That noose was just a knot.
Oakland city workers who discovered a rope tied into what they took to be a hangman's noose, and a possible racial affront directed at an African-American worker, are being told that they instead found a "legitimate" slipknot, according to reports.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports an investigation conducted by Henry Gardner, the city's interim city administrator, has discovered that the knot "was not displayed in the fashion of a hangman's noose" and was there for a legitimate reason.
The worker who found the knot, a black man, brought the issue to his union rep, who talked of racial harassment throughout the city's maintenance yard, the newspaper reported.
The knot was left there by an "Asian-American carpenter," according to the paper.
Union workers "slammed the report," according to the newspaper, and blamed the city for trying to bury real tensions.
The report says that the rope became larger before a union rep showed it off to media.
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Meanwhile, the investigation into the rope's appearance, meaning, and intention, a review of 39 people, cost $55,000, according to the newspaper.
