Yesterday I wrote a post about some left over garbage from a construction scaffolding being mistaken for a noose, leading to politicans warning people that just because they didn’t put the rope in the tree as a racist act, it is one if other people say it is.
Today we have a nearly identical story from California.
‘Nooses’ in Oakland park were exercise aids, man says
Oakland’s mayor said five ropes found hanging from trees in a city park are nooses and racially-charged symbols of terror but a resident said they are merely exercise equipment that he put up there months ago.
Victor Sengbe, who is black, told KGO-TV that the ropes were part of a rigging that he and his friends used as part of a larger swing system. He also shared video of the swing in use.
“Out of the dozen and hundreds and thousands of people that walked by, no one has thought that it looked anywhere close to a noose. Folks have used it for exercise. It was really a fun addition to the park that we tried to create,” Sengbe said.
So these black guys were having fun in a park for months on a home made jungle gym and nobody cared. He demonstrated the harmless nature of hat he did and that there was no malice here.
That should be the end of it, right?
No, because there is a narrative to maintain.
Schaaf said officials must “start with the assumption that these are hate crimes.” However, the mayor and Nicholas Williams, the city’s director of parks recreation, also said it didn’t matter whether the ropes were meant to send a racist message.
No. Absolutely not. You do not start with an assumption or racism and malice unless you are trying to stir up some shit.
“Intentions don’t matter when it comes to terrorizing the public,” Schaaf said. “It is incumbent on all of us to know the actual history of racial violence, of terrorism, that a noose represents and that we as a city must remove these terrorizing symbols from the public view.”
Intentions do matter. These were not racist symbols. They were not intended to be racist symbols. This is a nothing incident.
“The symbolism of the rope hanging in the tree is malicious regardless of intent. It’s evil, and it symbolizes hatred,” Williams said.
No it fucking doesn’t. Not every rope is a noose.
Police said several community members came forward during their initial investigation to say the ropes were used for exercise and a man came forward to say he put them up several months ago.
More exculpatory evidence.
The department said it is conducting a full investigation and had notified the FBI.
Notified the FBI about what? Nothing happened.
“We remind and ask our community to be mindful when using this equipment in a recreational manner. These acts may send an unintended message,” the police statement said. “We recognize especially at this time, that any ropes on or attached to trees, limbs or other objects can be associated with hate crimes and racial violence.”
No. Fuck no. Not at all ever.
This is such a gross overreaction it is Orwellian. The government can’t put malicious intent on your benign actions and then punish you for it.
Remember a few years ago when some students reported a Klan member on campus who was just another student wrapped in a blanket?
Or when another student said there was a Klansman on the IU campus that turned out to be a Dominican monk?
We’re reaching the point where the cold student and the monk will be prosecuted for hate crimes even though they did nothing because someone else mistook their attire for hate symbols.
I guarantee you that soon some poor guy is going to get his life ruined because someone took a picture of him halfway through putting up a tire swing for his kids or a hammock for himself and he will be accused of putting up a noose because intentions don’t matter any more. Only the intoxication of power at the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless.
Update:
We have pictures.
Not nooses. Not at all like nooses.
This was politicians and activists looking to stir up shit and stomp on some faces.
Making up fake incidents of bigotry has been a leftist tactic for quite a while now. Remember a decade or so ago when someone invented the fable that “water buffalo” is a racist term? Or more recently, that the OK gesture is a racist gesture?
On the other hand, Dem politicians wearing cloth associated with a slave trading African empire, no, that couldn’t possibly be problematic.
A method that is almost guaranteed to determine if an alleged “noose in a tree” is actually a noose or just some random bit of rope is whether or not the newspapers actually show a photograph of it.
If they never show it, then with 100% certainty you know it is not really going to to be a noose.
If they do show it, then with 98% certainty you know it’s not really a noose and with 1.999999% certainty you know it’s going to be a Halloween decoration noose and the scarecrow fell down.
“start with the assumption that these are hate crimes.”
And, people wonder why I adamantly oppose “hate crime” laws.
Notice they’re assuming the existence — and guilt — of a crime.
Perhaps if “truth in labeling” laws applied, and they were known as “Bad think Laws”, the clarity would be helpful.
I really have to wonder how many people in the rest of the country have had enough of this kind of nonsense.
Seriously … in this story people are acting like spoiled tweens.
Or, on the other hand, if you want to actively turn people racist, this isn’t necessarily a bad way to go about it. Make it so you’re afraid to do anything because you might offend someone, and then you will start to resent being afraid, and of those who cause you to be afraid…
We cannot find any evidence of intelligent alien civilizations. Billions and Billions of stars and Solar Systems, but zero signs of intelligent life.
This crap is the reason why. A Civilization only develops so far, like ours currently. A Civilization where food is plentiful, lives are getting longer, children are almost guaranteed to grow up healthy and well fed, diseases are being eradicated, knowledge is almost universally available to everyone, we get SHIT! like this.
A bucket full of crabs pulling each other back into the bucket.
This is a power play by those that are not smart enough to succeed on their own. They need excuses, pity, and HATE to achieve power, not success, but POWER. They will drive people to distrust and hate each other. They will be happy to destroy civilization. Look at Lake Street and Broadway in Minneapolis and University Ave. in St. Paul. Manhattan, Chicago, Buckhead, Seattle, Portland, LA.
Elon Musk is going to Mars and beyond. He will drag the rest of humanity with him. If he doesn’t get cancelled for his white privilege first. If the United States doesn’t dissolve itself in a civil war.
Intent doesn’t matter, you will be punished by people looking to take offense
I would even go so far as to say fact doesn’t matter to the people looking to take offense.
A rope hanging from a tree as part of a make-shift jungle gym is NOT, in fact, a noose.
A lifting strap with a loop on the end (very common) hanging from scaffolding — both left over from recent construction — is NOT, in fact, a noose and gallows.
Someone could hang an actual noose as part of a political statement (say, as a Halloween decoration, or to hang an effigy of a President), and because of their intent, it’s not racist.
But to call a noose a “racist statement” when it’s not even a f@#$ing noose shows that the offended person’s grasp on reality is tenuous at best.
hmm I was thinking as I pulled my white sheets over me as I fell asleep… I better order colored sheets or I may be charged with a hate crime for having a symbol of the KKK in my possession.