Riverdale Park Public Works Department said the employees are suspended with pay, pending an internal investigation. On December 7th, African-American workers walked into the break book to find the noose hanging over a TV screen. Acting director Michael Scott said, "We have zero tolerance for this kind of activity. We're surprised. We have a very diverse town. It's appalling. We're dealing with it." The two employees, a man and a woman, reportedly said it was all just a joke.
"I don't take that as a joking matter, I take that as serious, especially with all the incidents we have going around in this area," said former pubic works employee Markel Day.Day said the noose wasn't the first racist incident. Public works fired him, he said unfairly, last summer and filed a grievance with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Day claims blacks at DPW have long had problems and suspending the two employees isn't enough. "I think that they should get fired and it's a hate crime, I think, and if anything come about they should at least get locked up."
Nooses have turned up elsewhere, including one in August at the University of Maryland near the black cultural center.
So far, Riverdale Park Police are not involved in the public works incident, saying no victim has come forward to warrant a criminal investigation.
The acting Director may have been surprised by this but anyone close to that dept could see something like this coming from a mile away.... Literally.
And him (acting Director) being surprised by this only goes to show the lack of control, leadership and oversight he really has over this dept. The Director position in Riverdale parks public works dept has been void of any real leadership in the past 10 years or so, im not sure they'll ever get their act together. It almost seems as if they dont do any kind of background checks on some of their higher profile positions in that dept.
With proper leadership, those types of things could have been prevented from the get go. Per usual with that place its the talkers and jokers who have the time to even think up those kinds of things while the workers are out working hard for their money.
The only joke I see is the lack of leadership that the dept has and this is an example of what poor leadership can do for a department of any kind.
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