Breaking Noose: Sudden Epidemic in Manhattan

It's getting silly now.

We'll probably see many more popping up and in the end, it'll be some crank art student or diversity awareness project.

NEW YORK - A noose was found dangling outside a ground zero post office that was damaged in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, police and a postal official said.

They said it wasn't clear, however, whether the hated symbol of lynchings in the Old South was directed at the postal service or any other tenants in the lower Manhattan building.

"At this point, there was no target that was evident or any motive," U.S. Postal Inspection Service spokesman Al Weissman said Friday morning. He said no postal workers had reported any threats or other problems.

The U.S. Postal Service's Church Street station shares the building with the city Housing Authority, some state agencies and various other tenants.

Dangling from a lammpost near the building, the noose was visible from the street, Weissman said. But postal workers were the first to notice it Thursday afternoon, he and police said.

The building facade is undergoing work and laced with scaffolding that leads to the light pole, but the scaffolding is covered with barbed wire, Weissman said.

Building managers removed the noose, which was later turned over to the NYPD's hate crimes unit for investigation, police said.

The post office at 90 Church St. was closed for nearly three years after the 2001 terrorist attacks, which left the 15-story building contaminated with asbestos, mercury and debris from the fallen twin towers. The repairs to the post office entailed demolishing interior walls, replacing some elevator parts and restoring the 1935 building's art deco lobby.

The discovery of the noose came as police tried to determine who left another noose this week on a Columbia University professor's door, a discovery that has shaken the Ivy League campus.

Speaking of suspicious activity at Columbia, President Lee Bollinger is now overwhelmed by incidents of intolerance.

Where will it end?

“Despite the irrational, destructive hatred that persists in our society and world, we do not accept this anywhere at this University. No one among us should feel marginalized or threatened by words of hatred.”

Meanwhile, the New York Post notes Columbia has a bit of an attitude problem.

Columbia University's Teachers College has an odd way of showing its supposed outrage over the placing of a noose on a black professor's door.

The college kept NYPD investigators cooling their heels for more than 48 hours before turning over video evidence deemed critical to the investigation.

Why?

"Policy," said a school spokesman.

The school finally turned the tapes over yesterday - after a subpoena was issued and after the media started reporting on Columbia's non-cooperation.

Something is rather fishy here.