California police investigate nooses found hanging on trees as hate crime
Authorities in Oakland, California, are investigating nooses hanging off at least five separate trees as a hate crime.
The nooses were discovered Tuesday in the Lake Merritt area, a popular outdoor space and neighborhood.
“Symbols of racial violence have no place in Oakland and will not be tolerated,” Oakland’s mayor, Libby Schaaf, said in a statement. “We are all responsible for knowing the history and present day reality of lynchings, hate crimes and racial violence. Objects that invoke such terror will not be tolerated in Oakland’s public spaces.”
During initial investigations, some community members reported that the ropes were used for exercise equipment, with one saying he attached the rope to a tree limb for games several months ago, according to Oakland police.
Although some of the ropes may have been for exercise, “some of it absolutely was not”, Nicholas Williams, the Oakland parks and recreation director, said at a news briefing.
But the intentions of whoever put those nooses in the trees – whether for exercise or for hatred – doesn’t matter when it comes to the message that Schaaf said she was hoping to send in directing staff to remove the ropes immediately.
“These symbols are symbols of racial violence and it is incumbent on all of us to have that sensitivity, to have that knowledge,” she said.
“What a privilege for those of us that don’t feel complete fear and terror when we see a rope in a tree. That is a privilege that so many of our African American residents do not enjoy and this is a moment that we must be cognizant of that reality. We have got to stop terrorizing our black and brown citizens and as white people, we have to become knowledgable and educated about the impact of our actions, whether they are well-intentioned or not.”
The FBI has been notified about the nooses, the police said.
The discovery of the nooses comes on the heels of investigations into the hanging deaths of two black men in southern California.
Robert Fuller, 24, was found dead hanging from a tree near Palmdale city hall in the early hours of 10 June. The county medical examiner initially labeled the preliminary cause of death as suicide pending a full autopsy, noting the lack of evidence of foul play. But following widespread outcry, the coroner deferred the decision and the Los Angeles county sheriff announced that the FBI and the state attorney general’s office will be monitoring the investigation.
Ten days earlier, 38-year-old Malcolm
Harsch was found dead hanging from a tree in front of the Victorville public library in San Bernardino county, about 50 miles away from where Fuller was found dead.
Residents of the nearby homeless encampment who found Harsch and tried to render him aid told Harsch’s family that he had been hanging from a USB cord, and that “his 6 foot 3 inches long body wasn’t even dangling from the tree.”
The San Bernardino county sheriff is also “working in cooperation” with the attorney general’s office.
Schaaf, Oakland’s mayor, pointed out that the discovery of the nooses also came after Steven Carrillo, an air force sergeant with ties to the antigovernment “boogaloo” movement that is popular with white supremacists, was charged in the fatal shooting of 53-year-old federal officer Dave Patrick Underwood outside the US courthouse in Oakland during a night of protest and unrest.
“The fact that we had an extremist charged with the murder of Patrick Underwood, an extremist group, the boogaloos, that is trying to ferment a race war, we have to see this moment for what it is, a reckoning,” Schaaf said. “And in Oakland, we cannot further terrorize or traumatize our black residents.”