Vandalism Starts Looking Like Terrorism Illegal Detonations Aren’t Just Fireworks Pranks Anymore
Vandals have traded their cherry bombs for pipe bombs.
Spokane is being jolted by its most explosive period in memory - alarming authorities, residents and psychologists who deal with troubled teens.
Through the first six months of 1996, the number of illegal detonations is on pace to more than double the previous year’s mark, statistics show.
And unlike the good old days, most aren’t large firecrackers blown up as pranks. The line between vandalism and terrorism has been blown skyhigh. Yesterday’s M-80 in the mailbox is today’s homemade “anti-personnel” bomb, which can take out doors and windows and throw nails 150 yards.
Bomb threats could exceed last year’s total, too. There were 52 last year - and 42 during the first half of 1996, said sheriff’s Sgt. James Goodwin of the city-county bomb squad.
“I can tell you, it’s felt very busy this year,” he said.
Goodwin said a spate of recent bombings in the region, combined with news of terrorist bombings across the nation, may have lighted a fuse in the minds of local imitators.
In April, a pre-dawn blast outside City Hall damaged a door and threw shrapnel across the street into Riverfront Park.
In May, someone blew up an outhouse at a Spokane Valley construction site.
Later that month, four men were arrested and accused of terrorizing the 6600 block of North Wall with explosives. A pipe bomb exploded under a car. A bomb also shattered a garage window in the neighborhood.
Some of the bombs reportedly contained shrapnel, including shotgun pellets and nails.
The owner of the North Side garage was watching TV when he heard what sounded like a car crash. “I was watching ‘L.A. Law,’ of all things,” he said.
He found smoke billowing from his garage and a large window blown to shards. The victim, who didn’t want his name used, still can’t comprehend the motive.
“Are they picking you at random, or have they got something against you?” he asked Tuesday. He blames teenagers who don’t understand how dangerous explosives can be, even to themselves.
“They don’t realize that would have blown the heck out of their own house,” he said.
Thomas McKnight, a Spokane psychologist who deals with adolescents, said parents are letting their children be raised by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“There are things perpetually blown up in movies. And people live,” he said. “Kids become desensitized to these things.”
And then comes news of Oklahoma City. The Unabomber. “There’s a certain amount of glamour that exists with these people,” McKnight said.
Parents, he said, hold the ultimate responsibility.
“You don’t have a child, who at age 14, mysteriously becomes a threat to society.”
People have always been fascinated with explosions. The difference is the amount of firepower now being used. That worries law enforcement officials.
“While it may seem fun and interesting to watch, and quite a display of power, (explosives are) dangerous,” Goodwin said.
He worries about bomb-making guides published by the underground press and available on the Internet. A copy of “The Anarchist’s Cookbook” was found in the home of one of the defendants in the North Side bombing case.
A pipe bomb, Goodwin said, isn’t a difficult device to build.
“It doesn’t take a college degree or anything.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Graphic: Illegal detonations