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'Spiteful Symbol of Lynching' Found Hanging in Brooklyn Tree, Residents Say

By Gwynne Hogan | September 28, 2016 8:30am
 A dummy was found hanging from a tree is being investigated by the hate crimes task force, police said. 
A dummy was found hanging from a tree is being investigated by the hate crimes task force, police said. 
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DNAinfo/Kathleen Culliton

EAST WILLIAMSBURG — A headless dummy was found dangling from a tree behind the Cooper Park Houses over the weekend — a discovery that's shaken residents who see it as a "spiteful symbol of lynching."

City Councilman Stephen Levin reported the doll to police on Saturday, after receiving a photo of the dummy hanging behind 60 Kingsland Ave., but when police arrived at about 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, the prop had already been taken down, though a red chord was still dangling from a tree branch, police said.

Levin's friend had spotted the dummy on Saturday morning and snapped a photo of it and sent it to the councilman, who passed the picture on to police.

Police would not release the photo they obtained, but described it as a white dummy that looked like it could be a store mannequin with no head and possibly wearing a glove.

Levin said he could not comment or reveal the photo to reporters, citing the pending investigation.

The NYPD's hate crimes task force is investigating the incident, New York Daily News first reported.

Many residents of the East Williamsburg housing project interpreted it as a "spiteful symbol of lynching," according to tenant association president Julia Foster.

"As the children would say, 'not cool at all,'" Foster said, who also works as a crossing guard on Kingsland Avenue, and had spoken with many concerned residents about the dummy. 

"I've lived here in Cooper Park 30 some-odd plus years and I have never seen anything like that or heard of anything like that."

"Whoever it was, shame on you," she continued. "This is the 21st century and we refuse to go backwards."