Another episode in the saga of "noose" sensitivity:
"In response to our story today, local FBI chief John V. Gillies provided a briefing this afternoon on the inquiry into the stuffed toy monkey found hanging inside a city firehouse earlier this month.
Gillies, who chose his words carefully, said there was no racial motivation behind the incident, and that it had nothing to do with other events in the department - an allusion to the tension surrounding the ouster of former Fire Chief Sherman George.
Gillies said the monkey was recovered at a fire scene, and placed in different locations inside Engine House No. 13, in the city's Hamilton Heights neighborhood. The last firefighter to touch it apparently found the doll hanging by its waist from a strap on a coat rack. He removed it from the rack, thinking it might have belonged to someone. When he realized the doll had no specific owner, he put the monkey back - this time, for "mere convenience," hanging it by the neck from a Velcro strap.
A few days later, the next shift of firefighters came on duty - which included several African-Americans - and saw the monkey in its new position. Controversy soon followed.
Gillies said the firefighter who draped the monkey by its neck is "very remorseful" for the uproar it caused. There was "no racial bias whatsoever" attached to the incident, Gillies said, and no "noose" either. The monkey "was hung," Gilles said. "But it wasn't hanging."
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