A political float in a Halloween parade just outside Pittsburgh — featuring Vice President Kamala Harris chained to the back of a golf cart — has prompted an apology from the event coordinators.
Images from the parade in Mount Pleasant, sponsored by Mount Pleasant Volunteer Fire Department, almost immediately started making the rounds on social media. Many of them show a utility vehicle decked out in American flags and campaign signs for Donald Trump that is also surrounded by a gaggle of people dressed up to look like Secret Service agents.
A costumed participan made up as the former president is riding on the golf cart, while another person, who is dressed up as Harris, walks behind it in chains.
“People are upset about this,” Michelle Milan McFall, chair of the Westmoreland County Democratic Party, told WTAE. “And I think, too, we’re five days out from what is the most contentious election in a county that is not always at peace with itself. You know, we’ve seen political violence in this county.”
NAACP Pittsburgh Branch President Daylon Davis in a written statement also condemned the float.
“They depicted Vice President Kamala Harris, a Black woman, in chains, being led by a vehicle marked with former President Donald Trump’s name,” he said. “This appalling portrayal goes beyond the realm of Halloween satire or free expression; it is 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 a statement on Facebook Thursday night, the Mount Pleasant Volunteer Fire Department apologized “for allowing the offensive participants” to be in the 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,” the post said.
The department added that it “will be reviewing our planning processes to prevent a situation like this from happening again.”