Cops Claim Creepy Clown Costumes Could Create Chaos

Townsquare Media News is reporting that various police departments across New Jersey are urging parents to not allow children to dress as clowns this Halloween.

Police in Roselle Park say that teens could risk criminal prosecution and civil liability resulting from any behavior that could be perceived as suspicious or threatening on social networks or on the street. They also said that anyone dressed as a clown carrying anything that could be seen as a weapon could face criminal charges and “potential danger."

I mentioned something like this recently while talking about zombies and the Asbury Park Zombie Walk. That was a (half)joking reference that a zombie walk would be the perfect place for a zombie apocalypse to start, because no one would take it seriously, and no one would know who was in costume versus who was a real threat.

Unfortunately, this is a similar, but more realistic, situation. It's easy to dismiss these scary clown sightings as a hoax or a prank or a joke, but all it takes is one crazy guy to take it too far. We all know there are sick people out there, maybe one person could take advantage of this to do something really awful.

Not to sound like a grumpy old man, but we also know that teens don't have the best judgement. In fact, I'm pretty sure that if this trend had happened when I was in high school, I certainly would have worn a creepy clown mask as a gag. I'd think it was funny, but adding to this problem is you never know how someone else is going to react. A clown jumps out from around a corner to scare someone, that person could react violently and assault the clown, then everything spirals out of control.