Incident Summary:
04/22/1990: Members of a group calling itself the "Earth Night Action Group" claimed responsibility for sawing down two wooden power poles and on the next day, dismantling a 100-foot transmission tower in Freedom, in Santa Cruz County, California in the United States. In letters to news organizations, the group claimed they toppled the power poles as a protest against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. The incident caused 92,000 homes to lose power for about six hours. No casualties were reported in the incident. In the letters, the perpetrators called the Pacific Gas & Electric Company "a corporate Earth rapist" for its ownership of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant near San Luis Obispo and denounced the organization for hypocrisy for acting as a corporate sponsor of Earth Day. The amount of monetary damage is unknown.
Overview
GTD ID:
199004220006
When:
1990-04-22
Country:
United States
Region:
North America
Province/administrative
region/u.s. state:
California
City:
Freedom
Location Details:
in Freedom, California, a sparsely populated area located outside Watsonville
What
Attack Information
| Type of Attack () |
Facility/Infrastructure Attack |
| Successful Attack? () |
Yes |
Target Information ()
| Target Type: Utilities |
|---|
| Name of Entity |
Pacific Gas & Electric Company |
| Specific Description |
power poles and transmission tower of Pacific Gas & Electric Co. in Santa Cruz County, CA |
| Nationality of Target |
United States |
Additional Information
| Hostages |
No |
| Ransom |
No |
| Property Damage |
Yes |
| Extent of Property Damage |
Unknown |
| Value of Property Damage |
Unknown |
How
Weapon Information
| Type |
Sub-type |
| Sabotage Equipment |
|
| Weapon Details |
|---|
| hand saws |
Additional Information
| Suicide Attack? | No |
| Part of Multiple Incident? | No |
| Criterion 1 () |
Yes |
| Criterion 2 () |
Yes |
| Criterion 3 () |
Yes |
Who
Perpetrator Group Information
| Group Name |
Claimed Responsibility |
| Earth Night Action Group |
Yes (Confirmed: Unknown; Mode: Letter) |
Perpetrator Statistics
| Number of Perpetrators |
Unknown |
| Number of Captured Perpetrators |
Unknown |
Casualty Information
| Total Number of Casualties |
0 Fatalities / 0 Injured |
| Total Number of Fatalities |
0 |
| Number of U.S. Fatalities |
0 |
| Number of Perpetrator Fatalities |
0 |
| Total Number of Injured |
0 |
| Number of U.S. Injured |
0 |
| Number of Perpetrators Injured |
0 |
Sources
Sources
| Jim Herron Zamora and Michael Parrish, "Most Decry, a Few Salute Sabotage of Power Lines Energy: Residents of Watsonville and Santa Cruz have passionate opinions on vandals who knocked out electricity," Los Angeles Times, April 25, 1990. |
| Jim Clardy,"Electric lines felled by ecology terrorists," The Washington Times, April 25, 1990. |
| Valerie Richardson, "Ecoterrorists put 92,000 homes in dark," The Washington Times, April 24, 1990. |
Criteria
Criteria 1
The act must be aimed at attaining a political, economic, religious, or social goal. In terms of economic goals, the exclusive pursuit of profit does not satisfy this criterion. It must involve the pursuit of more profound, systemic economic change.
Criterion 2
There must be evidence of an intention to coerce, intimidate, or convey some other message to a larger audience (or audiences) than the immediate victims. It is the act taken as a totality that is considered, irrespective if every individual involved in carrying out the act was aware of this intention. As long as any of the planners or decision-makers behind the attack intended to coerce, intimidate or publicize, the intentionality criterion is met.
Criterion 3
The action must be outside the context of legitimate warfare activities. That is, the act must be outside the parameters permitted by international humanitarian law (particularly the prohibition against deliberately targeting civilians or non-combatants.
Doubt Terrorism Proper
The existence of a "Yes" for "Doubt Terrorism Proper?" records reservation, in the eyes of GTD analysts, that the incident in question is truly terrorism. Such uncertainty, however, was not deemed to be sufficient to disqualify the incident from inclusion into the GTD. Furthermore, such a determination of doubt is subsequently coded by GTD analysts as conforming to one of four possible alternative designations: 1) Insurgency/Guerilla Action; 2) Internecine Conflict Action; 3) Mass Murder; or 4) Purely Criminal Act.
Alternate Designation
The determination of "yes" for "Doubt Terrorism Proper" by GTD analysts is coded as conforming to one of four possible alternative designations: 1) Insurgency/Guerilla Action; 2) Internecine Conflict Action; 3) Mass Murder; or 4) Purely Criminal Act.
Successful Attack
Success of a terrorist strike is defined according to the tangible effects of the attack. For example, in a typical successful bombing, the bomb detonates and destroys property and/or kills individuals, whereas an unsuccessful bombing is one in which the bomb is discovered and defused or detonates early and kills the perpetrators. Success is not judged in terms of the larger goals of the perpetrators. For example, a bomb that exploded in a building would be counted as a success even if it did not, for example, succeed in bringing the building down or inducing government repression.
Type of Attack
This field captures the general method of attack and often reflects the broad class of tactics used. It consists of the following nine categories:
- Assassination
- Armed Assault
- Unarmed Assault
- Bombing/Explosion
- Hijacking
- Hostage taking (Barricade Incident)
- Hostage taking (Kidnapping)
- Facility / Infrastructure Attack
- Unknown
Target Information
This field captures the general type of target. It consists of the following 22 categories:
- Abortion Related
- Airports & Airlines
- Business
- Government (General)
- Government (Diplomatic)
- Educational Institution
- Food or Water Supply
- Journalists & Media
- Maritime (includes Ports and Maritime facilities)
- Military
- NGO
- Other
- Police
- Private Citizens & Property
- Religious Figures/Institutions
- Telecommunication
- Terrorists
- Tourists
- Transportation (other than aviation)
- Unknown
- Utilities
- Violent Political Parties
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