AUSTIN (KXAN) – A report by a Democratic-leaning blog on Thursday about an empty chair being hanged from a tree in Northwest Austin has sparked online outrage suggesting that whoever did it was motivated by racial intolerance.

“The resident, a Republican, lynched an empty chair from a tree in his yard, which one can easily interpret to represent a racially motivated act of violence against the President,”  wrote Katherine Haenschen, editor of the Austin-based Burnt Orange Report .

But locally some residents were distraught by the sight. The chair hanging from a tree caused some neighbors to look twice and in some cases some took offense, like one man who says he drives by here regularly.

“All of the sudden I looked at it and stopped in my tracks and it made me feel cold” said a passerby who didn’t want to identify himself, “Because as a young African-American knowing that I served in my military and I fight for his right to say whatever he wants to say”.

The hanging chair incident has found it’s way to national attention. Robert Stephenson of Moveon.org’s area office was asked to come here and take pictures.

“We just wanted to get it down cause it’s a personal attack on the president it’s not anything else, it’s a personal attack on the president”, said Stephenson.

But just hang on a second says chair owner Bud Johnson, who has since removed the chair off the tree and onto his yard.

“It never was intended to be racist it never has been”, said Johnson when asked about the chair’s symbol, “I’m not a racist person”.

Johnson says he’s surprised by all the negative attention he’s been getting and adds he decided to take the chair down because too many people are getting the wrong idea.

“That’s why I took it down because there’s too many stupid people that have misconceptions” declared Johnson,  “They automatically look at that and say ok, that empty chair that’s Obama, well that’s not necessarily true”.

Johnson says all he meant by it is support for Clint Eastwood’s speech.

“Was it right? Probably not but I supported his statement, I feel that way”.

Two of Johnson’s close neighbors say they support his freedom to express himself. One of them even said he was a supporter of Obama, but others say it’s hard to look the other way.

“There comes a time where a line has to be drawn” added the African American military veteran, “I mean to symbolize an empty chair marking Clint Eastwood and saying you’re going to hang the president what does that say about me when you see me in your neighborhood”.

But that attitude can be dangerous says Democratic political consultant Glenn Smith of Austin who suggested that the displays and others like them represent a cancer on American politics.

“The question is, are these hateful protests from isolated crackpots?” Smith writes on the Huffington Post . “Or do they exemplify a larger fringe America so lost in bigotry and anti-Obama zealotry that they’ve lost all moral bearings?

“Another even more important question: Are they being encouraged by more well-known right-wing commentators?”

Other liberal online sites such as Daily Kos and the Democratic Underground have also weighed in on the Austin incident.