Oct 20, 2007 8:11 am US/Eastern
Nooses Found Hanging Inside N.J. Home Depot
Hate Speech Inexplicably Takes Over Tri-State Area
PASSAIC, N.J. (CBS) ―
A spree of disturbing crimes is spreading hatred and fear around the region.
Many people are wondering when it will end.
The latest act of hate took place in a busy home improvement store.
Three nooses were captured on a cell phone hanging in the aisle of the hardware department inside a Home Depot on Thursday.
Terrance Baker is a Home Depot vendor who was helping a customer when he looked up and couldn't believe his eyes.
"I look up and I saw white and black ropes hanging up there," Baker said.
"I was very surprised, very surprised because I ain't seen nothing like that since I left Alabama."
The incident comes following a slew of racially and religiously motivated incidents in the tri-state area where swastikas and nooses were left for all to see.
"Emotionally it doesn't make me happy. It makes me angry," Baker said.
A synagogue was hit in Queens on Thursday morning with one swastika painted on the front announcement board, another on the side of an ambulance window, disturbing expressions for holocaust survivors.
"It's very bad. It's a very bad memory when I see that."
At a lower Manhattan high school, students were learning about reading, writing and religious intolerance after swastikas -- two dozen of them -- were scrawled all over the interior of their building.
"I saw the swastika and it says 'Hitler is back' in green chalk," 11th grader Sherell Alexander said.
While racially and religiously motivated incidents have been all too frequent in the past month, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly has a theory as to why.
"It looks like the copycat syndrome is in full bloom," Kelly said.
Back at Home Depot, police are now investigating, after being told about the nooses by the NAACP, not the giant chain.
"The manager stated he didn't really see the significance of calling the local police and said they were having their own in house investigation," said Calvin Merritt of the Passaic NAACP.
This came shortly before another noose was found on Long Island.
The Nassau County Police Department says a construction supervisor found the noose hanging from a door hinge at the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream.
The noose was discovered at 11:45 a.m. Thursday.
Also on Thursday, the third noose in three days was discovered, this one hanging on a chain link fence in Hempstead.
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