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Chambers writes Bush about officer's conduct (noose incident)
Journalstar.com ^ | 12-01-2007 | Nancy Hicks

Posted on 12/02/2007 2:00:31 PM PST by stan_sipple

State Sen. Ernie Chambers sent a letter to President Bush complaining about a Nebraska police officer and Army Reserve officer who allegedly left a noose hanging in the work area of a black woman, an Army Reserve sergeant under his command.

The behavior is conduct unbecoming an officer, Chambers said in the letter, providing details of the alleged mid-October incident and the victim’s response.

An Army Reserve spokeswoman verified the military is investigating an equal opportunity complaint on the incident.

Bellevue Police Chief John Stacey will also investigate the incident after receiving a letter from Chambers Friday, but said Detective Harold Hessig has a good record with the public.

Chambers gave this account of what happened at the Council Bluffs, Iowa, Army Reserve facility based on his interviews with the victim and on documents:

First Lt. Hessig and another soldier fashioned a noose from rope that had been left in a waste basket, and Hessig left it hanging from a heating pipe in the work area he shared with Sgt. Tiffany Robinson.

Robinson found the noose Oct. 16 and reported the incident to two higher-ranking personnel. When asked to do so, she telephoned Hessig to tell him she was offended.

Hessig said he didn’t know the noose would offend her and that he intended to take it home but had forgotten to do so, according to Chambers’ account.

Hessig later left a note of apology at Robinson’s house on the Offutt Air Base and sent flowers and candy.

Hessig and Robinson’s battalion commander, Lt. Col Robert Pelletier, said that because Hessig was born and raised in Nebraska, he had not been exposed to her “cultural background” and did not understand the sensitive issues raised by the noose, according to Chambers’ account.

Shortly after the noose-hanging incident, Robinson had repeated hang-up phone calls at her home over several days. These were found to be coming from a dating service, according to her commanding officer.

Robinson asked to be reassigned back to Mississippi because she didn’t feel safe in Nebraska.

When her Nebraska commander suggested she stay and teach the troops about her “cultural background,” she took her request for a transfer to a high-ranking officer in another state, and she was reassigned to Mississippi.

Robinson also made an equal opportunity complaint to the Army and called the FBI.

Robinson did not know whether there was an EOC or FBI investigation and had no knowledge that anyone had been disciplined when she talked with Chambers in early November.

An equal opportunity investigation could take as long as six weeks, said Kathy Klein, an Army Reserve public affairs specialist in Kansas.

“The soldier has filed a complaint and there is an investigation going on. That is basically all I can tell you,” she said Friday afternoon.

Neither Hessig nor Robinson could be reached for comment.

Hessig’s work and interaction with the public “has been exemplary,” Bellevue Police Chief Stacey said.

“This is pretty much out of character for this individual,” he said.

The department takes every complaint seriously and investigates, Stacey said. Because a police officer is held to a higher standard, behavior off the job is also subject to investigation, he said.

The credibility of an officer has to be above reproach, he said.

Both Hessig and Robinson have served overseas in recent years.

Robinson spent nine months in Iraq in 2004. Hessig spent 18 to 24 months in Afghanistan, Stacey said.

“This matter is grave and has produced serious psychological consequences to the victim,” Chambers wrote in his letter to the president.

“It portends incalculably negative repercussions and ramifications for the Military and its faltering efforts to recruit and retain African Americans,” he wrote.

Chambers also sent letters about the incident to 15 top-ranking federal officials and Congressional leaders, and to Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton and Louis Farrakhan.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; US: Iowa; US: Nebraska
KEYWORDS: armyreserve; erniechambers; noose; reservists

1 posted on 12/02/2007 2:00:33 PM PST by stan_sipple
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To: stan_sipple
Firehouse incident with noose was a hoax Firefighter admits placing rope, note

Maybe this case needs to be examined as well.

2 posted on 12/02/2007 2:03:00 PM PST by kabar
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To: stan_sipple

Most people who tie nooses are doing it for the same reason they get tattoos of skulls and the number 13. They like to flirt with danger, and the noose represents that.

For others, it’s the only knot they know how to tie. If they want to impress me, they should tie a masthead knot.


3 posted on 12/02/2007 2:11:54 PM PST by wolfpat (If you don't like the Patriot Act, you're really gonna hate Sharia Law.)
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To: kabar

“faltering efforts to recruit and retain African Americans.” I thought Charlie Rangel and the other professional race hustlers were saying too many poor and minority soldiers were bearing the burdens of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.


4 posted on 12/02/2007 2:12:01 PM PST by stan_sipple
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To: kabar

Sounds like this “offended” person wants a transfer a little quicker than normal channels allow, and figured hey if it works for that firefighter...


