New York Enacts Noose Display Crime Law

Governor David Paterson signed a noose display crime bill into law. The text of the bill can be found here, and it would make it the etching, painting, drawing or otherwise placing or
displaying a noose, a symbol of racism and intimidation, on real
property the crime of aggravated harassment in the first degree - a felony.

Nooses were found last year on a black professor’s door at Columbia University, outside a post office near ground zero in Lower Manhattan and in locations on Long Island.

Surprisingly, no one has been charged in connection with the crime at Columbia University, and there have been suggestions that the Columbia University incident was a hoax perpetrated by the professor on whose door the noose was hung,Professor Madonna Constantine, to get another professor in trouble.

There are no suspects in the case, and apparently there's no further interest in trying to find out who committed that act either. However, Professor Constantine found herself in hot water over committing multiple acts of plagiarism. Academic misconduct such as that by a professor ought to be grounds for dismissal, but the university simply provided a slap on the wrist. It's nice to see the university take academic misconduct seriously.