Police Across the Country Are on High Alert Over Tesla Protests

The Intercept

03-04-2025

As protests against Elon Musk proliferated at Tesla dealerships, law enforcement analysts quietly warned of a threat from 'violent opportunists' – and from the cars themselves.
In California, intelligence analysts said opportunists might exploit peaceful gatherings 'to mask criminal intentions, including vandalism, arson, or other disruptive acts.' In Nevada, analysts said that electric cars lit on fire posed a risk of toxic gases and self-sustaining 'thermal runaway.'
Documents released Thursday by a transparency nonprofit show that law enforcement officials have trained a microscope on demonstrations against Elon Musk in the past month.
Ryan Shapiro, cofounder of the group Property of the People, said the intelligence reports show law enforcement twisting itself into pretzels to avoid the obvious.
'Law enforcement has a messaging problem. They want to portray anti-Musk sentiment as terroristic, but they simultaneously know just how popular and mainstream anti-Musk sentiment actually is,' he said in an email.
All the documents include a nod toward free speech and free assembly rights, sometimes in the form of a 'First Amendment Acknowledgement.' Shapiro dismissed that as nothing more than boilerplate.
'Generic First Amendment language is a common pretense in intelligence documents about surveilling dissent,' he said. 'It's akin to writing, 'Nothing in this surveillance report about you should be understood as spying on you.''
Two of the reports obtained by his group were produced by state fusion or intelligence centers, which were created after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Those fusion centers were supposed to provide local law enforcement a way to receive updates from the feds on terrorist threats and report back suspicious activity. Activists said they quickly turned into hubs of surveillance on non-violent domestic protest.
Shapiro, who has collected similar bulletins for years, says they often inform the thinking of front-line police chiefs and officers.
Days before FBI Director Kash Patel equated vandalism of Teslas with 'domestic terrorism,' an intelligence center in California warned law enforcement about 'violent opportunists.'
The Northern California Regional Intelligence Center noted that swastikas had been painted onto Tesla charging stations in San Ramon. Someone vandalized parked Tesla vehicles in the East Bay with the word 'Nazi.' And someone else threw paint during a protest.
The March 21 report pointed to scattered examples of arsons and shootings at Tesla dealerships across the country, none involved bodily injury.
'Tesla CEO Elon Musk's visible support for Donald Trump and his involvement in the administration as Head of DOGE has likely made Tesla facilities and vehicles symbolically larger targets,' the report states.
It continues, 'Most activities organized to speak against Tesla have been peaceful and protected under the First Amendment. However, violent opportunists may exploit these gatherings to mask criminal intentions, including vandalism, arson, or other disruptive acts.'
Separately, the Southern Nevada Counter Terrorism Center and Nevada Threat Analysis Center issued their own joint bulletin warning about the fire threat from electric vehicles on March 13.
While an Army veteran shot himself inside a Tesla Cybertruck that exploded in front of the Trump hotel in Las Vegas on New Year's Day, the bulletin does not mention that highly publicized incident.
Rather, it focuses on the 'emerging trend of threat actors encouraging acts of violence against electric vehicles, manufacturers, and associated charging infrastructure in the United States,' without mentioning Musk by name, including the threat of exploding Teslas.
Separately, the FBI partnered with the Department of Homeland Security on a March 21 intelligence bulletin.
The document stated that there had been incidents involving 'arson, gunfire, and vandalism, including graffiti expressing grievances against those the perpetrators perceive to be racists, fascists, or political opponents.'
The FBI-DHS report warned of lumping 'constitutionally protected activity' in with 'preoperational planning associated with violence.'
All the anti-Tesla crimes appeared to have been committed by 'lone offenders,' the report stated – a conclusion at odds with Trump's claim that billionaire George Soros might have been behind 'coordinated' attacks on Tesla.
The careful language in the intelligence bulletins about free speech has not been echoed by top officials in the Trump administration, who have issued fearmongering statements that do not draw a distinction between protest and violence, echoing the president himself.
When Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Tex.) explicitly called for 'non-violent' actions at a March 19 'Tesla Takedown' protest, Attorney General Pam Bondi responded with a warning for her to 'tread very carefully.'
Four days before a planned nationwide protest at Tesla dealerships, meanwhile, Patel announced that he was forming a special FBI task force.
'The FBI has been investigating the increase in violent activity toward Tesla, and over the last few days, we have taken additional steps to crack down and coordinate our response,' Patel said. 'This is domestic terrorism. Those responsible will be pursued, caught, and brought to justice.'