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- At least 55 nooses have reportedly been discovered at 40 building construction sites and offices across the US and Canada since 2015.
- The nooses were found in 17 states throughout the US, according to an analysis by The Washington Post.
- Out of the noose incidents in the US that were reviewed by the Post, only one arrest has been made.
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At least 55 nooses have been discovered at 40 building construction sites and offices across the United States and Canada since 2015, according to analysis by The Washington Post.
The nooses – a symbol of racial hatred connected to lynching – were found in 17 states throughout the US, including at a Merck vaccine facility in North Carolina, a high-end shopping center in New Jersey, Apple's headquarters in Silicon Valley, and a Facebook data center in Iowa, according to the Post, which analyzed news reports and court documents.
A noose was looped around a workers' neck in at least three instances and in other cases a noose was drawn on safety signs or used to hang dolls portraying Black people, according to the news outlet.
Many times, the nooses were found by Black workers, the Post reported.
Out of the dozens of noose incidents in the US that were reviewed by the Post, only one arrest has been made, according to the news outlet.
In that case, New York resident Thomas McDermott was hit with a felony charge of aggravated harassment in connection with the hanging of a figure with "screws for eyes" from a twine noose at a D.A. Collins construction site, the Post reported.
Wendell Stemley, the director emeritus of the National Association of Minority Contractors, told the Post that the noose incidents highlight the construction industry's "deep roots in segregation."
Black people make up only 6% of the US construction workforce, the news outlet noted.
"The mission of the noose isn't that 'I'm going to hang you at lunchtime,'" Stemley said. "The mission of the noose is that you are excluded."