Police make neighbor remove 'offensive' Halloween decoration resembling lynched black man hanging from tree
The police forced a homeowner to remove a Halloween display depicting what appeared to be a lynched black man hanging from a tree after neighbors protested.
According to Indiana news station NWI Times, the 15-year-old daughter of Toya Griffin, a resident of Lansing, Ill., discovered the figure — a black mannequin with its hands and ankles tied —hanging from a tree near the sidewalk on Wednesday while she was chatting with her mom on the phone.
“My daughter suddenly said, ‘Oh, my god,’ and tried to explain what she saw,” Griffin, 37, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. She encouraged the girl to send her a photo and provide the address of the home, which was decorated for Halloween, where the display was located.
This is outrageous!
This is hanging in a neighborhood in Lansing. Heshima mace, a black woman saw a neighbor hang this in their yard. She contacted the Lansing Police Department but they refuse to make her neighbor take it down so she posted this to social media.
RETWEET THIS! pic.twitter.com/tg9jNY2qEd
— StanceGrounded (@_SJPeace_) September 26, 2018
Griffin says she left a voicemail with the Lansing Police Department, and an officer was dispatched. “When he called me back, he said, ‘It’s Halloween,’ and he didn’t feel it was offensive,” she recalls.
That day, Griffin’s sister visited the tree, and a neighbor recorded the scene on Facebook Live, drawing a crowd of upset neighbors. “The owner came outside, and my sister asked her, ‘Do you see anything wrong with this?'” says Griffin. “She refused to take it down and said, ‘I have friends who are black.'”
Eventually, police officers arrived, one of whom can be heard saying on the video, “So, apparently, this had a Jason mask on before and somebody stole it. … It does not sound like there was any ill intent.”
When a neighbor explained that the figure had been hanging for four days before the mask appeared, the officer reiterated his confidence that the homeowner did not “mean to be offensive.”
“Everybody is hypersensitive about things, and I believe most people are not going to do that…” he said. However, the officers agreed to remove the figure.
A representative from the police department did not return Yahoo Lifestyle’s request for comment. On Wednesday, the police shared a Facebook post stating, “Our investigation into this incident revealed no malicious intent and that this was simply a Halloween decoration that had been vandalized.”
Thornton Fractional High School District 215, which is close to the neighbor’s home, also sent an email to parents, a copy of which was shared with Yahoo Lifestyle, calling the image “disturbing” and offering counseling services to students who were traumatized by the image.
“It took three phone calls, a crowd of neighbors, and a Facebook Live video before this was removed,” Griffin tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “The police are supposed to represent the best interests of the community — which consists largely of African-Americans whose ancestors have a history of being lynched. Slavery and racism affect people every day.”
Griffin’s daughter, who walks by the house each day, is also upset: “She’ll be taking a different route.”
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