Hanging Deaths And Noose Sightings Raise Alarm In Aftermath Of George Floyd Protests

TOPLINE

Amid a nationwide reckoning over race in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a disturbing number of reports have cropped up featuring an icon of violent oppression from the days of Jim Crow: the noose. In addition to the widely publicized case of a noose discovered in the garage stall of NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace on Sunday, nooses have been found in public places in California, New York and Maine within the last week, and over the previous month, six black people have been found hanging from trees, with their deaths ruled suicides.

KEY FACTS

Key Background:

After originally saying there was no sign of foul play in either of the two hanging deaths in California (which were separated by just 50 miles and occurred 10 days apart), the local authorities, “responding to pleas from community activists, promised full investigations into the deaths of both men.” The FBI is also monitoring the inquiries. Family members of 38-year-old Malcolm Harsch, one of the two men, said Saturday that after reviewing video footage provided by the police, they were now convinced that he died by suicide. However, family members of the other individual, 24-year-old Robert Fuller, are still waiting for the results of an investigation into his death. 

Tangent:

Last Thursday, on the eve of Juneteenth, a pair of Bronx residents said they discovered multiple nooses in a nearby park. The NYPD reportedly claimed the hanging knots were nothing more than harmless string and declined to open an investigation. A noose was also found hanging from a tree inside Harlem’s Marcus Garvey Park on June 13. This incident prompted Gov. Andrew Cuomo to promise that the New York State Police Hate Crimes Task Force would investigate. Yet, the task force quickly determined that it was not an act of hate, but instead that the noose was left over from a construction scaffold removed in the fall, used to hoist construction materials.

Critical Quote: 

“It is very uncommon for young black men to commit suicide, let alone by hanging,” said Raymond Winbush, a psychologist and the director of Morgan State University’s Institute for Urban Research. (The overall suicide rate for African Americans is 60% lower than that of the non-Hispanic white population, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.)

Further Reading:

Police say deaths of black people by hanging are suicides. Many black people aren’t so sure. (Washington Post) 

Nooses found hanging in Oakland trees to be investigated as hate crimes (CNN)