Homeowner Refuses to Remove ‘Triggering’ Halloween Display Featuring Figures Hanging amid Backlash from Offended Neighbors

A Pennsylvania homeowner is refusing to remove his Halloween decorations despite some neighbors claiming the imagery is distressing.

The homeowner, who has not been identified publicly, created a graveyard scene outside of his Bucks County home using a corpse kit bought online, ABC 6, Fox 29 and NBC 10 reported on Oct. 17. The display features mannequins wrapped in black bags hanging from a tree above tombstones.

While some residents are appreciating the decorations as imagery associated with the spooky season, others claim they evoke memories of racial violence throughout history.

“I said, ‘What? Are you kidding me? This is really what they’re doing now.’ This is crazy,”  resident Roshea Newkirk told ABC 6.

Other residents have defended the homeowner’s decorations, while admitting the eye-catching display initially took them by surprise.

“It’s his decision. It’s Halloween. It’s a Halloween decoration,” resident Mike Wade told ABC 6. “At first I looked at it; it was a little different, like hmm. But then I’m looking, it’s Halloween. My house is scary.”

The Bucks County NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) told ABC 6 that it has received complaints about the decorations being connected to America’s “painful” history.

“It’s triggering,” NAACP Bucks County President Adrienne King told the outlet. “I think for Black Americans, that image of people hanging from trees and that terror it caused through the Black community is something we connect with.”

The Bucks County NAACP described the decorations as “harmful,” while urging the homeowner to reconsider the display in a Facebook post.

“The NAACP Bucks County Branch is deeply concerned by a Halloween display in Bristol Borough, Pennsylvania, depicting simulated bodies hanging from a tree,” the organization wrote. “For Black Americans, this imagery carries a painful historical significance rooted in lynching and racial terror. While we recognize that Halloween decorations are often intended to frighten or shock, intent does not erase impact…”

The Bucks County NAACP added, “This is not about restricting Halloween celebrations or freedom of expression. It is about historical awareness, empathy and respect for our neighbors. We cannot change our history, but we can choose how we respond when that history is invoked in our communities today.”

Resident Karla Scott brought up the decorations in a recent council meeting, while claiming it’s “very inappropriate” for a body to appear to be hanging from a tree with multiple nooses around the neck, Fox 29 reported.

“Now, I don’t know if the person is just not educated on this, but it is very offensive, not just to the Black people in the community, but the community as a whole,” Scott added, per The Inquirer.

Despite a council member also asking the homeowner to remove the decorations, he has respectfully declined, per ABC 6. He told the outlet that he is not breaking any laws and had “no other agenda” with the Halloween display.

According to NBC 10, the homeowner plans to keep the decorations in place throughout the spooky season, but is “sorry if it offended anyone.”

“Our borough inspector did stop there and talk to him, but we were unsuccessful,” an official said in the council meeting, per the outlet. “He feels they’re Halloween decorations and he won’t take them down. And we don’t have an ordinance against anything like that.”

PEOPLE has reached out to the Bucks County NAACP and Bucks County officials for further comment.

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