#Amazon halts Connecticut site construction after 7th ‘noose’ found

Amazon is halting construction at a facility in Windsor, Connecticut after workers discovered the seventh case of a “rope which could be interpreted as a noose” at the site.

The first six were discovered at the work site during the last week of April, according to local ABC affiliate WTNH.

The latest was Wednesday, when officers on a private duty assignment “were made aware of the discovery of a rope which could be interpreted as a noose hanging within overhead beams on the site,” police said, according to NBC News.

“We continue to be deeply disturbed by the incidents happening at the construction site in Windsor and have ordered its shut down until necessary security measures can be put in place,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel told NBC.

The ropes were hung in an area without surveillance cameras, police said, according to the Hartford Courant, and because the area has “hundreds of employees from various companies,” there’s been limited information on suspects.

“I enjoy coming to work and doing my job, but I don’t enjoy experiencing racism on the job,” a worker at the site told local news station FOX61.

The local chapter of the NAACP said it’s working with Amazon to address worker concerns at the site.

“These forms of hate crimes have had a detrimental stain on the current state of America’s reality and for them to hit so close to home and with such consistency, shows a robust disrespect for the not only human decency but also for our ancestors who lost their lives due to the hate represented within the knots in those ropes,” the civil rights group said in a statement.

The FBI is also involved in the investigation.

“The implications of a hanging noose anywhere are unacceptable,” FBI special agent in charge David Sundberg said in a statement to the Hartford Courant. “We stand united with all our law enforcement partners across the state in rooting out and applying the rule of law to any individual or group perpetuating hateful ideology and intimidation in our communities.”

Amazon and the construction team are offering a $100,000 reward for information that leads to whoever left the nooses at the site, the Courant reported. Windsor Police Chief Donald Melanson said anyone arrested would be charged with a hate crime, the report added.