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Allen: Bigotry has no place in CG

Racial bigotry has no place in the Coast Guard and those who commit acts of harassment will be held accountable, the service’s top officer said Thursday.

Speaking before the students and faculty at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., to address the discovery this summer of two nooses left for academy personnel, Allen said such behavior is antithetical to the service’s ethos and humanitarian mission.

“By my mere presence, you know this is important,” Allen said. “I have an obligation to make it clear to you what is acceptable and unacceptable conduct, and anybody that is involved in putting symbols of racism in anybody’s workplace or personal equipment, in my view, that is conduct unbecoming of an officer.”

The speech followed the disclosure Sept. 22 of the summer’s noose incidents. Earlier Thursday, during an appearance on CNN, Allen also disclosed that two other nooses had been found this past year in Coast Guard workspaces.

Allen offered few details about those noose findings, except to acknowledge that one of them was discovered after a knot-tying class and that “people were counseled” after the incidents.

Joining Allen at the academy was Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., chairman of the House Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee. In his address to the cadets, Cummings likened the act of placing a noose to a cross-burning, calling it an “act of terrorism.”

“The placement of a noose ... is an act of hatred intended to threaten and intimidate ... an action intended to deprive a fellow human being of his or her own sense of personal freedom,” Cummings said.

He urged the cadets to cooperate with the investigation and not accept such behavior in their peers.

“Any attack upon any link in this chain of our nation’s defenders weakens and endangers us all,” Cummings said.

The two academy noose discoveries took place this summer. One was found July 22 in the belongings of a black cadet aboard the training barque Eagle. The second was found Aug. 2 in the office of an academy civil rights instructor.

The Coast Guard did not announce any of the noose discoveries when they happened. The Day newspaper of New London discussed them in an opinion piece Sept. 22, leading to wider media coverage. The Coast Guard launched a criminal investigation into the incidents after the public disclosure.

An administrative investigation launched shortly after the first finding was unable to determine a perpetrator.

The school ramped up diversity training both on the ship and at the school shortly after the incidents.

On the Web:

Watch video of Allen’s address

Related reading:

2 other nooses found by Coasties in past year

DISCUSS:

The investigation and allegations