Columbia Won't Cooperate With Cops in Latest Noose Incident

It's looking a lot more like the Columbia noose incident is either a hoax perpetrated by the "victim", or was placed on her door by another professor. How else to you explain the lack of cooperation on the part of Columbia?

NEW YORK (AP) — Columbia University has refused to turn over security videotape that could help identify who hung a noose on a black professor's office door, police said Thursday.

Investigators began asking on Wednesday for tapes from cameras in the building, but have been rebuffed by administrators, said Paul Browne, the New York Police Department's top spokesman.

He said police will have to get a court order to force the school to provide video they believe could crack the case.

"It's unfortunate because it adds a time-consuming step to the investigation," Browne said.

A Columbia spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment.

Authorities were testing the 4-foot-long twine noose for DNA evidence, but had no suspects as of Thursday morning.

On Wednesday, the professor who was the target of the attack, Madonna Constantine, told hundreds of faculty and students at a rally on the Ivy League campus that the incident was a "blatant act of racism" that "reeks of cowardice and fear."

Columbia could clear this up very quickly if they would just turn over the tapes, but apparently there's something on those tapes they don't want to get out to the public. Until somebody proves otherwise, I'm going with the hoax motive because the whole thing just looked a little too pre-packaged for the media.

Don't forget the California professor who vandalized her own car in an effort to become a "victim" of a hate crime.

UPDATE: Columbia says it's not withholding tape.