The Amazon warehouse in Bessemer.Elijah Nouvelage/Getty
It’s takes a lot to stall Amazon’s rapid growth, even temporarily, but the company announced recently that it has halted construction of a new warehouse in Connecticut after workers found another noose—the seventh one to date—dangling over a beam. Local police are now investigating the incident as a possible hate crime, according to a report by the Associated Press.
Few companies have been more enriched during the pandemic than Amazon. The online retailer’s profits soared 84 percent in 2020, hitting $384 billion, according to reports. The company has even taken to snapping up unoccupied shopping malls across the country to turn them into mini fulfillment centers, NBC News recently reported.
The only thing that can stop that kind of rapid growth, it seems, are old-fashioned symbols of white terrorist violence. The first noose was reportedly found on April 27, and five more were discovered in the weeks that followed. The Greater Hartford chapter of the NAACP has gotten involved, calling for a more serious response from police, who taken to patrolling the construction site in recent weeks.
Still, some workers paint an unflattering picture of their overall experience on the site. Carlos Best, an ironworker and foreman, told reporters that he’s heard racist comments on the job, and has fired one worker for using disparaging racist language. “I did witness Confederate flags on people’s hats, on the back of their cars. I personally heard racial remarks,” he said during a press conference Thursday, according to NPR.
Police, local elected officials, and even the FBI have reportedly gotten involved, one official even vowing to reporters that they “will leave no stone unturned.”
Let’s hope all of those stones can be turned in about 48 hours, as construction is slated to resume on Monday.
