A Bristol Borough resident raised concerns at Monday’s Council meeting about a Halloween display depicting bodies wrapped in black bags hanging from a tree outside a home in the municipality’s east ward.
Carla Scott, during last night’s public comment section of the monthly meeting, said a Halloween decoration depicting bodies hanging from a tree with nooses around their necks at the corner of Cleveland Street and Farragut Avenue is “offensive”
“Now, I don’t know if the person is just not educated on this, but it’s very offensive, not just to the black people in the community, but the community as a whole. And I just wish someone would speak to them and have them taken it taken down because it’s becoming I just can’t explain it, but it’s not appropriate for 2026.”
Council President Ralph DiGuiseppe, in response to Scott, said code enforcement spoke to the homeowner about the Halloween display outside the home.
“Just so you know, our borough inspector did stop there and talk to him. Okay. But we were unsuccessful… the home owner feels they’re Halloween decorations and he won’t take them down,” DiGuiseppe said.
“And we don’t have an ordinance against anything like that,” the council president said.
“So Halloween, that I’m informed of and I’ve done my research, does not consist of hanging people from a tree with a noose around it,” Scott said.
I am not disagreeing with you, DiGuiseppe said.
“Lorraine (Councilwoman Cullen) and I represent your ward. I saw them as well. I actually got two messages about it today. And what I did say is I would like to go speak to the homeowner myself as well. And Lorraine may join me in that venture. I will. I don’t know if we’re the law is on our side, but maybe some just appeal to logic might be on our side on that, ” said Councilman Greg Pezza.
A friend of the publication, who is Black and asked not to be identified, said she saw the display this morning and it horrified her.
Credit: Friends of Tina Davis
“To be quite honest with you, it’s very scary that people think that’s acceptable. We’re not all that far removed from the time and place where my kin living in the south were victimized in that way.”
A second friend of the publication, who also asked to remain anonymous, said, it’s a Halloween, why can’t anyone relax?
“Maybe if the displayed victims were wrapped in white trash bags, instead of black ones, the reaction to the “decoration” would not be so intense, a third community member said by text.
“To be quite honest with you, it’s very scary that people think that’s acceptable.”
Cullen said the depiction “jarred” her when she first saw it.
Scott said she was happy the racially incendiary imagery is being addressed, and hopes the homeowner becomes educated on the historical, symbolic, and real life significance of seeing simulated dead people hanging from a tree.
It doesn’t look good for the world as well the community, she said.
Credit: Jeff Bohen Lower Bucks Source
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