Placerville Votes Unanimously To Remove Noose From City Logo
PLACERVILLE (CBS13) - After months of heated debate, the Placerville city council voted unanimously Tuesday night to remove the noose from the city's logo.
This is a big decision for the city of Placerville that's been delayed for months. Council members said they're ready to move forward with change and they don't want to keep using a symbol that brings hurt to people.
The decision came after hours of very emotional debate on both sides of the issue.
The noose is one of the first things you see on the way into Placerville -- signs and symbols of Hangtown. Council members were focused on the news you see in the city logo, should it stay or should it go?
"It's part of this...historic town. It's part of us. It's the Old West, leave it alone," said one resident.
Others find it uncomfortable and violent and say it gives the city a bad reputation.
"I kind of wish that our town was known more for like the gold mining than like the hangings because that just feels, like, unnecessarily violent," said a resident.
"If you want to be a welcomed welcoming town, I would think that you would want to have a symbol for this city that represents that," said a resident.
Some worry about racial undertones of having a noose on the city logo and the negative connotation for people of color. A representative of the greater Sacramento NAACP spoke briefly at the meeting, urging Placerville to be inclusive, and remove the noose. City leaders have postponed making a decision on this for months, waiting to hear from as many people as possible in a town divided. Some think a decision should be delayed, once again.
"I think this should be decided by the people of Placerville that live here. I don't think it necessarily should be a political decision by the politicians," said one resident.
City leaders said tonight that it was a very hard decision but they feel they made the right one and they wanted to remind the community that this is just about public property, just the city logo. This doesn't affect private businesses in town and what they decided to do with the noose or the name Hangtown.