Firebombs, Communists, and Heaps of Consternation

“Now, ain’t that rich?” The Peanut Gallery roared as the Communist Party USA took to denouncing the firebombing of a Tesla collision center in Las Vegas, all while federal prosecutors point at Paul Kim, a man who, by their telling, harbored “far-left extremist ideologies.”

Las Vegas police had themselves a busy spell, nabbing Kim, 36, on March 26 after a fiery display at 6260 West Badura Avenue on the morning of March 18. Arson, homemade explosives, and a charge sheet long enough to paper a saloon wall followed in short order.

But here’s where it gets juicier than a Sunday sermon–Metro police claimed Kim had “loose ties” to the Communist Party USA. Not to be outdone in the public pronouncement department, CPUSA Co-Chairman Joe Sims wasted no time firing back.

“It’s militant non-violent protest that has time and again proven to be the most effective response to attacks on democratic rights,” he declared, evidently with a straight face, even as the accused sat in custody for torching a car shop.

Tesla’s head honcho, that ever-talkative Elon Musk, didn’t mince words, calling it “terrorism.” Federal prosecutors agreed in spirit, though they lamented the fact that there’s no official federal charge for domestic terrorism. As the accused’s lawyer helpfully pointed out, Kim hadn’t exactly fled town like an old-timey bank robber—he stuck around, chatted with police, and had a record as clean as a preacher’s Sunday vest.

But before the ink had dried on Kim’s arrest papers, the usual cast of online finger-waggers had been hollering that the culprit must be some radical leftist. It appears Kim’s a registered nonpartisan, which is a fancy way of saying neither side gets to claim him for their own.

Meanwhile, over the weekend, a hundred or so anti-Musk crusaders gathered outside a Tesla dealership in Las Vegas, shaking fists at the man they see as the villain of their particular story. Whether any had opinions on firebombing remains unclear, but at least the crowd had the good sense to keep their demonstrations from going up in smoke.