Nov 22, 2007 10:38 pm US/Eastern
Noose Found At Fire Station
BALTIMORE (WJZ/AP) ―
There's outrage from civil rights leaders to the mayor's office over a disturbing discovery. For the second time this year, racially insensitive materials were left behind at a city firehouse.
Gigi Barnett has more on this latest case.
Fire officials say a noose and a racially charged note were left at the firehouse by a fellow firefighter. Police tell Eyewitness News they are investigating this as a possible hate crime.
Pictures obtained by Eyewitness News show the noose attached to a note and left in a Baltimore City firehouse in the early morning hours.
The note reads, "We can't hang the cheaters but we can hang the failures." Now some in the department are demanding it be investigated as a hate crime.
"I think it's a symptom of a larger disease of racism in the Baltimore City Fire Department," said Vulcan Blazers president Henry Burris.
The note goes on to read "No EMT-I, no job," a reference, some believe,
to an investigation into whether some firefighters cheated on promotional exams over the summer.
When asked how certain he was that a fellow firefighter left the noose, Chief William Goodwin responded, "About as certain as we are that when you hear the siren, somebody in our department's blowing it."
NAACP President "Doc" Cheatham is demanding city leaders neutralize what he calls a "culture of racism" within the department.
"We're saying mayor, president of City Council, councilmembers, you need to get busy on this issue, because after we finish with this, if they don't do something, we're coming at them next," he said.
Just days before the incident at this firehouse, a report was issued by the NAACP, recounting what it calls a surge in the number of racially motivated hate crimes.
A FBI crime log reveals a similar trend. According to figures released this week, the number of hate crimes nationwide is up eight percent to more than 7,700 in 2006. Here in Maryland, there were 212 hate crimes last year, compared with 195 the year before.
The Justice Department is actively investigating a number of noose incidents around the country, including one left in a tree at the University of Maryland back in September.
"There are some deep-seated racial problems and they need to be addressed," Burris said.
In a statement to Eyewitness News, the mayor called the incident a "deplorable act of hatred and intimidation" that will not be tolerated by city employees.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
