(Note: This story below contains disturbing content and images.)
A community Halloween parade in Mount Pleasant Borough has drawn controversy after participants joined it with an elaborate display that appeared to depict Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris with hands bound, accompanied by a vehicle with a roof-mounted rifle. Witnesses alternately described the woman as bound with chains or another restraint.
Images of the display spread across social media Thursday, the morning after the Westmoreland County community’s parade. It appeared to feature an ATV bedecked with flags, a Trump sign, and a roof-mounted sniper rifle, apparently made from cardboard. The photos also displayed a woman walking behind the vehicle with her hands bound. At least two men wearing dark sunglasses, apparently impersonating security forces, accompanied the vehicle.
Mayor Diane Bailey said she was ”shocked” by the display.
“The borough had no part in that parade,” she said. “That has been handled by the fire department and organized by the fire department for as long as I can remember, and I’m old.
“We were observers the same as the citizens who came out, and we were as shocked by it as anyone else would have been,” she said. “We had no idea that that particular float or whatever you want to call it was going to be in the parade.
“It may have taken several seconds for people to realize what it was all about,” she added. “I didn't hear anyone cheering. I didn't hear anyone laughing, either. It was like 'Wow, I didn't expect that.'”
Bailey, who is a Democrat, said that she didn’t recognize anyone involved in the display: The parade attracts both onlookers and participants, many of whom join it on their own, from outside the borough itself, she said.
Mount Pleasant Borough is a conservative community that voted for Donald Trump by a margin of roughly 60 to 39 in the 2020 election. But Bailey described it as “a small, quiet community” where people “work together, no matter what side of the [political divide] we are on.”
Bailey said she’d been told that the participants continued along the parade route until the finish, but she deferred additional questions about it to the Mount Pleasant Volunteer Fire Department.
“We’ve had conversations. I know they are also appalled by it,” she said.
But Michelle McFall, who chairs the Westmoreland County Democratic Committee, said the fire department had much for which to answer.
“I love our firefighters, but this is reckless and irresponsible,” she said. “It’s deeply concerning and a failure of leadership.”
McFall said she’d been hearing about the parade from party volunteers and others all day. The reaction, she said, “Doesn’t sound like fear. People are angry that a community in the county they call home was used to launch such a hateful political display.
“Our fight isn’t with each other, “ she added. “It’s at the ballot box.”
Representatives of the fire department did not return calls Thursday. But in a statement released Thursday night, the department said its members want to "sincerely apologize for allowing the offensive participants" to participate in its annual parade.
"We do not share in the values represented by those participants, and we understand how it may have hurt or offended members of our community. We’re proud to have sponsored this parade for over 70 years, and its goal has always been to support our community's children," the department said in its statement.
"We are committed to learning from this experience and ensuring that our future events celebrate the diversity and spirit of our community in a positive way."
The department, in its statement, characterized the parade as "a first-come, first-serve event," at which its members previously provided "only safety [and] traffic control."
"We will be reviewing our planning processes to prevent a situation like this from happening again," the department said, " ... as we work to make our events more welcoming for everyone."
The Westmoreland chapter of the Republican Party directed calls to a spokesman from the Trump campaign.
The Pittsburgh branch of the NAACP, in a statement Thursday, condemned the display as “a harmful symbol that evokes a painful history of violence, oppression, and racism that Black and Brown communities have long endured here in America.
“In allowing this display, the organizers have sent a troubling message that demeans and dehumanizes Black and Brown individuals. This kind of imagery reinforces a dangerous narrative, implicitly suggesting that Black individuals belong in chains,” said Daylon A. Davis, president of the branch.
”Such a display has no place in our society today or any community that values inclusivity, respect, and human dignity,” he said in the statement. “All communities deserve better.”
Davis also sought an apology from parade organizers and borough leaders for the display, noting the responsibility to ensure that public events “are safe and welcoming spaces for everyone, [r]egardless of political lines.
“We also ask that they … make a public commitment to anti-racist values that affirm the dignity and equality of all people,” he said.
“This is our hour to demonstrate that love and justice shall always conquer hatred and cruelty,” Davis added. “The ballot box is our pulpit, our march, our message. And we shall stand firm, with hands joined, moving forward together, with hearts unbowed and eyes fixed on that bright horizon of freedom.”
Residents of the community also denounced the parade display.
John Krol, 68, said he’s lived in Mount Pleasant most of his life. If the people involved are his neighbors, he said, it’s "above and beyond disgusting."
He also said he was shocked that no one asked the float to not participate: "If you're a borough official, you better step in."
Krol’s daughter-in-law, Cynthia Zelmore, said a friend sent her videos from the parade last night. She grew up just outside Mount Pleasant and recently worked at the local free library, but she moved to Pittsburgh a few years ago.
“It's been a racially fraught town for years,” Zelmore said, but she added that she’d never seen a display that political at the parade, in which she previously participated. She said she wonders if the fire department knew about the float, or if the group tagged on anonymously.
“At the end of the parade, they usually have a lineup for anybody who wants to come and march in costume,” she said. “I've done that before — I had family members do that before, and you just go through the town square in your costume and it's a great time.”
State Rep. Eric Davanzo (R-West Newton) was in the parade himself but said he didn’t see the display, which he believed came later in the lineup.
On Thursday, he said he wondered if he would be getting calls if the roles were reversed — with former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in shackles and led behind a vehicle. He also questioned whether the woman in the display was intended to be Vice President Harris or Hillary Clinton, the former U.S. Secretary of State and U.S. Senator.
The pictures he was shown were blurry, he said, and he couldn't tell if the person behind the 4X4 wore a mask.
The U.S. Secret Service, which provides protection for both presidential candidates, declined to comment extensively on the matter Thursday: "We can say, however, that the Secret Service takes all threats related to our protectees seriously.”
