An Indiana man found out the hard way nooses are not funny, not even at Halloween time.

The Muncie city garbage truck driver, who city officials declined to name, was slapped with a 30-day suspension without pay for decorating the inside of his trash-hauling rig with two ropes with sinister-looking loops tied at the ends.

Officials at the Muncie sanitation district, where 60 percent of the employees are black, didn't appreciate the white Halloween-loving driver's attempt at gallows humor.

"We're pretty well convinced this was not racially motivated," said Bill Smith, the department's interim administrator. "Having said that, it was very insensitive."

Reaction among the man's co-workers was mixed. One black driver, Fred Lewis, said he and many others assumed the nooses were meant to be a hate message. But others, including Barnell Vance, were willing to cut him some slack, saying he doesn't deserve suspension.

"He's always been a good dude," Vance said. // Copyright 2007 by United Press International



Publication date: 19 October 2007   

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