Construction workers have found a second noose at one of the buildings at the BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee worksite, officials said today.
The first noose was found last Aug. 7, and that prompted an initial investigation by the FBI. Mary Thompson, a spokeswoman for BlueCross, said today that another noose was found, and this one was constructed of some plastic banding material.
FBI Agent in Charge Ed Galloway said he had no additional comments, aside from saying that the investigation is ongoing. Ms. Thompson said agents were at the Cameron Hill construction site today.
Skanska, the company in charge of the construction project, is offering diversity and sensitivity training. So far, said John Reyhan, general manager for the project, morale has not been affected.
“We’ve added a tremendous amount of security at the site,” Mr. Reyhan said. “And at our jobwide meeting every morning we are encouraging anyone to come forward with any reports of intimidation.”
For complete coverage see tomorrow’s Times Free Press.
Adam Crisp covers education issues for the Times Free Press. He joined the paper's staff in 2007 and initially covered crime, public safety, courts and general assignment topics. Prior to Chattanooga, Crisp was a crime reporter at the Savannah Morning News and has been a reporter and editor at community newspapers in southeast Georgia. In college, he led his student paper to a first-place general excellence award from the Georgia College Press Association. He earned ...
Granted the presence of the noose is a device used by racists to intimidate and inflame the black population. And the authorities and the media are being used and manipulated to spread that hate message and to give the racists the very attention and notoriety they seek. Is the media looking for a big breaking story they can use to promote sensationalism? I am not racist, and by the same token if "kill whitey" was written on a building wall, I would hope the media would not play it up to promote their own interests. But I really do think the media would tend to give much less coverage to an anti-white slur than what we see now. Such a thing would not be nearly as provocative and the whites would not rise up in righteous indignation. They never do, and the media knows that.
So all people of Chattanooga, white, black, or whatever, consider this ignorant "noose" gesture for what it really is. Just a vain attempt for some hate group or person(s) to inflame and intimidate. If we react in either fashion, then we have aided and abetted them in succeeding in their mission.
On the other hand, the noose could have been hung by a race-baiting minority person in an effort to gain sympathy for a who-knows-what imagined offense.
Maybe it signifies no more than that other noose hung at a Southern high school -- and meant to signify "hanging" an opposing football team [the Cowboys] during an upcoming game.
The prior writer was correct; "Kill Whitey" would never be mentioned in newsprint or on TV -- and nary an empty suit would not be seen. Organizations [and newsmedia] sometimes desperately need something to justify their existence.
Has anyone checked to see if some newshound hung the stupid thing himself?
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