NAACP Offices Bombed In Colorado: Law Enforcers 'Perplexed' — Don't Know if the Attack Should Be Called 'Terrorism'

The NAACP is one of the oldest civil rights organizations in the United States. (NAACP sponsored Children's
March for Public Education in Philadelphia, PA - April 26, 2011 - Photo by Rick Smith)

Authorities Look for Motive Behind NAACP Bombing in Colorado

By Keith Coffman
Colorado and federal authorities were trying to find the motive on Thursday for a homemade bomb planted behind NAACP offices in Colorado Springs, saying that they had not yet determined if it was a hate crime or an act of domestic terrorism.

The Colorado Springs chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People reopened on Thursday, two days after the improvised explosive device detonated outside the building it shares with a hair salon.

"If someone did this to scare us or hurt us, they did neither,” said Carol Chippey-Rhanes, an assistant to the chapter’s president and a retired U.S. Air Force master sergeant. “We’re back to business as usual, helping all people, not just black people.”

The explosive device was set off on Tuesday against an exterior wall of the building. A gasoline canister placed next to the bomb did not detonate, and no one was injured in the blast.

Amy Sanders, spokeswoman for the FBI’s field office in Denver, said in a statement that the agency “takes crimes of this nature very seriously” and is conducting a wide-ranging investigation.

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