Firehouse incident with noose was a hoax

Source: baltimoresun

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.

The rope incident sparked outrage two weeks ago and prompted a federal investigation into possible civil rights violations. It was the latest in a series of incidents that have cast the Fire Department in a poor light over the past year, including the death of a recruit in a training exercise and accusations of racism.



Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-te.ci.probe02dec02,0,5563956.story?coll=bal_tab01_layout

show for him. He should at least send an invoice.

...but in this day and age, any anonymously-made demonstration of racism against a single individual really should be thoroughly investigated before we (or the media) jump to conclusions.

Not that we should automatically jump to the opposite conclusion, mind you. But the example of the Claremont Professor who claimed Anti-Semites slashed her tires still rings fresh in my mind.

It makes it difficult to demand attention on REAL issues of racial discrimination when stupid morons like this one and the stripper girl in the lacrosse case use the Race Card for their own, illegitimate purposes.

easier to swallow.

This asshole just gave them a grain of truth, and a pretty damned good one.

The truth of the matter is, in a country of 300,000,000 people, it stands to reason statistically that every statute than can be abused, everything from racial to parking statutes and everything in between, WILL be abused, by at least one out of 300,000,000 people.

Therefore, these Bushie magnifications of a Single Example to Smear the Whole is deadly effective because they are true, these are abuses and indefensible.

Problem is, try to explain that to someone and watch their eyes glaze over.

Conversation should be FUN and not a bummer! :sarcasm:

To me this is just as bad as if he had placed it in someone else's locker! He should be charged as a racist!

racism isn't illegal.

He should then be fired from his job. He should not be allowed to keep a job as fireman.

still hear about Tawana Brawley to this day. Al Sharpton got taken big time and had to pay defamation damages over that mess.

Here we go again.

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Need more? DiversityInc Noose Watch