By William Tilton
The News-Herald
LAKE COUNTY, Ohio — On Halloween, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office had their mounted unit out interacting with residents, especially children trick-or-treating.
However, when photos of the “ghost horses” were posted on the department’s Facebook page, some residents expressed their displeasure, saying the mounted unit brought up imagery of the KKK, which resulted in the photos being taken down.
“Monday night when the pictures of the ghost horses were put on Facebook there was an overwhelming positive reaction from residents. However, a few negative comments were posted on our Facebook page saying the horses were dressed as KKK. Since this was never our intention we took down the posting so such misperceptions would not continue,” Lake County Sheriff Frank Leonbruno said.
“There was never any intention to be insensitive to the negative perception some people took in the image of ghost horses, and we apologize if any person was upset.”
Leonbruno added that upon close look at the daylight photos of the “ghost horse,” it is clear there are Halloween lights on the outside and underneath the white blankets.
“When they were lit up at night you could see they were all about Halloween and intended to be ghost horses walking the down the street with the trick-or-treaters,” Leonbruno said.
“If you scan the Internet on ‘ghost horses’ at Halloween you will find many similar pictures and costumes sold to make horses appear as ghosts. But again, there was no intention to be insensitive to people and their misperceptions of what the horses represented, and for this we apologize.”
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