LaTarsha Brown, a black Pennsylvania city employee, was charged Monday with planting a noose she reported as a hate crime against herself.
Allentown police charged Brown with tampering with or fabricating physical evidence and making false reports to law enforcement authorities, misdemeanors that “together carry up to three years in prison and fines,” according to the Daily Caller.
Noose Report
On the morning of January 10, Brown reported finding what police called “a small item resembling a noose” on her desk when she arrived for work at the Allentown Department of Community and Economic Development.
Brown — who also serves on the Allentown School Board, which posted on Instagram that she is “deeply committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion” — was already party to an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint alleging racism and discrimination by city officials. Councilman Ed Zucal told WFMZ-TV that Brown “was set to have a mediation hearing the day before the incident.” The station added that “it’s unclear if that meeting happened.”
One might think that Brown’s obvious motive of “proving” racism exists in Allentown’s government, coupled with the frequency with which such “hate crimes” turn out to be hoaxes, would cause her potential allies to adopt a wait-and-see approach to her allegations rather than embrace them immediately.
But with so much to be gained in certain quarters by crying “racism” and “white supremacy,” such was not to be the case. For example, the very day Brown “discovered” the noose, Councilwoman Ce-Ce Gerlach told WFMZ that she was “irate” over it.
She said:
Whoever did this needs to be federally charged, they need to be charged with a hate crime, they need to be arrested, they need to be fired immediately. We need to take this with the utmost seriousness. Our employees are not safe. The black employees are not safe. It’s everyone. It’s the white allies are not safe. Brown people are not safe. Gay people are not safe.
Gullible Rabble
Three days later, “dozens” of protesters showed up “outside Allentown City Hall” to demand “a federal investigation” into Brown’s allegations, reported LehighValleyNews.
“Community activist Pas Simpson” said the investigation “has to go federal because this is a hate crime,” wrote the website. It added that Simpson “urg[ed] residents to flood the FBI tip line and attend” the next city council meeting.
The calls to the FBI worked; after just three more days, the agency announced it was joining the investigation.
Simpson also complained that the police had referred to the noose as “a small item.”
“They have the nerve to write ‘a little noose,’” Simpson said. “A noose is a noose, and it’s all despicable.”
Other activists flung similarly wild accusations.
Josie Lopez, who organized the protest, accused Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk of culpability in the alleged hate crime because he convinced the city council to pause a discrimination lawsuit it had filed against him and instead launch a new, independent investigation into the charges.
Members of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus (PLBC) and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC) also got in on the act. (Brown is a “Social Justice Ambassador” for the PHRC.) Among them was state Representative Ismail Smith-Wade-El, secretary of the PLCB. Said the Democrat:
This act is against the very spirit on which Pennsylvania was founded — tolerance — and is a sacrilege to the memory of the many men, women and children who were lynched throughout the United States, all victims of white supremacy. We’re not going back, and we’re not backing down. Hate has no place here.
Except, of course, hate against whites.
Fake Noose
That the noose was a hoax became apparent very early in the investigation, as did Brown’s motive for planting it.
According to court records, Brown claimed she didn’t even know what the thing she found on her desk was called, just that it was “a rope they hang slaves with,” reported lehighvalleylive. Brown said she “Googled it” to learn its name, but investigators found no record of such a search.
Brown also allegedly told police, “I feel like the office as a whole has an issue with racism” and identified one supposedly racist employee she thought might have left the noose on her desk.
In addition, she allegedly claimed that she had barely touched the noose.
However, according to a Monday Allentown Police press release:
During the investigation, video surveillance and building access control records were reviewed to identify city employees present on the third floor of City Hall between the time Ms. Brown left work on the afternoon of January 9, 2025, and her arrival on the morning of January 10. Those employees were interviewed, and each was asked if they would provide a buccal swap for DNA testing if needed. Every city employee agreed, except for Ms. Brown. Initially cooperative, Ms. Brown later requested that the investigation be discontinued. [Emphasis added.]
The cops had to get a warrant to obtain Brown’s DNA. Once they did, the jig was up. The state police crime lab found Brown’s DNA on “both the outer surface and the inner knotted portion of the noose after taken apart,” said the press release. “No other person’s DNA profiles [sic] was found.”
In short — assuming the government’s allegations are true — Brown tied the noose herself, put it on her desk, and then reported it as a hate crime. And all the usual suspects fell for it.
Brown is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on April 22.
