Employees Disciplined After Lynching Symbol Made at Workplace

How three Anne Arundel County employees were disciplined after one of them made a rope noose – a symbol of lynchings – while two others joked about it is the focus of discussion among politicians and civil rights leaders.

This summer, a county employee made the noose, which hung from some pallets and may have been visible to the public. Another employee joked about the noose and a third hung it up, County Executive Laura Neuman said Monday. But Neuman is drawing criticism because she will not divulge the names of the employees involved, the department they work in or how they were punished.

“We would not want them to be identified because that would create a very uncomfortable situation for them, unnecessarily and unfairly,” she said in a Capital-Gazette story. “It’s not my place to put them in the middle of it publicly.”

Civil rights leaders want to know more, including the scope of the discipline and the department for which they work.

Carl Snowden, with the Caucus of African American Leaders, told WBAL TV, “It’s alarming to discover that in 2014, in the county government, nooses are being constructed at a workplace.”

Newman said the black employee who joked about the noose made by a white employee reported it to a supervisor, and an investigation began the next day. None of the employees involved lost their job.

County Councilman Daryl Jones, D-Severn, said he was unaware of the incident until Monday.

“I don’t know who conducted the investigation,” he said. “I don’t know their qualifications, nor do I know their results.”