| UNFAIR PARK | THE ACCELERATIONISTS A wild-eyed plot to blow up the power grid sheds light on white nationalists’ apocalyptic dreams. BY SIMONE CARTER F rom behind a screen in late 2019, Jonathan Allen Frost shared his terrible idea with a like-minded white supremacist he’d met on- line, the feds say. Now, he’s facing 15 years behind bars. The part-time resident of Katy, a city of some 22,000 people roughly 30 miles west of Houston, had suggested at- tacking a power grid, court documents show. His Ohio-based co-conspirator agreed. They reasoned that at the very least, a successful attempt on grids could plunge the country into chaos and knock out power for months, costing the government mil- lions. It might also trigger an all-out race war or the “next Great Depression,” tilling the soil for a rise in white leaders, court doc- uments show. But in August 2020, the FBI would catch up with 24-year-old Frost and two others, each of whom was from a different state. In Frost’s home, the feds found weapons and ammo and bomb-making supplies. They also uncovered violent neo-Nazi propa- ganda, including books and videos, and de- tailed information on the nation’s power infrastructure, documents say. Last month, the trio pleaded guilty to crimes linked to a scheme targeting power grids across the country, which the Justice Department notes was “in furtherance of white supremacist ideology.” Each defen- dant faces up to 15 years in prison. This isn’t the first alleged plot to destroy the nation’s power supply. White national- ists, antigovernment extremists and militia members have long set their sights on the country’s critical infrastructure as a way to upend order and sow chaos. In 1995, Timothy McVeigh blew up a government building in Oklahoma, killing 168 and injuring more than 680. Four years later, a militia coalition leader was charged with plotting to destroy power fa- cilities in Georgia and Florida. Mean- while, members of the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division have similarly pro- moted the idea of blowing up parts of the energy grid. Even though such plans often go unexe- cuted, extremism experts are sounding the alarm that competent criminals could some- day succeed in their goals. Frost was dedicated to the cause. He and 44 two others — Christopher Brenner Cook of Columbus, Ohio, and his friend, Wisconsin’s Jackson Matthew Sawall — agreed to swal- low a “suicide necklace” filled with fentanyl if caught by law enforcement, according to the Justice Department. They met in Ohio in February 2020 to hammer out logistics, documents say. There, Frost handed Cook an AR-47 rifle with no serial number for use in their plan, and they went to a shooting range to train. Cook, 20, and Sawall, 22, also took Frost on a tour of freshly painted graffiti under a park bridge. Frost snapped a photo of his two comrades and their spray-painted swastika flag. They’d also written an entreaty: “Join The Front.” “The Front” was the name of the men’s online propaganda chat group, which hosted a subgroup titled “Lights Out.” Pablo Iglesias There, they allegedly plotted how to carry out their mission, and it was decided that Frost would take down the power in the Southwest, while Cook and Sawall would be responsible for the Northeast and Midwest, respectively. (Two other recruits, one of whom was a juvenile, would attack the Southeast and Northwest.) >> p6 MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 MARCH 24–30, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER DALLAS OBSERVER | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | MOVIES | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | SCHUTZE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.com dallasobserver.com
