Texas Mayor Receives Package Containing Noose & Warning To ‘Get Out Of The Race’ Amid Reelection Campaign, FBI Investigating
Texas Mayor Receives Package Containing Noose & Warning To ‘Get Out Of The Race’ Amid Reelection Campaign, FBI Investigating
A Texas politician is unfortunately dealing with racist attacks from members of his community.
According to reports, the mayor of Arcola, Texas, Fred Burton, received a package on Tuesday (Apr. 23) containing a noose and a threatening letter urging him to drop out of his reelection race. The note warned,
“Get out of the race now!!”
Speaking on the matter to a news station, Fred Burton, who is a Black man, described the moment he opened the package as “a slap” to the face. He continued,
“Especially on a Black man’s face that he has to open up mail like that and see something like that. I thought we were better than that as a society.”
And added,
“This (election) has been the most, I guess, if you will, nasty. But I won’t let that situation, that mail, I won’t let those type of racial, if you will, throwbacks, affect me in this race.”
Local authorities are investigating the incident and have shared that the FBI is helping them get to the bottom of things. Chief Arika Carr-Bryant of the Arcola Police Department shared on Wednesday (Apr. 24), that “several inconsistencies” with the package were found so far.
“The package had inconsistencies such as a missing postmark and a misspelling of Scranton, PA. Despite these discrepancies, it was confirmed to have been delivered by the USPS, leading us to treat this as a credible threat.”
In a separate statement, Carr-Bryant also said,
“It’s very disturbing that in 2024, we are still at this point of receiving this type of mail or someone doing this type of crime.”
It’s sad to say but Fred Burton isn’t the only Black political figure who has had to deal with this type of situation. As previously reported, in 2022, a noose was found in an area of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Construction for the museum, scheduled to be opened in 2026, was temporarily paused after the hate symbol was discovered.
What are your thoughts on this entire situation? Tell us in the comments below!
[VIA]