Guess what the political affiliation of those responsible is. Come on, guess.
A homeowner in Bristol Borough, a suburb near Philadelphia, festooned his yard with a small graveyard, two scary scarecrows, and five mannequins hanging from a rope on a large tree. The “bodies” are wrapped in black plastic and circled with duct tape. At an Oct. 12 borough council meeting, Karla Scott complained about the display, calling the decorations are “very offensive, not just to the black people in the community, but the community as a whole.” Scott told reporters that her “mind went back to what my ancestors went through being hung from trees with nooses around their neck.”
Huh. Did her mind go back to when victims of lynchings were covered with black plastic and duct tape? Because there never was such a time. The decorations reminded me of this scene, the hanging of John Wilkes Booth’s conspirators in the Lincoln assassination.
But then I don’t make up history to advance social justice narratives [See: the “1619 Project”], I just study it.
Now government officials are visiting the house and pressuring the owner to remove the “offensive” display, even though there is no claim that there is anything illegal about it. He refuses. Council President Ralph DiGuiseppe says that the town will “continue” to do this. I wish I could find out the name of the owner because I would declare him an Ethics Hero: he has told officials that his Halloween decorations are staying up. No weenie he!
“This behavior by borough leadership and staff looks very much like jawboning, which is when government officials try to chill private citizens from exercising their constitutional rights through pressure or indirect threats.While Scott and other community members may prefer there be a rule to prevent such decorations, an ordinance banning “offensive” lawn displays would be dead on arrival, constitutionally speaking. It would be viewpoint discrimination and a direct violation of the First Amendment.”
The local NAACP chapter has weighed in on behalf of the censors because of course they have. Her’s another change to show power and bend others to their will. It said in a statement on Facebook, “Something can be legally permissible and still be profoundly harmful.” The statement also called for “continued engagement by borough leadership and voluntary reconsideration of the display. This is not about restricting Halloween celebrations or freedom of expression. It is about historical awareness, empathy, and respect for our neighbors.”
Translation: “We want the government to bully the law abiding citizen into bowing to our contrived sensitivities.” Their position is precisely about restricting freedom of expression, and worse, using government power to do it.
The so far unnamed Halloween decorator now says that he might have considered removing the display then had officials not tried to pressure him into it but that now it’s “a matter of principle.”
Damn right.
