The day after the bombing of a Colorado Springs NAACP office, NAACP president Cornell Brooks says proper steps are being followed to ensure the safety of the organization’s employees and volunteers.
On Tuesday morning, an explosive device was detonated outside of a Colorado branch office building. No one was injured and there was minimal damage, though the explosion was strong enough to knock things down inside the building. The explosive was placed next to a can of gasoline, which didn’t ignite. The FBI is currently investigating the case and searching for the suspect, a White male in his 40s.
Brooks spoke with NewsOne Now yesterday to answer questions about the attack, which hasn’t received much media attention.
“The reality is the NAACP is a subject and object of affection for a great number of Americans, but there is an infinitesimally small group of Americans that hate our work, hate our aspirations and don’t mean us well,” Brooks said. “We obviously have to be concerned about explosive devices detonated outside one of our offices.”
He admitted that since the investigation was still underway, he couldn’t describe it has neither a hate crime, arson nor terrorism. However, he said that the NAACP is taking the proper precautions.
“Our work as peacemakers provokes those in our society who are troublemakers. That seems to be clear,” he said. “We don’t know who did this, but we know enough about our history and instances in the past where our people and our offices have been subjected to threats.”