Local Democratic Party volunteer reports Obama signs being defaced

I had a conversation yesterday with Ralph Walker, a Democratic volunteer, and the host of "Beyond the Headlines," a Monrovia public-access interview show, and he has concerns about anger towards Obama supporters in his city.

Walker says that people buying signs at the local Democratic headquarters keep telling him they are replacement signs for ones that have been pulled out of the yard, stolen, or otherwise defaced.

He says he also has heard from some people with Obama bumper stickers having their cars keyed.

"This is happening in the well-to-do part of Monrovia, too," he told me. "It's going to blow up if Obama wins."

I would think this is pretty typical election-time behavior that happens on both sides... but then I think about it again- cars being keyed is a little meaner than pulling out someone's sign. There has also been an awful lot of anger at McCain/Palin rallies in recent weeks, so some of that could be spilling over into local supporters as well.

Remember, also, we just saw an Obama sign burned in Altadena.

Still, it's unwise to assume someone's motives in these things: it could be a stupid teenage prank just as easily as it could be someone who is angry for political reasons or otherwise.

It becomes a touchy subject, though, when the candidate in question is black, and even more so if the person who has posted the sign up, or had his car keyed, is black. A sign burning probably shouldn't qualify as a hate crime, but what if someone tied a noose to the sign or hung Obama in effigy? When is the line crossed?