A Halloween display in a New York neighborhood featuring a tombstone that says Donald Trump “burn in hell” with a fake corpse is causing outrage among some residents.
Homeowner Fabian Vergara’s Halloween display, located in the Westchester County town of Cortlandt Manor, features the tombstone as part of a fake crime scene depicting a corpse wrapped in a garbage bag surrounded by yellow police tape, the Daily Mail reported.
Homeowners in the area are divided on the controversial display.
Theresa Gucciardo-Perry, a resident of the Cortlandt Manor neighborhood, said she was so appalled by the display that she called local officials hoping they would force Vergara to remove it.
“I want to know how far freedom of speech goes,” she said, adding that Vergara “needs to be removed from the neighborhood.”
Other neighbors seemed ambivalent about the display.
“I haven’t seen it, but I wouldn’t care either way,” said Ruud Haring, who lives across the street from Vergara. “It’s definitely freedom of speech, right?”
Vergara, a U.S. citizen originally from Ecuador, defended his display, telling USA Today that he put it up in early October just for fun.
“I’m doing it for fun. It was a joke,” said Vergara. “I like Halloween, so I don’t see anything wrong with that. It’s a free country.”
Vergara added that he did not include the Trump tombstone in his display until last week and said the corpse was not meant to represent Trump’s body.
Gucciardo-Perry argued that Vergara’s display is inappropriate for children to see and felt Vergara’s lawn display goes against the values she tries to instill in her two sons.
Other Halloween displays featuring tombstones with Trump’s name on it have caused controversy among parents of young children.
Parents at a Massachusetts elementary school were so disgusted with a display at a school Halloween party featuring a tombstone with Trump’s name on it that the school launched an investigation into the incident.
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