City Councilman Stephen Levin gave police a picture that was passed on to him through friends showing “a dummy hanging from a tree” at the Cooper Park Houses in Greenpoint.
Police said the dummy’s face was painted white and that a cord was used to suspend it in the air.
Later, someone hung two “Black Lives Matter” signs near the scene in apparent response to the incident.
When police arrived, the dummy was gone, but the cord was still there, as were two “Black Lives Matter” signs that were affixed to a fence underneath the dummy.
The person who put up the signs told police the dummy was already there when he arrived and that he doesn’t know who put the dummy there.
The NYPD said its Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incident to determine if bias was a motivating factor.
“The residents there are perceiving it as a reference to lynching,” said Levin (D-Brooklyn). “I thought it was concerning enough to alert the police about it...The police are investigating this, and I think it’s totally warranted.
“If in fact it turns out to be something that is racially motivated, is confirmed to be a bias incident, that is reprehensible and it has absolutely no place in our city.”
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