Used to be you had to draw devil horns on the president to get the Secret Service’s attention. But this tacky Halloween display in West Hollywood—hanging Sarah Palin in effigy—has done the same.
“The sheriff made this clear: This is a country that has freedom of speech, and we protect that right even when we think it’s idiotic and stupid and in bad taste and wrong to do,” Steve Whitmore, L.A. County Sheriff’s spokesman, told the Times. “If it is nonviolent and doesn’t cause any problems, then they have the right to do it.”
The display, which has drawn many complaints, including from the WeHo mayor, was the work of Chad Michael Morrisette and his partner, Mito Avilas, who hung the effigy from the roof of their home on the 1200 block of North Orange Grove Avenue.
“If it’s a political statement, it’s that their politics is scary to us,” Morrisette said. “This is our palette and this is our venue of expression.”
Yes, but it is offensive. Not as offensive as the students who hanged Barack Obama in effigy at George Fox University—that context is historically abhorrent. But still offensive. And that’s coming from someone who is no Palin fan.
A video report is after the jump:
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