Another Report of a Noose Incident

Thousands of black Americans marched around the U.S. Justice Department on Friday to protest what they described as heavy-handed law enforcement and a reluctance to prosecute racially motivated crimes.

Chants of "no justice, no peace" and "fired up, can't take it no more" echoed off the monumental government buildings along Pennsylvania Avenue as an overwhelmingly black crowd of about 10,000 circled the department's Washington headquarters.

Civil rights leaders organized the march after a spate of incidents in which blacks have been harassed with nooses, a symbol of racist lynchings.


Meanwhile, a Slidell city employee is under investigation by city officials and the FBI after he apparently hung a paper figure from a crudely constructed noose on city property following a disagreement with his African-American supervisor.

The employee evidently created the makeshift noose -- fashioned from electrical wire hanging in an old work barn on Bayou Lane -- before the hearing took place, Morris said. He used white paper to make a paper doll to hang from the noose, Morris said.

The FBI visited the barn Thursday morning and interviewed several employees, said Morris, who met with investigators. Sheila Thorn, a special agent in the agency's New Orleans office, confirmed Friday that the FBI is looking into "an incident involving a noose" to determine whether it warrants further federal investigation.