Latest Racism Hoax: Allentown City Worker Planted Noose On Her Own Desk, Police Say

Here we go again: Yet another headline-generating act of anti-black racism has turned out to have been staged by the “victim.” You’ll feel like you’ve seen this movie before, but grab a box of Sno-Caps and step into our theater, as this long-running franchise never disappoints. 

This story starts in January, with news outlets earnestly reporting a claim by Allentown, Pennsylvania city employee LaTarsha Brown that she found a small noose on her computer when she arrived at work in the Department of Economic and Community Development. ”It is both horrible and unacceptable that, in this day and age, such an incident can happen in any workplace,” Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk said at the time. 

Next came the inevitable public protest of the “hate crime.” A few dozen people turned out in front of Allentown City Hall to denounce the hate and call for action, competing to describe the incident in the most dramatic terms. 

• “Our colleague was threatened. This was an act of terror. This is a hate crime. She’s a black woman with black children,” said Allentown school board member Phoebe Harris, who is also black. 
• “This act is … a sacrilege to the memory of the many men, women and children who were lynched throughout the United States, all victims of white supremacy,” said state Rep. Ismail Smith-Wade-El, secretary of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus. 
• “This is a hate crime,” said City Councilwoman Ce-Ce Gerlach, who in 2021 was charged with child endangerment after she dropped a 16-year-old boy at a homeless tent encampment, where prosecutors say he was solicited for sex and witnessed prostitution in exchange for drugs. At the time, Gerlach was a “homeless street outreach caseworker.”

Flashback: LaTarsha Brown alleged on Jan. 10, 2025 someone placed a noose on her work desk at City Hall when police claim in actuality, Brown put the noose there herself. pic.twitter.com/p3NldWn2Zd

— SHO’NUFF (@IAMSHO_NUFF) March 24, 2025

Police launched an investigation, and the FBI even joined the case after “community activist” Pas Simpson urged the public to flood the bureau’s tip line. However, Brown quickly became a suspect when, unlike all the other employees in her office, she refused to provide a mouth DNA swab, Allentown Police Capt. Steve Milkovits said. After initially cooperating, she asked that the probe into the hate crime be discontinued. Police obtained a warrant for Brown’s DNA, and it matched the only DNA found on the noose — including not only the outer material but also fabric on the interior, knotted portion.  

Well before the noose appeared on her desk, Brown had filed multiple complaints alleging that minorities at Allentown City Hall faced racism and hostile working conditions. Mayor Tuerk himself had been sued by his own City Council, which accused him of thwarting the council’s probe into those allegations. In April 2024, the council hired a (white!) former FBI agent to head up an investigation of complaints, with a budget of $300,000.

At the time, the same Phoebe Harris who made one of the above-quoted melodramatic statements about the noose warned that $300,000 was too little to spend, saying it would be hard to identify a “credible company and not a fly-by-night” outfit who would do the work for that much. “I don’t think you should limit yourselves — because this is very real; the complaints are very real,” she added.

Ever-ready to spend other people’s money chasing phantom racism, in the wake of the January “noose” appearance, City Council announced it had hired a law firm to review its policies and recommend new practices and “training to transform the workplace culture.” 

Brown has been charged with “tampering with or fabricating physical evidence” and “false reports to law enforcement.” It’s the latest example of an enduring phenomenon: With the demand for genuine anti-black racism far outstripping the supply — particularly where a legal settlement may be in the offing — market actors keep stepping up to produce counterfeits. 

And they’re not stopping now, even where this case is concerned. Undaunted, woke leftists now claim Brown is being victimized in whole new way. Josie Lopes, a friend of Brown and “community organizer,” told WFMZ:   

“We live in a system that historically has criminalized any person brave enough to stand boldly on the side of justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion.” 

“This is a warning to anyone in Allentown who dares to stand up against injustice. This is a smear campaign. This is retaliation,” she told CBS News Philadelphia. “Let me be clear. LaTarsha Brown is innocent. We will not let this city get away with yet another act of discrimination.”   

Further enriching this dark comedy, the city’s Democratic mayor was compelled to use the revelation of the racism hoax to pollute Allentown with mind-boggling woke blather. ”Today, we’re even more surprised to learn that it was likely fabricated by the employee herself,” said Tuerk, who has an MBA from the University of South Carolina. “That has helped lead conversations in City Hall about what it means to be inclusive. About what it means to respect each other’s employment, and that will continue.”

Then, in a display of disingenuous bewilderment, he added, “I can’t even begin to comment on what would drive somebody to do something like this.” 

Really?

LaTarsha Brown is the culprit! pic.twitter.com/1qFMh2cIc4

— LibertyBells (@LibertyBells_76) March 24, 2025

That is one well-traveled noose! It made it from Jussie’s neck in Chicago to Bubba Wallace’s garage in Alabama to Latarsha’s desk in Allentown!

Where will it travel to next?
pic.twitter.com/O18p3UKb7z

— Strictly Speaking with Bob Frantz (@StrictSpeaking) March 25, 2025