A conservative activist who has claimed responsibility for erecting racist and anti-immigrant signs at RTD bus stops last month has been charged by Denver police for a separate but similar incident from six months ago.
Police cited 56-year-old Christopher Balli, who goes by the name Sabo, last Thursday.
Denver police said they found several illegally installed signs on street poles on March 22, 2024. The signs were installed at multiple locations, including the intersection of Colfax and Broadway, and in front of the state capitol.
Signs depicted silhouettes of people, some armed with weapons. Some read “Migrant Hookers,” “Dumbmockracy,” or “Undocumented Democrats.”
Denver police investigated the vandalism as a bias-motivated crime. But after the case went to the Denver District Attorney’s Office, officials determined the case did not meet the requirements for a hate crime charge.
The signs did not meet the state’s standard for bias-motivated crimes because they didn’t damage any property, according to DA spokesperson Matthew Jablow.
“The Bias-Motivated Crime statute (CRS 18-9-121) regarding property requires that the conduct caused damage to the affected property,” Jablow wrote in an email. “In this case, the signs were attached in a way that did not permanently damage property or result in a significant cost to remove and remediate. This would prevent our office from proving that element of the potential crime beyond a reasonable doubt, and prosecutors have an ethical duty only to charge cases with a reasonable likelihood of conviction.”
Balli was instead charged with breaking Denver Municipal Code 3.1, which prohibits posting signs on public property without explicit permission from the city. Those who break that law can be liable for the cost of removal.
That citation comes with a punishment of up to 300 days in jail and a $999 fine.
For comparison, a bias-motivated property crime is punishable with a class 1 misdemeanor, which carries similar maximum punishments.
Balli has taken responsibility for similar signs installed at bus stops along Colfax and Colorado last month
The busy intersection is where new immigrants can commonly be found offering to wash car windows. Those signs said that Black people “must sit at the back of the bus” and “Kamala’s migrants sit in the front.” Another sign also depicted silhouettes, and referred to “Kamala’s illegals.”
The signs were quickly removed from affected bus stops. In the following days, public figures disavowed the messages espoused by the artist who created them.
Denver police said the August incident will be investigated as a bias-motivated crime. As of Tuesday, no legal action has been taken towards a suspect in the case.
Balli did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
