The mayor of Oakland , California, said on Wednesday that several “nooses” had been found hanging from trees at a local park and a hate crime investigation was underway.
“These have no place in our city at any time but especially in this time,” Libby Schaaf at a press conference on Wednesday, echoing an earlier statement. “These incidents will be investigated as a hate crime.”
Schaaf, a white Democrat, dismissed as irrelevant the account of a black constituent who had come forward to explain that the ropes were simply his exercise equipment.
- “Intentions don’t matter,” she repeatedly declared, at one point adding, “because the harm is real.”
- Pressed by a reporter, Schaaf acknowledged the motive for hanging the ropes was material legally — but not, she said, “when it comes to terrorizing the public.”
The mayor called the ropes “nooses” and “symbols of terrorism and racial hatred and violence,” and said all such offensive objects would be removed “from the public view” and investigated as hate crimes “until proven otherwise.”
- This is not just history, this is present times,” Schaaf said.
- Not being terrorized by the hanging ropes was a form of “white privilege,” she suggested.
Schaaf said the ropes — which were taken down after the city discovered them at Merritt Lake on Tuesday — had been turned over to the FBI as evidence.
Before Schaaf’s comments on Wednesday, Oakland resident Victor Sengbe told ABC 7 the ropes were part of a swing system he and his friends put up for exercise several months ago.
- He shared video of the swing in use.
“Out of the hundreds, thousands of people who walked by, no one even thought it looked anywhere close to a noose,” Sengbe said. “Folks have used it for exercise, it was really a fun addition to the park that we tried to create.”
Johnna Watson, a spokesperson for the Oakland Police Department, said several community members had reported the ropes were used as exercise equipment, according to USA Today.
- Police first learned of the ropes from a social media post that identified the them as nooses, according to the local ABC affiliate.
The reaction: A number of prominent commentators weighed in on the situation on Twitter on Thursday.
- New York magazine columnist Andrew Sullivan called Schaaf’s remarks “beyond parody.”
- Other conservatives wondered aloud why everyone was still calling the ropes “nooses.”
- Left-wing journalist Zaid Jilani slammed credulous press coverage of the alleged hate crime as part of a trend of “spreading unfounded racial fear.”
The discovery of the nooses in Oakland came amid nationwide protests against racism and police brutality and after the bodies of two black men were found in recent weeks hanging from trees in different California towns.
- Local authorities found no evidence of foul play in either death, but state and federal authorities have agreed to review the cases following demands from both men’s families.
Schaaf has previously feuded with President Donald Trump over Oakland’s “sanctuary city” status and her warning to local illegal immigrants ahead of an ICE raid in 2018.
