Noose Found Hanging From Tree In Oakland's Frank Ogawa Plaza; Likely Related To #BlackLivesMatter Movement
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- Oakland police are investigating a report of a noose found on a tree in Frank Ogawa Plaza on Tuesday, police said Thursday.
Katie Egan, who identifies herself on Twitter as a multimedia journalist with digital media company NDN, posted a picture of the noose on the social media site Instagram on Tuesday.
She said a man approached her and asked her to look at the noose and post a picture "for the world to see."
"(He) was convinced that this was a reaction to the #blacklivesmatter movement and the #icantbreate protests, and I don't disagree," Egan said on her Instagram account. "If you're still telling yourself that race-based discrimination and violence is no longer an issue in this country, you're lying to yourself."
Oakland police Officer Johnna Watson said the department is investigating to see if there was a criminal intent behind the public display.
Oakland and cities across the greater Bay Area have been rocked with demonstrations over the past several weeks following two grand jury decisions to not indict white police officers in the deaths of unarmed black men.
In Berkeley, a group of artists claimed responsibility for life-sized cardboard effigies of black men and women hanging from nooses on the Berkeley campus and elsewhere in Oakland.
The cutouts portrayed people who had been lynched and had the words "can't breathe" written on them. The anonymous group of artists said it was meant to put Thursday's demonstrations for racial justice in context with the historic terror faced by the African Americans.
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