Nooses Hanging in Northeast

Jena copycat crimes continue as noose is found at Ground Zero post office this week

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 14, 2007 5:19 PM CDT

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Nooses Hanging in Northeast — In this photo released by the New York City Police Department, a four foot long noose hangs from a door knob of a Columbia University professor's office, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2007 in New York. The NYPD's hate crime unit was examining whether the twine noose was the work of students or colleagues at odds... (Associated Press)

A noose found outside a New York post office this week is the latest in a spate of apparent Northeast hate crimes, CBS reports. The Jim Crow-era symbols have turned up recently at a Connecticut Coast Guard Academy, a Long Island police station, and at Columbia University—possibly inspired by racial clashes in Jena, Alabama. “We have to be concerned about a copycat being out there,” police warn.

Hate crime is up 10% in NY this year and spiking nationwide over the past 10 to 15 years, a civil rights lawyer says. But "there is no real database on nooses around the country,” he adds. So far NY police have made no arrests, but are analyzing hours of video footage at Columbia and probing the post office incident. "At this point, there was no target that was evident or any motive," says a post office spokesman. (More noose stories.)

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