Tens of thousands of North Carolinians are without power Monday and under a state of emergency after two substations were reportedly damaged “intentionally” by gunfire. The outage is being investigated by authorities as a “criminal occurrence,” but there may be more to this story, and it has to do with hatred and intolerance.
During a press conference Sunday afternoon, Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said of the incident, “It was targeted, it wasn’t random. The person, or persons, who did this knew exactly what they were doing,”
The power was initially knocked out Saturday, leaving 40,000 homes and businesses without electricity. By Sunday, that number fell to 30,000, CNN reports, and police began finding evidence of gunfire at two substations. At one location, a gate was torn off its hinges.
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"This appears to be an intentional, willful and malicious act," North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis told officials. "And the perpetrator will be brought to justice and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
Probably not coincidentally, power in the state went out at the same time as a significant number of protestors arrived at a drag show in downtown Southern Pines, North Carolina. The show finished early due to the outage, The Pilot reports.
Emily Grace Rainey, a drag show protestor who claims to be the head of the Moore County Citizens for Freedom (MCCF), according to WRAL News, posted about the outage on social media, saying, “The power is out in Moore County, and I know why.”
According to its Facebook page, the MCCF is a "nonpartisan network of Moore County Citizens dedicated to the promotion of conservative values in Moore County, NC, through education and activism."
Just before the show, Rainey posted on social media, “You know what to do.” She included the contact information of the drag show organizers.
Rainey also claims she was interviewed by the sheriff’s deputies. “I told them that God works in mysterious ways and is responsible for the outage,” she claims. “I used the opportunity to tell them about the immoral drag show, and the blasphemies screamed by its supporters,” she wrote on Facebook, Axios reports.
Fields said Sunday Rainey’s posts were “false,” adding that investigators “have not been able to tie anything back to the drag show.”
In 2021, CBS News reported that Rainey resigned from her job as a psychological operations officer in the Army after she was investigated for leading a group of soldiers from Fort Bragg to former President Donald Trump’s rally-turned-insurrection in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6.
A protestor at Saturday night’s drag show, David Reynolds, a pastor of Middle Cross Baptist Church, told The Pilot he was there to “stand for morality.”
Moore County Commissioner Nick Picerno and his wife, Jan Picerno, were also protesting the drag show.
"I've lived here for almost 66 years, and I care deeply about the county,” Jan Picerno said. “I have grandchildren and children that live and work and play here, and I don't think that this kind of show belongs inside the town where schools are close by.”
In March, Daily Kos’ David Neiwert wrote about a similar plan by a Lafayette, Indiana, police officer named Joseph Zacharek, a member of a neo-Nazi terrorist organization with plans to knock an electrical grid in the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere.
One of the group’s members described the plan like this:
Lauren Mathers, the executive director of Sandhills PRIDE, the group that produced the drag show, told The New York Times that although there were violent threats made to the group, they were never threatened specifically about a possible attack on the state’s electricity.
“We did not receive any specific threats that would lead me to be able to say to you, there’s a correlation,” Mathers said. She added that when the power went out initially Saturday, the audience attempted to use their phones to light the show, and many of the performers sang a cappella, but fairly quickly, the show had to be shut down.
Neiwert, who is following this case closely, said:
Monday, the TODAY Show reported that the FBI has stepped in to begin investigating.
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During a press conference Sunday afternoon, Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said of the incident, “It was targeted, it wasn’t random. The person, or persons, who did this knew exactly what they were doing,”
The power was initially knocked out Saturday, leaving 40,000 homes and businesses without electricity. By Sunday, that number fell to 30,000, CNN reports, and police began finding evidence of gunfire at two substations. At one location, a gate was torn off its hinges.
RELATED STORY: Alabama police chief defends arrest of elderly Black woman for unpaid $77 trash bill
Campaign Action
"This appears to be an intentional, willful and malicious act," North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis told officials. "And the perpetrator will be brought to justice and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
Probably not coincidentally, power in the state went out at the same time as a significant number of protestors arrived at a drag show in downtown Southern Pines, North Carolina. The show finished early due to the outage, The Pilot reports.
Emily Grace Rainey, a drag show protestor who claims to be the head of the Moore County Citizens for Freedom (MCCF), according to WRAL News, posted about the outage on social media, saying, “The power is out in Moore County, and I know why.”
According to its Facebook page, the MCCF is a "nonpartisan network of Moore County Citizens dedicated to the promotion of conservative values in Moore County, NC, through education and activism."
Just before the show, Rainey posted on social media, “You know what to do.” She included the contact information of the drag show organizers.
Rainey also claims she was interviewed by the sheriff’s deputies. “I told them that God works in mysterious ways and is responsible for the outage,” she claims. “I used the opportunity to tell them about the immoral drag show, and the blasphemies screamed by its supporters,” she wrote on Facebook, Axios reports.
Fields said Sunday Rainey’s posts were “false,” adding that investigators “have not been able to tie anything back to the drag show.”
In 2021, CBS News reported that Rainey resigned from her job as a psychological operations officer in the Army after she was investigated for leading a group of soldiers from Fort Bragg to former President Donald Trump’s rally-turned-insurrection in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6.
A protestor at Saturday night’s drag show, David Reynolds, a pastor of Middle Cross Baptist Church, told The Pilot he was there to “stand for morality.”
Moore County Commissioner Nick Picerno and his wife, Jan Picerno, were also protesting the drag show.
"I've lived here for almost 66 years, and I care deeply about the county,” Jan Picerno said. “I have grandchildren and children that live and work and play here, and I don't think that this kind of show belongs inside the town where schools are close by.”
In March, Daily Kos’ David Neiwert wrote about a similar plan by a Lafayette, Indiana, police officer named Joseph Zacharek, a member of a neo-Nazi terrorist organization with plans to knock an electrical grid in the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere.
One of the group’s members described the plan like this:
Lauren Mathers, the executive director of Sandhills PRIDE, the group that produced the drag show, told The New York Times that although there were violent threats made to the group, they were never threatened specifically about a possible attack on the state’s electricity.
“We did not receive any specific threats that would lead me to be able to say to you, there’s a correlation,” Mathers said. She added that when the power went out initially Saturday, the audience attempted to use their phones to light the show, and many of the performers sang a cappella, but fairly quickly, the show had to be shut down.
Neiwert, who is following this case closely, said:
Monday, the TODAY Show reported that the FBI has stepped in to begin investigating.
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