Apparently, some rascally racist with a lot of time and rope on their hands has been hanging random nooses around an Amazon construction site in Windsor, Conn. It’s gotten to be such a noosanse (see what I did there?) that the company announced Thursday that the site has been shut down while the authorities get to the bottom of the string of incidents because they are knot having it. (Yeah, so there might be a fair amount of bad puns in this piece.)
USA Today reports that the first noose was found at the site on April 27, hanging from a steel beam on the second floor of the building, according to Windsor Police Capt. Andrew Power. Two days later, five more ropes that, according to Power, “could be interpreted as nooses” were found.
“Some of them were just rope that was tied at the end and some were twisted in a manner to look like a noose,” he said describing exactly what a noose is.
In all, seven nooses have been found at the site, which was shut down after the last noose discovery tied the hands of Amazon officials. (OK that was the last one.)
From USA Today:
Because the ropes were hung in an area without surveillance cameras and because the facilities have hundreds of employees from various companies, the police have limited information on leads, Power said.
Amazon is closing the site while security measures are put in place, company spokesperson Brian Griggs said at an NAACP news conference Thursday.
“We continue to be deeply disturbed by the incidents at this construction site,” he said, adding that they are working with authorities “to find and hold accountable the perpetrators of these incidents.”
“Hate, racism or discrimination have no place in our society and are certainly not tolerated in any Amazon workplace — whether it be under construction like this one, or fully operational,” he said.
Amazon is now offering a $100,000 reward for information, said Griggs.
Sheeeiiiiiit, $100,000 would definitely be enough for me to hang whoever was responsible for these crimes out to dry. (OK, that was the last one.)
I know I should probably be taking this more seriously, but, come on, guys, this kind of lazy racism is just boring. Can these kinds of uninspired bigots even go back to their neo-Nazi friends—who just finished burning crosses on lawns, beating up minorities or storming the U.S. Capitol—and brag about hanging a few pieces of symbolic rope around a random construction site? I’m just saying, this is some real Dollar Store hate crime shit here.
While I might not be getting myself all tied up in a knot over this (y’all knew I wasn’t going to stop) the Connecticut chapter of the NAACP is taking it very seriously and has pledged to keep making noise about it until those responsible are held accountable.
“They’re not gonna push us back; we’re gonna push them back,” Connecticut NAACP State President Scot X Esdaile said during a news conference.
“The NAACP knows what the showing of a noose is,” he continued. “The NAACP understands and we’ve been in situations where our churches were bombed, children were killed, families were destroyed. We’re not tolerating this nonsense.”
FBI special agent David Sundberg also said in a statement that the “implications of a hanging noose anywhere are unacceptable and will always generate the appropriate investigative response.”
Listen: I might think this is the hate crime equivalent of rearranging someone’s work desk while their back is turned, but that doesn’t mean I don’t fully support bringing whoever is responsible to justice. I hope they’re punished to the full extent of the law until they are at the end of their ro...
You know what? I’m better than this.