One City of Providence Employee Fired, One Suspended After Report of Racial Incident Involving Noose
GoLocalProv News Team
One City of Providence Employee Fired, One Suspended After Report of Racial Incident Involving Noose
The incident involved a rope tied into a noose, which was witnessed -- and reported -- by a black city worker.
GoLocal first reported the incident on Tuesday.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST"The incident was reported to the Department Director at which time Human Resources was alerted of the incident that occurred yesterday between several DPW employees. As of yesterday, Human Resources is conducting an investigation into the matter," said Emily Crowell, Director of Communications for Mayor Jorge Elorza.
"While the details of this matter of are under investigation by HR, one employee has been terminated and one employee has been suspended pending a pretrial hearing," said Crowell.
Crowell said she hadn't spoken directly with the Mayor about the incident.
As GoLocal reported that the individual targeted said he was pursuing the issue with city officials. "I am going to trust the process, unless the process requires me to do otherwise," said DPW worker Dwayne "Boo" Hackney, who said he would not speak about the details of the incident until the investigation is completed.
Jim Vincent, President of the Providence NAACP Branch, said he heard about the incident -- and expects the city to "take the investigation seriously."
"I only know what I've heard took place -- I consider anything like this extremely serious," said Vincent. "I understand it's under investigation. I expect the city to take this extremely seriously -- this is more than a harmful prank. Hopefully, the city will punish the offender."
"A clear message needs to be sent that this will not be tolerated anywhere," said Vincent.