ICE Halloween display at Alabama sheriff’s house causes controversy. ‘Inhumane’
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A Halloween display at an Alabama sheriff’s home is stirring up controversy online as to whether it is appropriate for an elected official.
Social media users are expressing mixed emotions about the display at Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch’s home.
Video shared by WKRG shows three skeletons dressed as ICE agents and two skeletons wearing sombreros and ponchos climbing a fence at the home.
“It’s questionable whether these are messages that indicate or perpetuate fear, which of course leads to racism,” Grace Resendez McCaffery, owner of Latino Media Gulf Coast in Pensacola, told the news outlet.
Michelle Burch, the sheriff’s wife, sent a statement to WALA saying her husband had nothing to do with the display, and she is the one who decorates for Halloween.
“Every year, I make tongue-in-cheek Halloween decorations with a topical theme at my home. I like decorating for Halloween and other holidays and rotate these decorations periodically,” she told WALA. “I made this one, playing both on my Cuban background and new, needed changes in federal immigration enforcement. My parents were legal immigrants, and I have plenty of immigrants throughout my family. I’ll make a new one shortly – we have no shortage of topics to cover.”
Still, some have taken to social media to express concerns about the display.
“This crosses a line from tasteless joke into a public statement about who deserves dignity,” a Facebook post by Whitney Newman said.
“Inhumane local Sheriff. How do people like this get elected as public servants,” Ryan Balthrop said in a Facebook post.
While others have shared support for the sheriff and his wife.
“So much hate going around… is it really any different than displaying demons? Coffins? Disney? Nope not at all. Thought we had the right to choose what we want to decorate for holidays,” Bruce Manuel wrote on Facebook.
