Punishment for Man Accused of Vandalizing Tesla Dealership

Since Elon Musk took the mantle of power thanks to Donald Trump, Tesla has become a universal focus of protest around the world. In the US, frustrated taxpayers have taken to the streets to occupy dealerships, steal tires, and vandalize Teslas wherever they appear.

In response, the federal government has declared a crackdown on dissent. A recently formed FBI-ATF taskforce is said to be working to identify vandals and arsonists on behalf of Tesla — even as Musk decries accusations that the US has descended into oligarchy.

Those allegations aren't likely to go away if Attorney General Pam Bondi has anything to say about it. She recently announced that the Justice Department will seek a staggering 20-year federal prison sentence for Cooper Jo Frederick, a Colorado man accused of vandalizing a Tesla Service Center earlier in March.

"I've made it clear, if you take part in a wave of domestic terrorism of Tesla properties, we will find you, arrest you, and put you behind bars," Bondi said in a video posted on X-formerly-Twitter. "Let this be a warning: you can run, but you cannot hide. Justice is coming."

Bondi's demand for a 20-year stint comes weeks after she announced charges against three other defendants accused of destroying Tesla cars and charging stations. A Justice Department press release states that each defendant faces a "minimum penalty of five years and up to 20 years in prison" for property destruction.

"The Department of Justice is committed to ending all acts of violence and arson directed at Tesla properties and otherwise," it concludes.

The monumental penalties are part of a push by the Trump and Musk administration to equate property damage and vandalism with "domestic terrorism," even in incidents like this one, in which no people were harmed. Musk and Bondi have also both repeated unsubstantiated claims that Tesla protests and vandalism are funded and organized by a shadowy cabal that needs to be taken down.

It's not unlike the rhetoric used during a federal crackdown on nonviolent environmental and animal activism known as the "Green Scare." In May of 2007, two saboteurs with the Earth Liberation Front were charged with 12 and 16 years in federal prison for torching a forest ranger station, a police substation, an SUV dealership, and a tree farm.

According to The Intercept, fears of property damage led the fur and animal testing industries to increase "their efforts to convince the FBI and the DOJ to treat animal rights and environmental protestors as terrorists." This led to an expansion of the Animal Enterprise Protection Act, allowing acts of property damage to be prosecuted as acts of domestic terrorism.

Still, the Tesla crackdown is a notable stepping stone in what seems like ever-harsher sentencing guidelines for acts of non-violent vandalism, which feels especially stark when the goal is protecting the property of a corporation run by the sitting president's best buddy. For context, in 2022, a Philadelphia woman was sentenced to two and a half years in federal prison after pleading guilty to torching two police cruisers during 2020 protests.

The 17.5 year difference between her sentence and the threat of Frederick's 20-year stint — for roughly the same crime — suggests that Musk's involvement in US politics comes with a heavy hand. Mess with Tesla, and the government will make an example out of you.

Even disregarding Tesla's special treatment, prison sentences in the US are already higher than in most nations. In 2022, an analysis by the Council on Criminal Justice found that the US is a global outlier in its use of prison sentences of 10 years or more. And when it comes to non-violent property damage, sentencing has skyrocketed in recent years, from an average of 18.3 months in 2016 to 60 months in 2023.

All told, it's a troubling time as demonstrations against Tesla become a nearly everyday occurrence. If vandalism can be prosecuted as domestic terrorism, how soon until peaceful protests incur the wrath of Musk's FBI?

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