The New York Daily News is reporting on another noose incident, this one from a Brooklyn Detective. This is from John Marzulli’s article (linked above):
A Brooklyn detective says he found a noose hanging over his locker at an Emergency Service Unit squad – which some cops allegedly call the “Slave Ship” because of the large number of black officers assigned there. Gregory Anderson, 45, a former Marine who served in Operation Desert Storm, has filed a federal suit claiming he was run out of the unit after he complained about racial discrimination at Squad 8 in Williamsburg. Anderson, a 14-year veteran, claims his partner, who also is black, was called a “n—–” by a white cop. Anderson also says he was denied overtime tours because of his race.
Uptown at Teacher’s College, the professor who was the target of the noose incident, Professor Madonna Constantine, spoke at a rally of approximately 200, and is quoted in the New York Sun today:
“Hanging the noose on my door reeks of cowardice and fear on many, many levels,” Ms. Constantine said at the protest yesterday, drawing cheers from the crowd. “I would like the perpetrator to know I will not be silent.”
And, as the NYPost and the Gothamist there are some reports that the police are including another faculty member in their list of possible suspects, which would be surprising and disappointing (though perhaps not surprising to those familiar with vituperative academic politics). No matter who it turns out to be the perpetrator, it doesn’t diminish the fact that the noose – like the burning cross – is a particular kind of speech act being used here to invoke racial terrorism.
