The Earth Liberation Front is “neither confirming nor denying” complicity in the Charles County, Md., arson fires. Locals speculate that the culprits might be anyone from ecoterrorists to local hunters irked about development to disgruntled contractors or even white racists mad about black families moving into the area.

“They’ve been putting racial slurs up on the walls there for some time,” said Grant Baker, a retired Navy contractor [told the Washington Times]. “This is a racial town, and it still half is. That racial thing is still here.”

Yeah, except, the arsonists didn’t target homes occupied by black residents. They systematically attempted to destroy 30 new, unoccupied homes in an environmentally controversial subdivision. And no report that I have read has indicated that the arsonists left any signs of racial animus in their tracks. If this was the KKK’s way of sending a message to blacks to stay out of the neighborhood, it was a rather dim way to send it.