People who vandalize Teslas and write things against company owner Elon Musk on the vehicles could find themselves being charged with committing a hate crime, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.
The department this week issued a press release about incidents of vandalism in Washington, D.C., reporting that "the suspects wrote political hate speech onto the victims' Tesla vehicles then fled the scene," reported Politico Editor Michael Schaffer in an opinion piece Thursday. "The Metropolitan Police Department is investigating these offenses as potentially being motivated by hate or bias."
The document included security camera photographs of a man and woman believed to be the suspects. They have not been caught, but Musk reposted the department's statement posted to X, which he also owns. He did not comment on the police report.
The threat of hate crime charges comes after D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, earlier this month raised eyebrows by saying the city might paint over the giant Black Lives Matter mural near the White House.
Her announcement came after Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., issued a proposal that would withhold funds from D.C. unless the plaza was renamed "Liberty Plaza" and that the words "Black Lives Matter" would be removed from all official city materials.
"The mural inspired millions of people and helped our city through a very painful period, but now, we can't afford to be distracted by meaningless congressional interference," Bowser said. "The devastating impacts of the federal job cuts must be our No. 1 concern. Our focus is on economic growth, public safety, and supporting our residents affected by these cuts."
The House bill remains under review.
The incidents of vandalism on Teslas, meanwhile, do not appear to make threats against an identity group as hate speech usually involves, but include comments like "I love Musk and hate the fed gov't" or "Go Doge I support Musk killing the Dept of Education," according to police reports.
A police department spokesperson said that the language that was used in the vandalism offenses was the reason for the hate crimes classification.
Patrice Sulton, the executive director of the D.C. Justice Lab, called the threat of hate crimes a situation where "you can have well-intentioned legislation that leads to absurd results."
"You get to just weaponize something that's not the purpose for which it was passed," Sulton added.
A sentence for committing a hate crime is harsher than one for vandalism, and Michael Selmi, an Arizona State University law professor and expert on discrimination law, called the stronger charge a stretch.
"I would have a hard time seeing how anti-Elon Musk graffiti would constitute political affiliation discrimination," he said. "The real issue is there's very little case law interpreting political affiliation in D.C. or in the few other jurisdictions that include it" as a protected category.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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