By Avis Thomas-Lester
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 14, 2007

Two Riverdale Park town employees were suspended yesterday in connection with an incident in which a noose was found hanging in a town building, officials said.

The noose was found dangling from a television Friday in an employee lounge at the Department of Public Works, said several employees who did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the incident. Workers discovered it after returning from a job outside the building, the employees said.

Michael Scott, acting director of the department, would not identify the suspended employees or discuss the incident.

"We have suspended two employees pending the completion of the city's investigation," he said, adding: "Yes, it is in regards to a noose, but I cannot get into any of the specifics about who or what or any of that."

Mayor Vernon Archer said town officials took action Wednesday after being notified of the incident. He said that it is being treated seriously.

"Not under any circumstances will this kind of thing be tolerated," Archer said. He would not say who notified town administrators or why they were not notified sooner.

The employees who did not want to be named said that a man and a woman, both white, said they hung the rope.

"People were really upset about it," one of the employees said. "Two people admitted they did it. They said they were just joking around, that they were trying to be funny. We didn't think it was funny. We told them it represented people being lynched and killed."

More than 4,700 people died by lynching in the 19th and 20th centuries, most of them black men.

Several nooses have been found elsewhere recently, in the Washington area and other parts of the country. In August, one was discovered at the University of Maryland near the black cultural center. Near Jena, La., the site of recent racial tensions, two men were arrested in October after being accused of driving with nooses attached to their pickup truck. Also that month, a noose was found on the office door of a black professor at Columbia University.

Archer said that relations are usually positive among races in Riverdale Park, an ethnically diverse community of 6,500 near College Park and Hyattsville in northern Prince George's County.

"Right now, we are trying to deal with the incident itself, and from there, how to counsel anyone who was offended or hurt will be part of the consideration," he said. "People here generally get along very well. That's why something like this is extremely unusual."

Staff writer Ovetta Wiggins contributed to this report.