by: Arsenio Toledo<\/p>\n
(Natural News<\/a>) The\u00a0Federal Bureau of Investigation\u00a0<\/em>(FBI) has concluded that the \u201cnoose\u201d found in the garage of African American NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace\u00a0was not evidence of a hate crime<\/a>,\u00a0but a rope that had been in the garage for months.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, Wallace made headlines after he made it clear that\u00a0he stood with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement<\/a>. Wallace had decked out his car,\u00a0the No. 43 Chevrolet for Richard Petty Motorsports, in BLM livery and spoken out against racism.<\/p>\n On Sunday, June 21, Wallace\u2019s team reported that an object that looked like a noose was left in his team garage at the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. Wallace was set to race at\u00a0NASCAR\u2019s GEICO 500 race at Talladega that day, though the race was later delayed\u00a0to Monday\u00a0due to inclement weather<\/a>.<\/p>\n After the two-day investigation, which involved 15 FBI special agents conducting interviews with people at Talladega, as well as support from Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, the FBI said that the \u201cnoose\u201d was nothing more than\u00a0a garage door pull rope<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter a thorough review of the facts and evidence surrounding this event, we have concluded that\u00a0no federal crime was committed<\/a>,\u201d said FBI Special Agent Jonnie Sharp in a joint statement with U.S. Attorney Jay Town.\u00a0(Related:\u00a0Former NFL player arrested for \u201cJussie Smollett-type\u201d hate crime hoax: Allegedly staged attack on his own ice cream parlor<\/a>.)<\/p>\n The FBI\u2019s investigation revealed that the \u201cnoose\u201d had been\u00a0in garage number four \u2014 the garage assigned to Wallace for that race \u2014\u00a0as early as October 2019. Furthermore, the FBI said that nobody in NASCAR could have known that Wallace would be assigned to that particular garage\u00a0before the GEICO 500.<\/p>\n NASCAR has since released a statement, saying that they\u2019re grateful for the FBI\u2019s support and\u00a0the fact that the incident was not an intentional racist act against Wallace.<\/p>\n \u201cWe remain steadfast in our commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all who love racing,\u201d said NASCAR in their statement.<\/p>\n Steve Phelps, president of NASCAR, previously stated that whoever was responsible for leaving the \u201cnoose\u201d in Wallace\u2019s garage would be\u00a0banned from NASCAR for life<\/a>.<\/p>\n Wallace himself has not publicly responded to the FBI\u2019s findings; however, NASCAR said that Wallace never saw the garage and that it was discovered by a member of his team, who reported it immediately.<\/p>\n Although this incident turned out not to be a hate crime, NASCAR is still committed to standing behind Wallace. Phelps has said that despite the results of the FBI investigation, NASCAR will still hold an association inquiry into the incident. Their\u00a0goal is to find out why the rope in the number four garage was fashioned into a noose in the first place.<\/p>\n Prior to this, at the behest of\u00a0Wallace and the BLM movement, NASCAR had announced on June 10 that it was banning both racers and fans alike\u00a0from waving or sporting the Confederate battle flag<\/a>\u00a0at any NASCAR event. The organization stated that the flag was \u201ccontrary to our commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all fans, our competitors and our industry.\u201d<\/p>\n This ban has not gone over well, especially in Alabama.<\/p>\n On Sunday, June 21, a plane\u00a0flew over Talladega<\/a>\u00a0with a Confederate battle flag and a message that read \u201cDefund NASCAR.\u201d<\/p>\n Outside the superspeedway, fans who objected to the ruling drove hundreds of cars\u00a0flying the battle flag and other Confederate symbols. They formed a two-mile caravan that drove past the entrance to the track.<\/p>\n Many who participated in the caravan said that NASCAR\u2019s decision was opportunistic.\u00a0Johnny Wilson, 47, who drove his Dodge pickup with Confederate flags at the protest, felt that\u00a0the move was nothing more than a way for the company to \u201cget attention for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n On June 22, as fans started coming back in after NASCAR postponed the race, some shops opened up\u00a0selling Confederate symbols<\/a>. Sean Ramirez was one such salesman.<\/p>\n Ramirez, who at the time did not know that the\u00a0incident in Wallace\u2019s garage was not actually a hate crime, said that he condemned the incident as an act of hatred. However, he said that that event did not justify banning the Confederate battle flag. To him, the flag is nothing more than a symbol of his Southern heritage, not of racism or hatred.<\/p>\n Brad Johnson, a lifelong fan of the sport, agreed, saying that NASCAR was becoming too political.<\/p>\n \u201cI think when you start banning things like [the Confederate battle flag], it\u2019s kind of a slippery slope\u00a0taking away people\u2019s freedom of expression<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Sources include:<\/strong><\/p>\n TheEpochTimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n CarAndDriver.com<\/a><\/p>\n KBTX.com<\/a><\/p>\n Edition.CNN.com<\/a><\/p>\n NPR.org<\/a><\/p>\n CBS42.com<\/a><\/p>\n NYTimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cNoose\u201d was a garage door pull rope<\/h2>\n
NASCAR still committed to supporting Bubba Wallace<\/h2>\n