House with hanging noose owned by ex-Fort Worth police civilian employee, police say
When Gordan Sims drove through the Fort Worth neighborhood he grew up in, he was shocked to see a noose hanging outside a home.
He heard rumors about the noose on social media, so on June 10, he decided to check it out for himself. Sims, who is white, showed his wife, who is Black, what he saw. Sims also has a Black stepdaughter and two biracial sons, so it hit home for him. He believes the act was racially motivated.
“I was appalled and offended by it,” he said. “[My wife] immediately broke down in tears.”
According to the Anti-Defamation League, an anti-hate organization, a hangman’s noose is classified as a hate symbol connected to lynching and primarily directed at African Americans.
“To me, it’s a pretty obvious statement that it was put up for intimidation,” Sims said.
The house, which is in the 2500 block of Toronto Street, is owned by a former civilian employee of the Fort Worth Police Department, said Jimmy Pollozani, Fort Worth police spokesperson, in an email. The department doesn’t know if she still lives there. No police report was filed because no offense was committed, Pollozani said.
The owners of the house are Michael and Shirlee Wilkinson, according to Tarrant County Appraisal District records. The Star-Telegram was unable to reach them for comment at their home or by phone or social media. Shirlee Wilkinson worked at the police department, according to her Facebook page.
In a Facebook message to an individual that was shared with the Star-Telegram, Michael Wilkinson said he’s not a racist. He said the noose had been up for three years and that he had put it up “to deter crime.”
“If I had known it would upset people, I would have taken it down,” Wilkinson wrote, according to a screenshot of the message.
The homeowner’s daughter-in-law ended up removing the noose the day after Sims visited, Sims said. The homeowner and the daughter-in-law who reportedly took down the noose could not immediately be reached for comment. The Star-Telegram went to the house to try to reach the owners, but there was no answer.
Police told Sims that they couldn’t take down the noose unless it was proven to be an intimidation tool, Sims said. The event motivated him to create a Change.org petition to make the display of the hangman’s noose illegal without having to prove that it was used for intimidation.
As of Tuesday, the petition has more than 300 signatures.
Sims said he couldn’t believe someone associated with Fort Worth police could have a noose up, especially during these times when protests have sprung up across the country over the death of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis police custody.
Sim’s mother, Joyce Haynes, who is 60, said when her son showed her the hanging noose, she had flashbacks from her childhood. She used to believe her house was haunted growing up, but she said it wasn’t ghosts, it was her uncles coming in with sheets over their heads.
Black people shouldn’t be going through this, she said.
“People hanging nooses from a house, that shouldn’t be going on,” Haynes said.
This story was originally published June 16, 2020 at 5:20 PM.
