SNOWMASS VILLAGE, Colo.-
The date and time passed without incident, but the fears prompted by a threat on the wall of a portable toilet have not.
The threat was specific, indicating that all Mexicans working at the Snowmass Base Village construction site at 2:15 p.m., May 4 would be shot.
Police would discuss any other details, but responded in such a way as to indicate they took it seriously, increasing patrols throughout the week and all day on Friday.
Karen Sherman Perez was relieved. As part of the Western Colorado Justice for Immigrants Committees, she works on the Western Slope for immigrant rights and legislative reforms.
“An event like that is unsettling,” Perez told The Aspen Times for Monday’s editions. “When you have any sort of racial slurs and comments like that, I think its something that affects everyone.”
Perez acknowledged that prejudice against immigrant workers continues to exist, and some workers are more aware of it than others.
Felipe Moncanda, 18, moved to Aspen about a year ago.
He works for a temporary staffing firm, and called racial tensions at many of the Aspen-area construction sites he’s sent workers to “calm,” but he also noted he’d felt those tensions himself.
“Just the way people look at you sometimes like youre not educated,” Moncada told The Times.
He didn’t seem overly concerned about the graffiti, saying “It’s just stupid people, I think.”
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Information from The Aspen Times,
