A group led by a teenage white supremacist plotted to attack multiple power plants across the country and write the words “teenage white supremacist” really drives home the feeling that we’re living in the darkest timeline.
According to the Associated Press, an accidentally unsealed affidavit revealed allegations from the FBI that a teenager based in Ohio was in a text chain with over a dozen people who shared white nationalist beliefs that discussed plans to pool their money and purchase a ranch that would more or less act like a summer camp for domestic terrorists.
The affidavit also revealed that the then-17-year-old wanted the group to be “operational” by 2024 as he believed a Democrat would win that election. He wanted an accelerated timeline in case Trump lost the 2020 election. An informant told investigators that the teen intended for the group to be “operational” for both “violence” as well as “activism.”
Just what did this ragtag band of assholes plan to do? Well, for starters, the teenager shared plans with a smaller group to stage what he called the “Light’s Out” plot. The plan was to be executed in summer 2021 and would have involved staging power outages by shooting at power stations throughout the southeast U.S. The informant alleges that one of the group members, a then-student at Purdue University, sent a text that said “leaving the power off would wake people up to the harsh reality of life by wreaking havoc across the nation.”
This is one of those moments I wish you could see how hard I’m giving my screen the “this nigga” face right now. I suppose this gif of Omar Epps will just have to suffice.
From AP:
The affidavit details an investigation into group members, who allegedly share white supremacist ideology. The document outlines how they communicated over encrypted messaging applications before three of them eventually met up in person. They also allegedly shared recommended reading on white supremacist literature, required a “uniform” to symbolize their commitment and talked about making weapons. The affidavit says the Ohio teen put Nazi flags in his room, but his mother told him to take them down.
Some group members also indicated that they were prepared to die for their beliefs. One man from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, allegedly told the Ohio teen: “I can say with absolute certainty that I will die for this effort. I swear it on my life.” The teen replied: “I can say the same,” the court documents state.
According to the affidavit, the Wisconsin man also told an undercover FBI employee in February that the group was interested in taking “direct action” against the system and said, “If you truly want a fascist society I will put in the effort to work with you but recruitment is long and not going to be easy.”
Wow. When I was 17, I was downloading basically every mixtape off Dat Piff, playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with the homies, and counting down the days until Tron: Legacy came out—not plotting to commit domestic terrorism and create a fascist society. White kids are just fucking weird; I don’t know how else to put it.
The affidavit goes on to allege that the teen repeatedly expressed his desire for the group to expand into militant cells throughout the country, similar to the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Divison. If you’re unaware, Atomwaffen Divison is a lovely group of people who wish to accelerate the collapse of society through the use of mass violence.
The names of the suspects haven’t been released, as the charges haven’t been publicly filed, and federal prosecutors in Ohio are currently leading the case. Jennifer Thornton, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Ohio, told AP that while more information couldn’t be provided due to the investigation being ongoing, she wanted “to emphasize that there is no imminent public safety threat related to this matter.”