Firehouse incident with noose was a hoax

The Baltimore Sun ^ | December 2, 2007 | Justin Fenton

[rightwingintelligentsia]

A firefighter who reported finding a knotted rope and a threatening note with a drawing of a noose in an East Baltimore station house last month had placed the items there himself, city officials said yesterday.

The man was suspended last week for performance-related issues and will likely face additional punishment, fire officials said. Sterling Clifford, a spokesman for the Police Department and for Mayor Sheila Dixon, said the man admitted to the hoax and will not face criminal charges.

Officials identified the firefighter who they say acknowledged writing the note as Donald Maynard, a firefighter-paramedic apprentice who is black. Maynard could not be reached for comment.

[Kozak]

I’m shocked I tell ya, shocked!

[FormerACLUmember]

Almost all of these incidents pan out to be hoaxes.

The Columbia University incident, in particular, stinks to high heaven.

[Zuben Elgenubi]

" . . . said the man admitted to the hoax and will not face criminal charges."

What the h*ll is this happy horsesh*t? This should be categorized as a hate crime in Baltimore.

[BallyBill]

Yawn! Sigh!

Lack of Surprise, etc....

[Trailerpark Badass]

But...but...it’s the subtle, hidden racism that’s most insidious.

[stephenjohnbanker]

“I’m shocked I tell ya, shocked!”

Uh, notso much : )

[GoLightly]

“What the h*ll is this happy horsesh*t? This should be categorized as a hate crime in Baltimore.”

Don’t count when a “minority” is the majority.

http://www.hellobaltimore.com/Census.Cfm

[ClearCase_guy]

Sums up the problem with hate crimes. The action is not necessarily against the law (as we see here, this man is not charged). To decide if the law has been broken, we must look into a man's heart and decide what we see there. Do we see hate? Do we see a sense of humor? Depending on this ephemeral, invisible, intangible data which can only be seen by the discerning eye, we can determine if the man should be prosecuted.

In other words: the law is tool that we use to "get" the people we want to get, and allows us to ignore the people we want to protect.

[stylin19a]

This goes deeper than a noose

The news of the hoax came a day after a report released by the city's inspector general found that the top performers on two recent Fire Department promotions exams likely cheated amid lapses in testing security.

A black firefighters group had called accusations of cheating racially motivated after union officials questioned the test scores. But the investigation found that five African-American firefighters had studied by using a 2001 exam, which is against test protocol.

oops

[Zuben Elgenubi]

D*mn, that George Orwell could really read the future.

[Biblebelter]

A crime is a crime. A hate crime is a hoax waiting to happen.

[Eagles6]

"It really saddens us to hear that evidently things have reached a stage that even an African-American does an injustice to himself and his own people as a result of a negative culture in that department," Cheatham said when asked to respond to the unions.

Whitey made him do it! The guy should be responsible for all costs associated with the investigation.

[puroresu]

Almost all of these incidents pan out to be hoaxes.

Yep! But no matter how many times they turn out to be hoaxes, the next incident will be given lavish coverage by the media, with a headline such as this:"Noose Horror Sends Racial Shockwave Through Community".

The Columbia University incident, in particular, stinks to high heaven.

You must be imagining things. There was no Columbia University incident. It retroactively ceased to exist the moment they discovered that a security camera may have filmed the perpetrator.

[kingu]

Why is it that it’s always a strict rule, gotta prosecute, gotta suspend, etc, except when it comes to those who are employed by the government facing the same issues?

[MichiganCheese]

In my opinion, it’s more than a hoax. He was trying to falsely pin the blame on someone to get them charged with a hate crime or at the very least, ruin their career and livelihood.

Now tell me; who is the hateful one?

[donna]

It’s not a hoax, it’s a fake hate crime.

[thegreatbeast]

He should be hung. This crap isn’t funny.

[FormerACLUmember]

The Columbia University incident, in particular, stinks to high heaven. You must be imagining things. There was no Columbia University incident. It retroactively ceased to exist the moment they discovered that a security camera may have filmed the perpetrator.

Absolutely accurate! There was an unseen security camera photographing the phony race hustler professor faking the incident, oops I meant photographing the notorious Columbia University KKK Association antics.

The security tape which Columbia absolutely refuses to hand over to police investigators!