Only On CBS2: Secret Service Visits IE Home After Obama Effigy Hung From Noose
MORENO VALLEY (CBSLA.com) — U.S. Secret Service agents Tuesday were seen exiting the home of an Inland Empire resident after he hung an effigy of President Obama from a noose as a Halloween decoration.
The controversial display got wider attention once a video was posted on YouTube of the dummy hanging outside Eddie Million's Moreno Valley house.
CBS2's Jeff Nguyen spoke to Million in his first TV interview.
"It's not political. It's not racist. It was not anything. It was just a mask," Million said. "We got cheap and we made dummies, and zombies and stuff like that -- and that's it. I mean, I didn't do anything wrong. I don't want to apologize to anybody because I didn't do it intentionally to offend anybody. I mean, if we did, I'm sorry we offended somebody."
Million said he was decorating his home for an upcoming Halloween party.
Some more decorations could be seen laying in his driveway Tuesday night.
Nguyen showed the video of the lynched dummy to Walter and Angela Harris, who live across the street from Million. They had seen some of the Halloween decorations but didn't notice the effigy.
"I would think a person would use a scarecrow or a faceless image to display for the festivities of Halloween time," Angela Harris said.
"Really, I'm shocked now that you've shown it to me," Walter Harris said. "Him actually showing the lynching of a black man is, one, very poor taste; two, showing the lynching of the President of the United States...extremely poor taste."
Before the visit from Secret Service, Million received a visit from police about the decoration. He said it was yet another reason to take down the effigy.
"Once I heard it offended people, I thought about what it actually looked like…it looked bad. And, yes, I would not do it again," Million said.
