August 30, 2024 10:45 AM UTC

Who's Paying For These Racist Anti-Harris Sign Stunts?

• 5 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

FRIDAY UPDATE: 9NEWS’ Kyle Clark tracked down the maker of the racist signs that popped up on East Colfax yesterday morning, and it’s a well-known far-right “street artist” with a long list of similar campaigns in other cities, including a similar sign posted outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last week:

A Republican activist who publicly mused about shooting Latinos this week is claiming credit for racist signs that appeared overnight in Denver on Thursday.

Sabo, as he is known, describes himself as a street artist. His company lists a PO Box in Aurora.

Sabo told 9NEWS that he has been contacted by Denver Police, who are investigating the signs as a possible bias-motivated crime…

Sabo seems to be a very nice man, not at all someone you’d suspect of a hate crime:

In a YouTube livestream on Wednesday, prior to the posting of the signs on Colfax, Sabo complained about Venezuelans and other Latinos, and used an ethnic slur for the Latino journalist who covered the racist signs posted outside the Capitol and the closure of the apartment complex in Aurora. He listed specific Latino nationalities he would use as “target practice” during a conflict.

Media Matters has more on Sabo’s self-described “unsavory” art, which he is selling at a considerable markup to offset forthcoming legal expenses. Sabo has been doing this conservative guerilla art for a number of years, and back in the day made no secret about being funded by conservative donors for their “missions.”

Two of the artists often work as a team and claim they are financed by wealthy conservatives who pay them $5,000 to $20,000 per mission, each one set up through intermediaries so that most of the time they’re not sure who is paying them. Sometimes they’re left alone to create, sometimes the financier needs to grant approval before the work is posted for all to see. “For $20,000, they’ll get $200,000 in impressions,” says one.

This time, however, Sabo may have picked the wrong town.

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As the Denver Post reports, police are investigating as alleged vandalism the bolting of racist, anti-immigrant signs to existing signposts along East Colfax Avenue overnight:

Photos posted by Lewis show signs screwed onto a Regional Transportation District bus stop pole at Colfax Avenue and Garfield Street, located outside of National Jewish Health and just west of Colorado Boulevard.

The bus stop sits on the north edge of Denver’s Congress Park neighborhood.

One white sign reads “Blacks must sit at the back of the bus. Kamala’s migrants sit in the front.” Another yellow caution sign on the same pole warns riders of “Kamala’s illegals,” with imagery of people running that is supposed to mimic immigrants crossing the border.

The metal or plastic signs appear to have been fastened to signposts with the same bolts used to affix legitimate signage, and fortunately that means they can be removed as easily as they were installed. Colfax Avenue can be assumed to have plenty of law enforcement and other security camera coverage, so the investigation may be able to figure out when it happened and perhaps even who did it pretty quickly. The signs don’t have any of the required disclaimers for an election communication, but this isn’t the first time they’ve been seen. Here’s the same sign in Chicago last week outside the Democratic National Convention:

Politically, we can’t see how posting these signs in one of the most liberal ZIP codes in Colorado is a good use of resources, especially compared to the number of voters this message turns off. But in terms of production and distribution, the effort was not without expense, and appears to be bigger than just our state.

Now that they’ve attracted a bonafide criminal investigation, maybe we’ll get some answers for everybody asking the same question.