UPS is investigating a claim that one of its employees tried to intimidate and threaten a customer recently by presenting him with a crudely made noose.
David Mitchell, a 33-year-old process specialist for a military contractor in Alpharetta, told police and reported to UPS officials last week that on July 18, a month’s worth of glares from a UPS driver culminated with the driver giving him a noose after making a delivery to his office.
“I felt angry,” said Mitchell, who is black. “I felt threatened. I couldn’t believe it. … I just couldn’t process what just happened. I couldn’t even work.”
Natalie Godwin, a spokeswoman for the Atlanta-based United Parcel Service, said the company is aware of the complaint.
“We are investigating,” Godwin said. “We take matters such as this very seriously. And the driver has been taken off the route.”
UPS has not released the name of the driver.
In the United States, particularly in the South, there are few symbols as terrifying and meaningful as a noose, especially as it relates to African-Americans.
The Justice Department has said it has actively investigated several recent noose incidents in schools, workplaces and neighborhoods around the country.
In January, Vanessa Savage, an employee at the Washington County Department of Housing Services in Oregon, found a noose attached to a cubicle with a note that read “Termination Notice.” That was followed by similar incidents in New Jersey in March and in Houston in April.
Here in Georgia, seven Georgia Power employees sued the company and its parent, Southern Co., in 2000 over unequal pay, promotion opportunities and treatment, while allegeding that nooses had been allowed to hang in company facilities.
The case was dismissed in 2003 and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to reinstate the case in 2004.
“So the federal court has ruled that legally, it doesn’t mean much,” said Janice Mathis, vice president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. “Symbolically, there are so many issues we need to confront that I hope we don’t get distracted by one person’s point of view. People of goodwill can’t get distracted.”
Mitchell said the driver, who is white, has been delivering to Mitchell’s Alpharetta office for about a month. He said the driver constantly tried to intimidate him with stares or by refusing to directly hand him packages.
It was more of the same on July 18, he said.
“He starts aggressively pushing these packages at me. He is shoving these things at me,” Mitchell said. “I ask him if there is anything else. Then he pauses, staring at me. Then he takes a step back, grabs this plastic, does something with it and hands it to me. He said, ‘Here.’”
Mitchell said he took the plastic and placed in on the boxes. As the driver walked off, he turned and looked at Mitchell.
“It was that last action,” Mitchell said. “Something popped in my head and I asked myself, ‘Why did he give me that?’ I held it up and saw it was a noose.”
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