A noose found in Baltimore firehouse

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-te.ci.threat22nov22,0,4950047.story

The handwritten note found yesterday reads: "We cant [sic] hang the cheaters but we can hang the failures. NO EMT-I, NO JOB." A small stick figure with a noose and the word "Stop" was drawn below the message.

The note appears to refer to two issues that are sources of tension in the Fire Department: the cheating investigation begun in July and the push by top fire officials to compel emergency medical technicians to become certified as paramedics.

Since most of the calls for service in the city are medical calls, fire officials say the department now hires only full-fledged paramedics, who are trained to provide a higher level of care. Goodwin said the department has about 560 paramedics and 34 emergency medical technicians who still need to gain paramedic certification. He characterized members of the smaller group as being "on the bubble" of keeping their jobs.

One of the department employees who found the note yesterday is an emergency medical technician "in the process of training" to become a paramedic and the other is a paramedic, Goodwin said.

At a news conference at the Vulcan Blazers' headquarters near Druid Hill Park, President Henry Burris said his organization would demand a federal investigation by the Justice Department.

"We know there's been racial issues with the Baltimore City Fire Department, but this has reached the final level," Burris said. "Because whoever perpetrated it, whether they know it or not, this has reached the level of a federal hate crime."

An FBI spokesman based in Baltimore said yesterday that the bureau had opened a preliminary inquiry into possible civil rights violations stemming from the incident. She declined to comment further on the case.

Marvin L. "Doc" Cheatham, president of the NAACP's Baltimore chapter, referred to the note as a threat and said it should be treated as such.

"It's got to go federal," Cheatham said.

Joseph Armstead, a former firefighter and current vice president of the local chapter of the NAACP, said a culture of racism has always existed in the city Fire Department.

"I'm not really shocked or surprised," said Armstead, a firefighter for 16 years. "It's just getting outward now. And we're not going to tolerate that."

 

So just because this guy thinks it's a hate crime that makes it so?

 

I think this story is about two weeks old.

It was a hoax.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-te.ci.probe02dec02,0,5563956.story