5 posted on 12/02/2007 2:15:41 PM PST by Nathan Zachary
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To: wolfpat

The Army Reserve will probably relieve the officer who put up the noose, so I think giving the African-American NCO a reassignment back home is a stretch.


6 posted on 12/02/2007 2:17:00 PM PST by stan_sipple
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To: Nathan Zachary

exactly, a move back home on the Army’s dime


7 posted on 12/02/2007 2:18:04 PM PST by stan_sipple
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To: stan_sipple
"First Lt. Hessig and another soldier fashioned a noose from rope that had been left in a waste basket, and Hessig left it hanging from a heating pipe in the work area he shared with Sgt. Tiffany Robinson."

My money says that he never even considered her when he did it. That is the "real" offense here.

“This matter is grave and has produced serious psychological consequences to the victim,” Chambers wrote in his letter to the president."

I seriously doubt that. She rebuffed all attempts at an apology and moved to where it's more "black". All statistics show blacks are safer around whites than fellow blacks.

8 posted on 12/02/2007 2:21:42 PM PST by L98Fiero (A fool who'll waste his life, God rest his guts.)
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To: stan_sipple
First the taboo N word now the taboo N thing.

9 posted on 12/02/2007 2:25:28 PM PST by I see my hands (_8(|)
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To: stan_sipple

I guess when you have a case of too few haters chasing too many wannabe victims then you got to manufacture some hate crimes to create a market balance. Not that I am complaining, I was just reading on another thread about Paris where their illegal immigration problem is with the ROP crowd. With that crowd, you do not have to worry about a shortage of hate.


10 posted on 12/02/2007 2:25:52 PM PST by Biblebelter
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To: stan_sipple
State Sen. Ernie Chambers sent a letter to President Bush complaining about a Nebraska police officer and Army Reserve officer who allegedly left a noose hanging in the work area of a black woman, an Army Reserve sergeant under his command.

Wouldn't that be the responsibility of the folks in Nebraska?

11 posted on 12/02/2007 2:31:29 PM PST by Mike Darancette (Democrat Happens!)
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To: stan_sipple
Sounds like this Mississippi deltaqueen doesn't like Nebraska winters.

Hmmm.

I was there once when it was down to -30 F.

Coldern'.

Anyway, once you get up on the Great Plains ain't nothin' much but Indians and whitefolk.

12 posted on 12/02/2007 2:35:55 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: stan_sipple
Hessig and Robinson’s battalion commander, Lt. Col Robert Pelletier, said that because Hessig was born and raised in Nebraska, he had not been exposed to her “cultural background” and did not understand the sensitive issues raised by the noose, according to Chambers’ account.

How about Sgt. Tiffany Robinson being charged because she humiliated Hessig due to her ignorance of his culture?

It seems like equal ignorance and equal injury to me.

13 posted on 12/02/2007 2:46:49 PM PST by donna (If America is not a Christian nation, it will be part of the Islamic nation. Take your pick.)
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To: stan_sipple
I think President Bush might be a bit busy. Maybe they can take care of this without making it a National Incident.
14 posted on 12/02/2007 2:50:13 PM PST by BallyBill (Serial Hit-N-Run poster)
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To: stan_sipple

Uh, I thought that, by far, more whites were lynched than blacks, in places like Montana?

Of course, truth is the first casualty of activism. And, it doesn’t matter what really happened in history, but rather, what people THINK happened, right?

Tim


15 posted on 12/02/2007 3:04:31 PM PST by TWohlford
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To: BallyBill

“I think President Bush might be a bit busy. Maybe they can take care of this without making it a National Incident.”

No. Part of the liberal playbook is that you always use the largest possible government agency. In fact, isn’t that what the UN is all about? You’ll see someone from the UN make some pronouncement if this noose thing continues.


16 posted on 12/02/2007 3:06:55 PM PST by TWohlford
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To: stan_sipple

If true, the officer needs to be dismissed from the service. If not true, the woman needs to go to jail for a long, long time.


17 posted on 12/02/2007 3:22:19 PM PST by pabianice
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To: pabianice

“If true, the officer needs to be dismissed from the service.”

On what grounds?


18 posted on 12/02/2007 3:44:38 PM PST by L98Fiero (A fool who'll waste his life, God rest his guts.)
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To: stan_sipple
Only racists use certain knots when fishing:
19 posted on 12/02/2007 3:51:56 PM PST by Rb ver. 2.0 (Global warming is the new Marxism.)
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To: Mike Darancette

Sounds like HHC 1/168 . That would be my LTC’s old company.
He was Company Commander back in the late 80’s. Have to ask him if he know the BN CO

Sounds like the guy is in the IOWA National Guard but lives in Nebraska. Nebraska would have nothing to do with it


20 posted on 12/04/2007 9:59:58 AM PST by acsrp38 (to dems: NUTS!!!)
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