Outhouse scrawl alerts authorities.
By John Colson
ASPEN — A racially directed threat scrawled on a portable bathroom wall at the Aspen Middle School construction site this week was directed at Anglos – not Latinos – authorities said Friday.
And, authorities emphasized, there have been no threats of bombings or other violence directed against local schools or the Latino community as a whole, although there is evidence of rumors sweeping through Latino neighborhoods in response to the school closures.
Sheriff Bob Braudis, paraphrasing in order to not give away investigative secrets, said the message read “something like, ‘at 8:46 a.m. I’m going to start shooting whites*.'”
Braudis also said the message “was not put there yesterday,” and it was not the only message under investigation.
* While the authorities are still in doubt as to the race of who actually wrote the threat, placing quotation marks around the word ‘whites’ is generally indicative of racial condescension. Had the remark been aimed at blacks or asians quotation marks would not be required.