Quote:
Racial slurs spray-painted across Obama billboard in Pittsfield Township
Posted by Tracy Davis | The Ann Arbor News September 17, 2008 10:17AM
Racist slurs were spray-painted across a large Barack Obama presidential campaign billboard alongside a heavily trafficked stretch of US-23 in Pittsfield Township sometime overnight Tuesday.
And the U.S. Secret Service is investigating what now appears to be two threatening letters against Obama that were received in Livingston County, according to news reports.
Michigan State Police were on the scene of the billboard Wednesday morning, and have called in for tracking dogs, police said.
Cathleen Babcock, a kindergarten teacher at Pittsfield Elementary School, saw the Obama billboard on her morning commute today and called police to report the incident.
"It's very disturbing," she said.
Brent Colburn, spokesman for the Obama campaign in Michigan, said staff began receiving calls about the billboard vandalism Wednesday morning. They determined the ad is sponsored by a private citizen who supports Obama and also owns the billboard.
Colburn said he believed it to be the first large-scale act of vandalism on Obama campaign material to include racial slurs in the state.
"Whoever did it should be embarrassed and ashamed, but unfortunately, (racism) a reality in our world," Colburn said. "It in no way is a reflection of the reception we've gotten in the Ann Arbor area or anywhere in Michigan."
Police with the Pittsfield Department of Public Safety said they believe someone may have pulled up under the billboard in a truck or other vehicle and defaced the sign as high as they could reach.
The area has a small fire ring where teens are known to hang out, police said, but they did not speculate on who might be responsible. Tire tracks were visible at the site this morning.
Michigan State Police are handling the matter for now; it is not clear if it will be handed off to federal officials later.
Meanwhile, a second letter threatening Obama, this one sent to a Howell business, is being investigated by federal authorites. The Secret Service was already investigating a similar letter sent to the Brighton headquarters of the Livingston County Democratic Party.
Douglas Zloto, resident agent in charge for the Saginaw office of the Secret Service, said this morning there in an active investigation into the Obama threats, but he could not comment the case.
"The Secret Service takes every threat extremely seriously," he said. "We will be using every resource to investigate this threat ... and to determine how it was made."
