<p>"NEW YORK (AP) -- Investigators on Wednesday were looking into whether a noose hanging from the door of a black professor at Columbia University was the work of disgruntled students or even a fellow professor.</p>
<p>A police official..., stressed that investigators were looking into a variety of possibilities. One is that the noose was placed on Madonna Constantine's door by another professor with whom she was having a dispute at the university's Teachers College, the police official said.</p>
<p>The discovery of the noose, found Tuesday, has roiled the Ivy League campus, prompting plans for a protest rally and a meeting for upset students and faculty.</p>
<p>"This is an assault on African Americans and therefore it is an assault on every one of us," university President Lee C. Bollinger said in a statement...."</p>
<p>Seems like every other day lately I come across another noose story in some part of the country. Just shows that this sort of thing isn't as far behind us as some would like to believe.</p>
<p>Also last month, a noose was found hanging outside a black cultural studies building on the University of Maryland campus in College Park, Md. The president of Grambling State University said last week that he would seek sanctions against teachers at a university-run elementary school who were photographed re-enacting hangings in a lesson tied to the ongoing Jena 6 controversy. </p>
<p>At a secondary school of Gallaudet University, a college for deaf students in Washington, seven students -- six white and one black -- assaulted a black student and scrawled "KKK" and swastikas all over his body with a marker. The head of the U.S. Coast Guard is investigating a July incident at the Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut in which two small nooses were found inside the sea bag of a black cadet aboard a tall ship.</p>
<p>FLVADAD - these people are obviously cowards; they know what they are doing is wrong - otherwise, why the anonimity of it? If their actions have some substance to them, then why not do it where people can see who it is that's making and hanging the nooses?</p>
<p>However, because it's done so anonymously, and it does seem to be happening with some regularity (or at least being reported now with some regularity), it makes me wonder who I know that is a closeted racist. Yes, I thought we were past this.</p>
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Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said today that police investigators were seeking videotapes from cameras covering three entrances of the Columbia University Teachers College building where the noose was found, but said the university would not cooperate.
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</p>
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According to police, Columbia officials have told investigators that they would have to get subpoenas before they would give the NYPD the surveillance footage.
<p>I guess I find it strange that president Bollinger can say, "This is an assault on African Americans and therefore it is an assault on every one of us," and then says to police (in effect), "go get a warrant." Does Bollinger want to get to the bottom of this or not?</p>
<p>Okay, even if Columbia is worried about legal implications, although I don't know why they would be, they should be able to examine the videotapes themselves to find the noose-hangers and if they find it, copy that small section for police. What's the point of them having the cameras if they're afraid to use them?</p>
<p>Luthar versus Madonna ... that must be a battle of biblical proportions.</p>
<p>Regardless of the merits of the case, this is bound to turn into quite a circus, especially in a city such as NYC. At least the Kerri Dunn debacle unfolded in a sleepy suburb Los Angeles. </p>
<p>Aren't we --and our press-- craving for pathos, pathos, and more pathos?</p>
<p>I am insinuating that there have been hoaxes in the past - Kerri Dunn was convicted and got a year in the slammer and still won't admit it was a hoax. Then there is the Duke Lacrosse case and Tawanda Brawley so I'll wait for the investigation to complete before looking for somebody to lynch. As near as I can tell Colmbia U in general and Columbia teachers in particular are hardly rightwing hotbeds and the only racists demonstrations I have seen up that way were launched by an outfit called, in translation, "The Race" and they were directed against the majority group in the country.</p>
<p>If there is a secret cell of the KKK operating in Harlem though I will be the first to take heed.</p>
<p>Higherlead, it wouldn't have to have come from a "secret cell of the KKK operating in Harlem". All it takes is a single disgruntled individual at Columbia who harbored racial hatred, and felt compelled to direct it toward this particular professor. </p>
<p>It should be pointed out that, despite cases like the ones you sited, most incidences of hate crime are NOT hoaxes. A vigorous investigation should be conducted in ALL cases (hoax or not), and responsible parties should be held absolutely accountable. Rocket science, right?:rolleyes:</p>
<p>3 or 4 high profile cases of hoaxs does NOT diminish the hundreds and thousands of cases each there that have happened, and the many more that may never have been reported out of fear</p>
<p>nice that the folly of a few is an excuse to dismiss the actions of so many</p>
<p>and the attempted humor about looking for someone to lynch was cold and thoughtless, but not surprising</p>