'Noose' seen in Harlem park has Gov. Cuomo ripping 'evil icon of our nation's racist past.' Then the truth comes out.

A visitor at Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem took a photo Saturday of what was called a "noose" hanging from a tree near the historic Fire Watch Tower, WNBC-TV reported.

Image source: WNBC-TV video screenshot

And man, did that ever set people off — among them Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the station said.

"I am disgusted by the recent discovery of a noose — the epitome of hatred and an evil icon of our nation's racist past — in Harlem's Marcus Garvey Park," Cuomo's Tuesday statement read, according to WNBC. "New York is no place for hate, and the progress we've made as a society will not be undone by the work of a few cowards."

Oops!

But later that same evening, the New York Police Department's Hate Crimes Task Force indicated no act of hate occurred, WNBC reported.

The task force said it "investigated this incident thoroughly" and that "according to the park director, it was left over from a construction scaffold that was removed in the fall. The rope was used to hoist construction materials."

While the "noose" was taken down, the station said some weren't buying the hate crime unit's conclusion.

"I don't see how a rope like that could've stayed this long through winter storms through wind. And it's just perfectly there?" Kanene Holder told WNBC.

She added to the station that if the rope truly wasn't meant to convey hate, then construction crews must be better trained so they don't leave what can be construed as images of hate lying around.

Image source: WNBC-TV video screenshot

"If we want to think about what the noose symbolizes, it is literally a direct threat on the lives of black people in this country for centuries," Holder also told WNBC.

Another resident, Sean Noriega, told the station that given how many people are in and around the park day and night, it's "basically impossible that someone got in this park and did something like that, and no one saw anything."

Image source: WNBC-TV video screenshot

No surveillance video had surfaced that might indicate when the rope was placed in the park, WNBC said.

Haven't we seen this movie before?

If this particular jump to an unsavory conclusion sounds familiar, that's because it is:

• A "noose" found in a University of Michigan hospital last year sparked a hate crime allegation, and the office of Counseling and Workplace Resilience was even made available to those who experienced "distress" over the incident. But it turned out that an employee simply was practicing tying a fishing knot.
• Far-left Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney in 2018 said President Donald Trump's "hateful rhetoric" was to blame for a black doll found hanging with a noose at a playground. Except it was actually placed there by two boys under 13 — one white, one black — who did it scare people and who didn't know about the hate-related imagery.
• In 2015, a University of Delaware student reported finding three "nooses" hanging from a tree in front of a building on campus, one day after Black Lives Matter activists staged a protest. The school president said campus police were "investigating" the "hate crime" and that "we need to stand together against intolerance." However, it was determined actually that the ropes were left over from a previous campus activity involving paper lanterns.

(H/T: Twitchy)