NOTE:  This story continues to develop, and my own initial assumptions were wrong.  Check the "Read More" link below for the latest news updates. -- Stace

The Colorado Democratic Party Headquarters in Denver suffered vandalism to eleven storefront windows last night.

Let's think about this for a minute.

Having seen the propensity for violence on the part of conservatives in recent town hall meetings, having seen the death of George Tiller from the bullet of conservative anti-abortion activist Scott Roeder, having seen ultra-conservative racist and anti-Semite James W. von Brunn kill a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial, I have to wonder about the motivation of these vandals.  In April of this year, the Department of Homeland Security warned of increased violence by right-wing groups, fueled in large part by the election of President Obama and the economic downturn.

Though the Denver story is just breaking and there are no suspects yet, it's not a stretch to imagine that this vandalism was a political scare tactic perpretrated by conservatives of some stripe.  When the perpetrators are caught, it will be interesting to see whether they acted alone or were part of a group, and whether right-wing groups applaud or decry their actions.

I find it interesting that the same side of the political spectrum that harps on defending our country from terrorism resorts to fear tactics and terrorist acts when things aren't going their way.

...

UPDATE:

It turns out an arrest was made today in this case.  A 24 year old man and one other person were smashing the windows with hammers at about 2:20 am.  Police are "trying to figure out what motivated the men to commit the crime," but the Executive Director of the Colorado Democratic Party is relatively sure the targets were images of President Obama and posters about health care reform.  (The first link above has the details.)

UPDATE #2:

The Colorado Independent is now reporting that the individual arrested for vandalism on the Democratic Party HQ was also arrested at last year's Republican National Convention, and that he has done work for a left-leaning 527 organization, the Colorado Citizens Coalition.  Since he has now been arrested for actions against both parties, and has been linked to the Derailer Bicycle Collective, there is some speculation that he might be an anarchist.

If that turns out to be the case, I'm glad that the vandalism wasn't caused by a conservative faction, and I will retract my speculation that it might have been.  But if his actions do turn out to have been anarchist in nature, it's still a symptom of the same problem: people who oppose the current administration are using violence as a tactic for trying to return to the status quo, and that's unacceptable.

UPDATE #3:

The plot thickens and the spin machines have been powered up.  From 9News.com:

[Republican State Representative David] Balmer said he suspects the vandalism might have been intended to make the Republican Party look bad.

"This sounds like the type of Democratic tactic from the left fringe trying to make Republicans look mean-spirited," Balmer said. "In this case, it blew up in their face."

Yes, that's it.  The Democrats did $10,000 damage to their own Colorado headquarters in order to make Republicans look bad.  News flash, Rep. Balmer: Republican tactics already looked bad, as shown from the links above.  This incident isn't what tarnished Republican reputations, but due to other conservative actions, it was easy to jump to the conclusion that conservatives were at fault.

More to come, I'm sure.

UPDATE #4:

Curiouser and Curiouser.  Not only is the suspected vandal now confirmed to be an anarchist, she is also transgendered, a contributor to a radical gay rights blog, and goes by the chosen name of Ariel Attack on the Queers Against Obama website.  (I wonder what David Balmer has to say about that.)

So, what have I learned from this story's development track?  Never make assumptions or jump to conclusions, because sometimes -- just sometimes -- the story goes in a completely different direction from what I expect.  In any case, I stand by the assertion that violence is not the way to handle political disagreement in a free society.