Noose Found Hanging in Fort Greene Park Is an 'Attack on All of Us,' Residents Say

FORT GREENE, BROOKLYN – Community members, activists and local politicians came together Wednesday afternoon outside Fort Greene Park to draw attention to the grim discovery last week of a noose hanging from a tree in the park.

Led by Renee Collymore, a former State Assembly district leader and a longtime Fort Greene resident, the afternoon protest drew a diverse crowd — all of them demanding the noose be handled by law enforcement as a serious threat to the community.

"We are looking for a thorough investigation," Collymore said. "We will keep track of what's going on."

Collymore said a noose hanging in a peaceful neighborhood park symbolizes a threat against all New Yorkers, not just minorities.

"This is not the first noose to come for us," Collymore said. The "nooses" of social inequality, unaffordable housing and a dwindling working class, she said, are just as real as the one found in the park.

"This is an attack on all of us," she said.

David Barker, director of Fort Greene Park, was on hand to echo Collymore's cry that the community will not stand for such threats.

"That's not the Fort Greene Park I know," Barker said, calling the park a centerpiece of its surrounding neighborhood.

Dr. Burchell Marcus, director of the Brooklyn branch of the Community Advocate and Development Organization, said standing together as a community would show whoever hung the noose that such threats will not be tolerated in Fort Greene.

"We could have found someone hanging from that noose," Marcus said. "That was a warning we don't take lightly. We must stand in unity and say, 'No.'"

Photo by Jason Nuckolls/Patch