Colorado man: ‘Kill Obama’ message on home was vandalism
A Colorado man investigated by the U.S. Secret Service for a “Kill Obama” message scrawled on a home he owns said the house was vandalized and he did not write those words.
The Secret Service and local police visited political activist Lee Mulcahy in his Aspen hometown after several neighbors called to report the message painted in red on the front of a home under construction.
Mulcahy, a self-described tea party member who has offered his support for vice presidential candidate Paul D. Ryan on his Facebook page, wrote in an email to the Los Angeles Times that the message was painted by strangers and that he was ordered not to remove the slur until authorities arrived.
“The graffiti stayed up MUCH longer than I wanted. I first saw the most recent vandalism when I arrived at the house at around 10:00 a.m.,” Mulcahy wrote The Times. “During the ensuing 6 hour wait, I called the police twice more and expressed my desire to cover the message before the local school children returned home, and was told not to touch anything until they arrived.
He said police took a picture of the message and he immediately painted over it.
Mulcahy says he is embarrassed by the negative exposure.
While lawyers say that such comments are protected by free speech, Aspen police say they will investigate any perceived threats against public officials.
And Mulcahy says he stands behind that.
“As a member of the community of Aspen, the suggestion of violence in this grafitti is shameful; neither I nor anyone I know did this.”
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