Clown sightings scary, but legal
The “creepy” clown is nothing new to anyone who has ever seen a horror film or been to a haunted house on Halloween. The new shock factor has come to life now by people putting on clown costumes and wandering the streets at night — even going as far as to carry weapons and chase bystanders, according to the Spokesman-Review.
Reports have included allegations of clowns hanging around in cemeteries or attempting to lure children into the woods, as was stated in one of the first reported incidents documented in South Carolina, according to CBS News and CNN.
Though some cases reported are extreme, it seems a lot more is talked of this “killer clown” phenomenon than has actually been validated by trusted sources.
For example, the popular social media sites Twitter and Facebook have been blowing up with alleged clown sightings, yet few show up in the news, and those that do are dramatically less threatening.
LHS student, Moira Skinner, said,
“Its great. I love a bit of theatrics. That being said I don’t think it’s as big of a threat as many high school students would like to believe.”
The Moscow Police Dept. received one report Oct. 3 regarding a “creepy clown,” according to the Lewiston Tribune. The incident involved three people dressed as clowns on a residential porch. When asked to leave, the clowns did so, and police found no evidence of them being there.
In an interview with the Lewiston Morning Tribune Moscow Police Chief, James Fry, said, “Maybe it’s some crazy social media thing, but there’s been nothing that we’ve had to be worried about.”
Perhaps the concern about this clown trend is the fact that it has spread so fast due to the exposure through mass media. People see that this phenomenon is scaring others, and there are people out there that take on the character of the “creepy clown” to get the reaction.
A lot of the rumors are just that. There’s questionable validity of eyewitness reports and it is far from difficult to pose as a clown on the internet; and many are skeptical.
In an interview with the Spokesman-Review, deputy chief of Eastern Washington University Police Department, Gary Gasseling, said,
“…There’s absolutely nothing illegal about dressing up as a clown.”
