Last Saturday three effigies in nooses were hung on the campus of The University Of California at Berkeley. The act was done before the Berkeley version of The Million Person March, that took place around America and the World to protest police killings of unarmed young black men and more specifically Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice and John Crewford.
When the act was first reported it spread around social media and the immediate reaction was that a white conservative group or person did it.
Then on Tuesday an anonymous group of queers and people of color said they were responsible for the so-called art pieces. They left a letter at Cal that said, in part, “For those who think these images depict crimes and attitudes too distasteful to be seen — we respectfully disagree. Our society must never forget.”
What the effigies are said to show is a black woman, Laura Nelson, who in 1911 was lynched with her 18-year-old son Lawrence Nelson by a mob outside Muskogee, Oklahoma and after shooting a deputy who had arrested her husband after comiing to her home to investigate the theft of a cow, and George Meadows, a 22-year-old black man who proclaimed his innocence while being accused of murder and rape in Alabama in 1889.
Then just an hour ago I was sent the photo you see in the video and blog post. It’s of a black young woman with a Cal sweat shirt in what seems to be the act of hanging one of the effigies (note her right shoulder). I don’t normally do this, but since the source did not request anonymity, and given their background as it relates to this story, but the email belonged to a “laura menard” – so when I searched that name on Google, the second most common term was “Laura menard Berkeley” – and that woman was described in POOR Magazine as ” Laura Menard, former conservative candidate for the Berkeley City Council.”
So, I went down deeper, and yes, according to many accounts, Laura Menard is a legendary figure in Berkeley politics and considered right wing. So, you can see where this is headed, or where it would have gone had I not elected to introduce my source. In this case, I’m glad I did. Laura said that one of her pals on the Berkeleyside Reddit group located the photo. (Laura powerfully objects to a description of being “from the right” that has been placed on her by The San Francisco Bay Guardian, and other publications, saying that she voted Democrat for 45 years. But this is Berkeley.)
Not A Hate Crime, But A Crime
The UC Police call this a hate crime. It’s not that. Disturbing the peace to make a point it is but I think the group could have just held a press conference with the effigies and gave us all a teachable moment.
That chance is still with us. The punishment here should be to have the group give a press conference and talk about their message and apologize for their method. That would be a step forward for law enforcement and for society.
I know Laura’s going to be upset with me for taking this road, but the bottom line is her politics and race do play a role in this. She’s trying to make a point that it’s not always whites who do effigies in nooses, but the fact is, blacks don’t run around doing that because they hate other blacks. That woman and the group she is supposedly part of was, stupidly, trying to make a point.
But Laura, the Berkeley right winger (who is really to the left but not so much in that town), stepping in to be the outer of the woman via the photo just doesn’t help matters much. The fact that this has such political overtones must be taken into account by law enforcement, else it runs the risk of being used as a tool for a conservative cause.
Some would claim that’s the case already.
Like a good Christopher Nolan movie, there are no real heroes here, just a chance to heal.
Stay tuned.
UPDATE: i have to add that since I ran this Laura Menard has called me five times to this point in time and wrote that I am an idiot and ignorant and racist…