[RP TownTalk] unfortunate incident gets Riverdale Park in the Post

[Dwight Holmes]

Sounds like our Mayor and everyone handled this well...sorry they had to
handle it at all.

*Two Suspended After Noose Incident*

By Avis Thomas-Lester
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 14, 2007; B03

Two Riverdale<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Riverdale?tid=informline>Park
town employees were suspended yesterday in connection with an incident
in which a noose was found hanging in a town building, officials said.

The noose was found dangling from a television Friday in an employee lounge
at the Department of Public Works, said several employees who did not want
to be identified because of the sensitivity of the incident. Workers
discovered it after returning from a job outside the building, the employees
said.

Michael Scott<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Michael+Scott?tid=informline>,
acting director of the department, would not identify the suspended
employees or discuss the incident.

"We have suspended two employees pending the completion of the city's
investigation," he said, adding: "Yes, it is in regards to a noose, but I
cannot get into any of the specifics about who or what or any of that."

Mayor Vernon Archer said town officials took action Wednesday after being
notified of the incident. He said that it is being treated seriously.

"Not under any circumstances will this kind of thing be tolerated," Archer
said. He would not say who notified town administrators or why they were not
notified sooner.

The employees who did not want to be named said that a man and a woman, both
white, said they hung the rope.

"People were really upset about it," one of the employees said. "Two people
admitted they did it. They said they were just joking around, that they were
trying to be funny. We didn't think it was funny. We told them it
represented people being lynched and killed."

More than 4,700 people died by lynching in the 19th and 20th centuries, most
of them black men.

Several nooses have been found elsewhere recently, in the Washington area
and other parts of the country. In August, one was discovered at the University
of Maryland<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/University+of+Maryland?tid=informline>near
the black cultural center. Near Jena,
La.<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Jena+%28Louisiana%29?tid=informline>,
the site of recent racial tensions, two men were arrested in October after
being accused of driving with nooses attached to their pickup truck. Also
that month, a noose was found on the office door of a black professor
at Columbia
University<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Columbia+University?tid=informline>
.

Archer said that relations are usually positive among races in Riverdale
Park, an ethnically diverse community of 6,500 near College
Park<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/College+Park?tid=informline>and
Hyattsville<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Hyattsville?tid=informline>in
northern Prince
George's County<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Prince+George%27s+County?tid=informline>
.

"Right now, we are trying to deal with the incident itself, and from there,
how to counsel anyone who was offended or hurt will be part of the
consideration," he said. "People here generally get along very well. That's
why something like this is extremely unusual."

*Staff writer Ovetta Wiggins contributed to this report.*


-- 
"A budget is a moral document." --Jim Wallis
"Don't tell me what you value, show me your budget, and I'll tell you what
you value." --Sen. Joe Biden
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