A Georgia home’s Halloween display caused two instances of police response for its racist lynching.
The Cartersville home features a fake body hanging from a tree by a noose around its neck with an animal skull, black shirt and brown hands/gloves.
“The first thing I thought of was a modern day lynching,” a neighbor, Christol Stevenson, told Fox 5. “It definitely is racist to me. It’s very insulting to the Black community.”
Another local named Andrean was driving by the display with her daughter, son and nephew who were appalled by the decoration.
“They were mortified because they thought it was a human being – and a Black human being at that – hanging from this tree,” she told the news station.
WSB TV reported that a neighbor was so upset by the display that she took the fake body down. However, the homeowners at the time said that they have their “First Amendment rights” and hung it back up.
The homeowner told the outlet that they decorate every year for Halloween and her children named the fake body “Mr. Creepy in the tree.”
“She said because the thing underneath the mask is black and his shirt is black, she was thinking it’s a Black person. And it’s not,” the homeowner shared. “That’s just the spare clothes my husband had that he was gonna throw away anyway. That’s why I picked those. No reason other than that, and the gloves are garbage gloves so…”
The president of the Bartow Chapter of the NAACP, Dexter Benning, believes that this was “really crossing the line” and “offensive.” He added, “It really just signified and insinuated that it was a person and a person of color. Bartow County has a history of hangings here in this county and to do that is just not appropriate.”
In the span of the two weeks since the display went up, police were called to the home twice. One neighbor called 9-1-1 to report the offensive display and demand that it be removed, while the homeowner called authorities after another unidentified neighbor tore the display down. It has since been reported that it has been taken down permanently.