LOS ANGELES — A West Hollywood Halloween display showing a likeness of Republican vice presidential nominee Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin hanging by a noose has caused a furor among some residents who reported it as a hate crime, authorities said Monday.
But Los Angeles sheriff’s officials said the mannequin sporting a beehive hairdo, glasses and a red coat and hanging by the neck does not rise to the level of a hate crime because it was a part of a Halloween display.
“I’m not defending this; I’m not criticizing it,” said Steve Whitmore, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, who said he went out to the house to look at the display Monday. “Now, if there was a crime against bad taste …”
Sgt. Kristin Aloma of the sheriff’s West Hollywood station said that since Sunday she had received several calls from offended residents. Officials are monitoring the house to make sure the situation doesn’t get out of hand, she said.
Whitmore said that whether or not an action is considered a hate crime is evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
If the same display had been made of a Sen. Barack Obama-like doll, for example, authorities would have to evaluate it independently, Whitmore said.
“That adds a whole other social, historical hate aspect to the display, and that is embedded in the consciousness of the country,” he said, adding he’s not sure whether it would be a hate crime. “It would be ill-advised of anybody to speculate on that.”
Chad-Michael Morisette, who lives in the house, told a local TV news crew that cars and buses have been stopping near his home and that people have been snapping photos of the Halloween display.
The home’s decorations also feature a doll of Sen. John McCain surrounded by “flames” and other more typical Halloween items, such as skeletons and spider webs.
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