Los Angeles "Car-B-Que" Arson Attacks: Militant Urbanism?

I must confess to spending most of yesterday sitting in front of the flat screen to nowhere watching football games. Those of you who think that all I do with my spare time is write for this blog are not correct. I am also a sports addict, and can watch football games for hours on end. Mostly because they don't play baseball this time of year. Except for my kids' travel ball team, they'd play in an arctic gale. But that is another topic.

So I am watching the Oakland Raiders do their yearly collapse, and on comes a very agitated talking head from L.A. CBS News with a story about the guy (or guys) who has been setting all those cars on fire. Mostly around Hollywood and in the northern appendages of the Los Angeles city rorschach blot. And what this newscaster revealed (all while burning car footage rolled behind him) is that Mayor John J. Duran of West Hollywood has now identified these attacks as being "domestic terrorism." Which puts everything into an entirely different perspective. At least for me.

Look at it this way. If this is just some guy setting cars on fire for kicks, then it is the action of a deranged idiot who, once captured, will likely spend the rest of his life in some horrifying state mental facility having pharmaceuticals mainlined into what little is left of his humanity. But if this is the action of terrorists, then there must be some sort of agenda behind it. Not necessarily a rational one, of course. But terrorists are marginally different from the criminally insane in that they usually believe their actions are committed on behalf of some great and worthy cause. The criminally insane do it because a talking dog told them they should.

And the terrorist meme is gaining some traction. Apparently Mayor Duran has been speaking to a lot of people on the topic, and reports have been running on many news outlets, including national ones like CNN. Here is how the very popular Jalopnik.com site (click here) describes all this rhythm:

Are the Los Angeles car fires an act of 'domestic terrorism?' Someone's torched more than 35 cars over the last three nights in the Los Angeles area and everyone wants to know why. Are these bored kids? A sophisticated criminal? Or, as one mayor offered, is this an act of domestic terrorism?

The acts of arson started on Thursday night, spread into Friday night, and continued on New Year's eve with approximately 40 cars charred. Some of these vehicles were parked in apartment complexes, causing significant damage.

So far nobody has been hurt in the string of fires, but that hasn't stopped West Hollywood Mayor John J. Duran from telling CNN that he viewed the acts as "domestic terrorism."

"When you have millions of people living with millions of cars in these very dense neighborhoods, this is becoming a new form of domestic terrorism that really has got our community in a very bad spot," said the Mayor.

None of those pushing the domestic terrorism angle has yet to come up with a reason why such persons would be attacking cars. Which isn't unusual. People looking to get headlines often go for the sizzle while completely ignoring the fat behind it. And most TV news outlets, servicing a viewership with the attention span of a 7 year old, are content with that. But I have a theory, and as usual there is little anyone can do to keep me from sharing it with you.

The planning philosophy of Urbanism is at its feel-good little heart essentially anti-car. The notion here being that automobiles are not conducive to quality urban life. They clog the streets, pollute the air, dehumanize neighborhoods, are dangerous and cause the greenhouse gases that will eventually melt the ice caps and drown all the large coastal cities.

Cars also allow people to leave the urban core for the suburbs, thereby helping to cause sprawl. Which apparently is a bad thing. Single family homes being frowned upon these days. People should rather take public transportation and live in carless, tightly packed and highly dense urban neighborhoods because it is better for the planet. Cars give people the option of leaving all that which, for some reason, they often prefer to do.

Now I am not claiming that there is any direct connection between mainstream Urbanism and the terrorists currently frying autos. Or even an indirect one. Most Urbanists are nebbishy city planner types who wouldn't hurt a fly unless it stood between them and a state grant. Nor do I believe that Urbanists really hate cars since most of those I have met drive one. The sacrifice of bus and trolly ridership being exacted only upon people who are too poor to be anything but virtuous.

But there are are some extremists, and it doesn't take too much searching on the internet to find an example of at least the necessary mindset. Here is some particularly pungent language from someone going by the name of Tekania. It can be found on a website called NationStates.net (click here).

I hate hydrocarbon burning vehicles. Hate. With a passion. As with many 'causes' I suppose my hatred of cars stems from personal experiences and/or selfish desires. So let me come clean and explain what I hate about cars, and why I think we should ban them. Outright.

1) I don't want my children continuously exposed to exhaust fumes - I think it's inexcusable to be exposing all of us to such high levels of carcinogens on a daily level. In fact, it seems absolutely insane.

2) I find the direct automobile mortality rate unacceptable - Tens of thousands of you are killed every year in motor vehicle accidents! Car crashes are the leading cause of accidental death. The seventh largest killer overall. Now I don't drive anymore, so my chances of a highway collision (the most likely way to be fatally smashed to a pulp by hundreds of pounds of steel) have lessened. Unfortunately you can get wiped off the face of the earth just crossing the street when some moron blows through a light, a crosswalk, or down your residential street. 986 in L.A.! Compare that to 381 homicides in 2008 in that same city.

3) I'm tired of cities accommodating themselves to vehicles, rather than people - This may be less of a problem in older cities, but the newer cities are built like fairyland suburban car paradises. Talk about urban sprawl! Drive through mall experiences! No public space, who needs sidewalks when I gotsa HUMMER! Strip mall after strip mall. It's an unsustainable way to live, and the fact that we deliberately construct inefficiant urban landscapes made for cars, not people, drives me nuts.

So anyway, that's my theory. The guy (or guys since some law enforcement types are claiming there have been too many fires for one torch alone) setting automobiles ablaze could be doing so in the belief that he is striking a blow against a car culture that is the enemy of a supposedly planet saving lifestyle that he fanatically supports.

It will be interesting to see how this theory holds up once the culprit(s) is/are captured.

5 a.m. update - The Los Angeles Times reports that a "person of interest" is being held after 9 more fires were set last night. However, the LAPD is saying it is too early to confirm whether or not they have their man. Click here.

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