The College Fix

However, administrators scramble to get the cable taken down

A construction company building a parking structure at Central Connecticut State University had hoisted an American flag at the end of one of its steel cable loops to mark Memorial Day — but a complaint that the cable was a noose prompted campus officials to apologize and pledge to take down the cable as soon as possible.

“Early this evening, we received a complaint about a possible noose found hanging from a construction site on the CCSU campus. Campus Police … investigated and found that it was not a noose but a standard steel cable loop hanging from a crane,” wrote President Zulma Toro in an email to the campus community on Saturday night.

“A construction crew working on campus hung an American flag from the crane’s cable to recognize Memorial Day,” added Toro in her email, a copy of which was obtained by The College Fix.

Toro continued that steel cable loops are often used by cranes, but that there was another similar concern recently reported regarding another nearby construction site. In the end, Toro sided with those offended by the steel cable loop’s visual similarity to a noose.

“Quite frankly, I think it is reckless and tone deaf behavior,” Toro said in her email to the campus. “We have been in contact with the construction company and demanded that the cable be lowered tonight. We have a team on site tonight monitoring the situation.”

But as of Sunday morning the cable loop and its American flag remained up, and a beleaguered-looking campus administrator, interim Vice President for Student Affairs John Tully, explained to a local news television station that it was difficult to find someone who could safely operate the crane at such short notice on a holiday weekend to get the cable loop down.

Meanwhile, he expressed his concern for those who thought the steel cable loop was a noose or looked like a noose.

“The perception of its noose-like appearance is concerning. We were speaking to people last night who certainly felt some pain, we feel that pain, our president has issued a statement expressing her concern about this and we are working diligently to get it down,” Tully told Fox 61.

Apparently the fact that the steel cable loop is not a noose does not matter to some in the community.

Ronald Davis, president of the New Britain NAACP, told FOX 61 that “Regardless of what someone else says about that, what I see, as a black man? That’s a noose. Period. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Take it down.”

But one intrepid College Fix reader noticed there are several steel cable loops hanging from the crane, and the only one that appears to bother another is the one with the American flag on the end of it. He cites one image of the crane in which viewers can see three or four cable loops.

“I guess they noticed only the one holding the flag, which means that it’s the flag that triggers them,” the reader said.

This situation at Central Connecticut State University is nothing new. A “noose” reported by two black Penn State professors recently ended up being part of neighbor’s swing set.

More famously, the rope found in Bubba Wallace’s Garage 4 of the Talladega Superspeedway in 2020 that was tied in the shape of a noose was actually being used for at least a year as garage door pull down before it made national headlines.

MORE: Here are 8 times ‘nooses’ on campus turned out to be hate crime hoaxes

IMAGES: Screenshots: Fox61 and WFSB

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