Two Black Men found hanging in California in the last two weeks [View all]

[neohippie]

Suspicious deaths of two black men in California, found hanging in public parks. IN both cases families rejected the initial police determinations of suicide.

Police see no foul play yet in both cases the families say there is no way these were suicides.


Robert Fuller, 22 years old
Malcom Harsch 38 years old


https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-protests-for-racial-justice/2020/06/14/876807835/california-city-residents-demand-answers-after-black-man-found-hanging-from-tree

A growing number of residents and officials in Los Angeles County are demanding answers in the death of a black man whose body was discovered hanging from a tree in a park.

Robert Fuller's body was found early Wednesday in Poncitlán Square in Palmdale, Calif., a commuter city roughly an hour north of Los Angeles. The 24-year-old's death was deemed a likely suicide based on preliminary findings, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said.

Fuller's family and supporters are pushing back against the department's assessment, saying his death appears to be a lynching.

It came 10 days after another black man was found hanging from a tree about 50 miles away in Victorville.

https://www.thecut.com/2020/06/what-we-know-about-robert-fuller-and-malcolm-harschs-deaths.html

Protesters gathered in Palmdale, California, over the weekend, to call for renewed investigation into the death of Robert Fuller, a 24-year-old black man whose body was found hanging from a tree outside City Hall last week. Officials initially suggested Fuller died by suicide, but the circumstances bear an eery resemblance to a recent death in nearby Victorville, about 45 miles away: Days earlier, the body of Malcolm Harsch, a 38-year-old black man, was found in a tree outside the city’s library. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department says it does not currently suspect foul play, but both Harsch’s family members and Fuller’s remain skeptical. In both cases, people who knew the men suspect they were murdered.

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Protesters and activists suspect Fuller and Harsch were lynched.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, Southern California — and San Bernardino County in particular — has seen a large spike in white-supremacist activity in recent years. Neo-Nazi groups have been active in Antelope Valley for decades, and in 2007, KKK flyers depicting Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton hanging from trees were distributed in Palmdale, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, elected officials in Palmdale conspired for years with the L.A. Housing Authority to push out low-income black families using harassment and bullying tactics, pointing to a pattern of race-based discrimination in the area.

That Fuller and Harsch’s deaths came amid weeks of national protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, combined with the location of the bodies — both in front of municipal buildings — has led many to believe that both men were lynched. On Saturday, thousands gathered in Palmdale to demand a full investigation into Fuller’s death.