Noose Sightings Are Spreading

In the wake of the Jena 6, noose sightings have been spreading rapidly:

Stories of nooses hanging in offices, schools and public spaces have peppered local newspapers across the country, and not just in Southern states.

A mixed-race student found the image of a noose and a racial epithet painted on his car Oct. 19 after attending a high school football game in DeKalb County, Ala.

A Haitian chaplain found a noose hanging from the door of his office in a Rockland, N.Y., children's psychiatric center Nov. 4.

A toilet-paper noose was discovered hanging from a campus bathroom stall Nov. 8 at North Carolina State University.

Construction workers in Cicero, Ill., found a noose hanging from a beam where they were working on a municipal building Nov. 12.

An African-American police sergeant in Bridgeport, Conn., found a noose under her patrol car Nov. 14.

In Louisiana, teachers at an elementary school run by Grambling State University put a noose around a child's neck in late September during a lesson on the civil rights movement and the Jena Six rally.

The Thibodaux Police Department fired officer Michael Rodrigue on Oct. 29 after another white officer reported seeing a noose hanging from the rear-view mirror in his personal car parked on public property.

Until law enforcement officials view this as a serious offense, I doubt that these horrific and hateful acts will diminish.