Neb. lawmaker challenges Army noose inquiry

[unhappycamper]

Neb. lawmaker challenges Army noose inquiry
By Nate Jenkins - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Dec 17, 2008 18:11:23 EST

LINCOLN, Neb. — Nebraska state Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha is challenging the Army’s conclusion that an officer’s decision to hang a noose in the work area of a black woman last year was not racially motivated.

In a letter mailed to a White House official last week, Chambers says the conclusion is “preposterous and absurd” and that he thinks military officials are trying to wear him out by not releasing information in a timely manner.

The state Legislature’s lone black senator has been pursuing the case for more than a year, corresponding with military officials and requesting more information.

“There should be ... zero tolerance for such patent displays of hateful, threatening, racist symbols at any and all facilities, bases or installations under U.S. Military jurisdiction/control,” he says in the letter. “Anything less is totally unacceptable.”

In October 2007, 1st Lt. Harold Hessig, a detective with the Bellevue Police Department, hung a noose from a pipe in the work area of a black sergeant at an Army Reserve facility in Council Bluffs, Iowa.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/12/ap_nooseinvestigation_121708/%2e