HAMDEN, Conn. — A popular haunted house on Whitney Avenue in Hamden is facing some backlash from community members and local leaders who say its asylum-themed decorations are offensive.

At a town meeting Tuesday night, residents voiced concerns about the imagery used in front of Eric Andrewsen’s annual haunted house.

“The displays of people hanging and an active noose that is on display on stage with spotlights is heartbreaking and traumatic,” one speaker said.

In a letter to Andrewsen , Hamden Mayor Lauren Garrett and the NAACP called for the display to be removed. The NAACP said the decorations resembled Jim Crow-era lynchings of Black Americans, calling them insensitive, harmful and triggering.

Garrett also likened elements of the display, such as guard towers and barbed wire,

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