Fire Co. pulls ‘noose’ from gear, says rope was for training
EWING » A so-called practice rope or “noose” has finally been removed from the gear rack of the Prospect Heights Volunteer Fire Co. days after Ewing Township hosted a Black Lives Matter rally.
Sources say the object in question has been hanging inside the fire station at 1660 Ninth St. for months if not a year.
The Trentonian has obtained photographic evidence of the questionable display, which was hanging from the interior rack space belonging to Firefighter John Bozek.
“The noose is prominently displayed for all to see, and this should not be tolerated,” a source, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, told The Trentonian on Tuesday before the fire company removed the apparatus. “There are a couple people of color within the fire department, both career and volunteer, and they should not be subjected to this.”
The fire company removed the noose after this newspaper had inquired about it, the newspaper has learned.
“We’re not going to tolerate that,” Democratic Mayor Bert Steinmann said Wednesday in an interview, adding he did not know about the rope until The Trentonian had reached out to his administration.
“I am appalled by the situation, and hopefully this is an isolated incident,” Steinmann added. “I don’t know what to say. Words escape me here. It should have never been there in the first place.”
Douglas Brower, president and deputy chief of Prospect Heights Fire Co. aka Station 31, on Wednesday confirmed the existence of the rope but suggested it was not intended to communicate an offensive message.
“There are many sets of practice ropes in the engine bays of the Prospect Heights Fire Co. used by firefighters,” Brower said Wednesday afternoon in a press statement. “The rope pictured was one of these and was wrapped and stored in a firefighter gear rack. Yesterday, all firematic ropes were removed from gear racks and the engine bays and stored so that any future misperceptions will be avoided.”
Black Lives Matter
Hundreds of protesters demonstrated at Moody Park in Ewing last week to condemn racism and police brutality in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota.
Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died in police custody last month. The incident sparked widespread civil unrest across the nation, prompting Ewing Township to temporarily agree to a regional curfew earlier this month.
Before being canceled on June 3, the emergency curfew required township businesses and public facilities to remain closed from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. and required residents to remain home during those hours.
Four Minneapolis cops have been fired and criminally charged with the homicide, including Derek Chauvin, the white man who placed his knee in the area of Floyd’s head and neck for 8 minutes and 46
seconds, killing him, prosecutors said.
Racist symbol
New Jersey doesn’t appear to have any laws criminalizing the hanging of a noose on public or private property.
Some of the other states, however, have deemed it a felony to hang or display a noose on another person’s property, particularly if the action was intended to intimidate or terrorize others.
The California State Legislature in 2009 passed a bill officially declaring the hangman’s noose to be a symbol of racism.
“Hanging a noose is directly correlated with America’s history of racial hatred and murder, representing not only a threat to African American life and safety, but causing further psychological and emotional trauma as well, and noose hanging is still happening now,” the California lawmakers found. “There are 2,805 documented victims of lynch mob killings between 1882 and 1930 in 10 southern states. The vast majority of lynch victims were African American. Of these black victims, 94 percent died in the hands of white lynch mobs. The scale of this carnage means that, on average, a black man, woman, or child was murdered nearly once a week, every week, between 1882 and 1930 by a hate-driven lynch mob.”
Citing the history of racially motivated lynchings against black Americans, the California legislation declared that any “reasonable person” could conclude that the “display of a noose at a school, park, place of employment, or other public venue amounts to a direct and immediate threat of force that would intimidate persons based on racial characteristics.”
The Trentonian could not reach Firefighter Bozek for comment, but the photographed object hanging from his rack space clearly fits the classic definition of “noose.”
Cambridge Dictionary defines noose as “one end of a rope tied to form a circle that can be tightened round something such as a person’s neck to hang (= kill) them.”
Steinmann said he rarely visits the Prospect Heights fire company and did not see any noose-like displays from his last visit about seven months ago. If this rope was hanging in the fire station for months, the mayor said, he is “very disappointed” that no one reported the noose discovery to him sooner.
“We would have acted on it immediately,” he said. “We would have addressed it immediately.”
Brower, the deputy chief, said Prospect Heights “has been proactive in its approach to the diversity issues confronting America today” and that “that this will continue to be a part of our upcoming training and discussions with our membership.”
First responders
Ewing has a combination fire service that mixes career firefighters with volunteers.
Prospect Heights is a private entity that receives public funding from the township just like the West Trenton Volunteer Fire Co.
Steinmann was scheduled to meet with the leadership of the Prospect Heights fire company on Wednesday. He said the township would review its options if Prospect Heights takes no disciplinary action in this case.
“In this particular situation, that individual is not an employee of the township,” the mayor said of Bozek.
The township in some instances may suspend a volunteer firefighter, Steinmann said, citing the example of a volunteer who had recklessly operated township-owned fire equipment. But generally the township may not punish volunteers with administrative discipline.
Marc Strauss, Ewing’s fire director, said the township must be “proactive” on this issue, saying, “We have to make sure we don’t offend anyone and make sure we keep the public’s utmost confidence in our service.”
“I don’t know what internal actions, if any, the Prospect Heights Fire Co. will take,” Strauss added. “That will be a conversation to have with the fire chief or his designee.”
Brower’s statement emphasized diversity training but did not say whether Bozek would be reprimanded.
“To imply that this rope was to communicate an offensive message is insulting to all of us at the Prospect Heights Fire Co.,” the deputy chief said in his statement. “Our membership is diverse with multiple race, gender and religious backgrounds. We take pride in that. We celebrate that. We are a family. Our membership and those that know us can attest to that. Our Ewing community will confirm that.”
“Furthermore,” Brower added, “for someone to enter our firehouse and take a picture, call it offensive and send it to the media without bringing it to the attention of the firehouse leadership only has the intent to slander and inflame. And to do this at a time when emotions are high is especially egregious and shocking. For the media to not recognize this makes them complicit.”
Firefighters in Ewing Township — paid and volunteer — are properly certified by the state of New Jersey and appointed by Ewing Council.
New Jersey Division of Fire Safety records show that John G. Bozek holds a valid DFS Firefighter I certification issued Aug. 30, 2002, according to the state Department of Community Affairs.
Someone who operates a Facebook page under the name John G. Bozek posts or shares content unfriendly to the Black Lives Matter movement, including implicit support for the Confederate flag and graphics suggesting “Ethnicity doesn’t matter” and “We can’t move forward if people want to keep living in the past.”