The city of Oakland, Calif., has launched a hate crime investigation after nooses were found hanging from trees around a city lake, according to a statement from Mayor Libby Schaaf.
Reports that the nooses at Lake Merritt could be part of an exercise routine or equipment were discounted and did not “remove nor excuse their tortuous and terrorizing effects,” she wrote in her news statement. The nooses, found Tuesday morning, have since been removed.
“Symbols of racial violence have no place in Oakland and will not be tolerated,” Schaaf said in her statement.
Blake Simons, an Oakland resident and co-host of the “Hella Black” podcast, discounted speculation that the nooses were exercise equipment.
“People don’t exercise like that,” he said.
“The rope was high up in the tree,” he said, noting that there were many.
He said Merritt Lake is a place where black residents hang out and congregate, and this incident represents just one more act of racial aggression and “white supremacist terror” in a spate of recent, high-profile occurrences in the area.
In 2018, a white woman, later dubbed “BBQ Becky” on social media, called the police on two black men grilling by the lake.
Simons said he is not satisfied with the mayor’s response.
“This happened yesterday morning,” he said. “And she’s sending out a statement only now?”
The Oakland Police Department said it would issue a statement soon.
