The NYPD is investigating a possible hate crime at the Parks Department's Bronx headquarters, where a black baby doll was found hanging by a metal chain noose yesterday morning. Geoffrey Croft at NYC Park Advocates reports that the 15 inch doll was discovered by a sixty-year-old black male Parks Department employee who had just returned to work from being out sick. One Parks employee tells Croft the man was traumatized and "looked like he was going to have a stroke." Three KKKs were also found scratched in a unisex bathroom on the first floor, sources tell Croft. more ›

Sanoy Fleming, an ASPCA worker in Queens who happens to be black, found a noose hanging from a company garage. "I was very upset and it made me uncomfortable that no one thought it was inappropriate," Fleming tells the Daily News, so she reported the incident to her supervisor. A few days later, she received a call from "George" in HR. After scolding her for her subpar work performance, "George" allegedly told her: " 'I heard you were upset about a rope found in the garage,' and he said that it was used for 'operational purposes' to lift things." Sort of like how KKK hoods are for keeping warm. more ›

Police are investigating a possible hate crime in Queens: A noose was found hanging from a tree outside an apartment building—and right by an elementary school—in Howard Beach on Wednesday. Residents were shaken and disgusted; one told NY1, "That's disgusting. I see it. It's a lynchman, a hangman's noose. I would never think that would happen in this neighborhood." more ›

In December, FDNY electrician Gregory Seabrook (a black man) filed a complaint with the New York State Division of Human Rights, saying that the FDNY overlooks minority electricians for overtime. And on Thursday, he arrived to his Brooklyn FDNY locker to find a noose inside. Unfortunately, this sounds all too familiar. more ›

A 32-year-old woman arrested for marijuana charges hung herself inside a Brooklyn holding cell, according to the Post. The woman "used her pants to form a crude noose, which she slung around a horizontal cell bar" inside the 73rd Precinct in Brownsville yesterday at around 6:47 pm. She was found dead about 40 minutes after she was locked in the room. more ›

Did Morningside Heights relocate below the Mason-Dixon line or something? Yet another noose has surfaced at Columbia Teachers College, where a black teacher previously found one hanging on her classroom door in 2007. This time the perpetrator went sent the hate two-dimensionally, in the form of a noose drawing. It was sent to the same professor, Madonna Constantine, but she isn't even at Columbia anymore, having been fired last year amid unrelated allegations of plagiarism. But the hate doesn't stop there! Three other 8x12-inch envelopes containing drawings of swastikas were sent to Jewish professors, so they wouldn't feel left out. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has assigned the investigation to the NYPD's Hate Crimes Task Force, and Teachers College President Susan Fuhrman sent an e-mail to students and faculty urging everyone to cooperate in the probe. Columbia's student-run blog has that e-mail, and notes that the 2007 noose culprit is still at large. more ›

Madonna Constantine, the Columbia Teachers College professor whose office door had a noose hanging on it, was suspended indefinitely for committing plagiarism. The NY Times characterizes the move as a firing, noting a letter from Teachers College says, "We are terminating Madonna Constantine’s employment with Teachers College for cause, subject to a hearing before a faculty committee. In the interim Professor Constantine is suspended, effective immediately.” more ›

The Columbia University community is currently divided over the controversy involving a professor's possible plagiarism, which has escalated to racial politics. more ›

Today is a citywide "Day Out Against Hate." City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and the Reverend Al Sharpton have spearheaded the event, which was prompted by a number of disturbing hate crime incidents, from swastikas in Brooklyn Heights to a noose found at the Columbia University campus. The Politicker was at one of the events this morning, where Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz "suggested, rather strongly, that city public school students be required to make... more ›