Originally Posted By: ireckon
I can't consider this just a crime. Someone who does this intends to deprive many people of electric power. That's an act of terrorism in itself, whether or not the perpetrators are trying to make a political statement. The crimes of "trespassing" and "vandalism" don't get the job done here.


I respectfully disagree. Taking out the substation did not cause a power outage. The attacker here clearly had significant knowledge of his target, and it could reasonably be assumed he knew that it wouldn't. It appears to me that his goal was to damage things and make PG&E spend a lot of money fixing them.

Even if the goal was to deprive electrical power from a largish group of people, it would seem to greatly expand the definition of "terrorism" from "making war upon civilian noncombatants" or "the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims".