Recently it has come to my attention that there have been a significant number of stories in the news regarding clowns, automatically my attention was grabbed. My knowledge of clowns thus far only extends to little kids birthday parties and the circus, but the tides have turned. There have been a batch of bad clowns, if you will, circulating the country and doing harm to their communities. If you search the word clown in google, the first hits you get are pages and pages of "clowns in the woods," stories all ultimately highlighting this very serious problem. It seems that people are dressing up as clowns and scaring young children, as well as luring them into the woods with their deceiving appearance. Children are not raised to run when a clown comes in site, so it makes sense why kids are easily being lured into situations that make them vulnerable and therefore a target. This clown spree started in the South towards the end of the summer, and has now traveled all the way up the east coast. What police pitched to be an isolated incident in South Carolina, has now infected Alabama, Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and New Jersey according to NPR.
NPR has released reports saying that in Alabama, it is projected that nine people have been arrested for dressing up as clowns and engaging in activity that was deemed harmful to the rest of the community. The worst part-those nine arrests were all just made last week. Police have even gone as far as to classify some of these incidents as terrorist threats.
Additionally, reports have been released by NPR about incidents in Pennsylvania that explicitly show the aggressive nature of these atrocities. Clowns in this northern state are facing charges for jumping out of cars and scaring kids, as well as looking through the window of an old woman's house; Instead of a peeping tom, police have a peeping clown on their hands.
I could sit here and focus on all the horror stories of these clowns, but that is what the Internet is for. If you want to read story after story of crazy clowns, be my guest. What many news stations and broadcasting centers are not focusing on though, is the aftermath of these clown incidents. What parent is now going to go out and hire a clown for their son/daughter's birthday party? I know that my parents would not. Even though the majority of clowns out there are well-intentioned, their reputation is going to suffer because of the poor choices of certain people; Clowns who only seek to bring joy to kids might be out of a job now. This bad bout of clowning around could change circus's and birthday parties forever, who knows? I felt it was important to bring this story to the attention of my readers, because for all you know, this problem could find its way into your community.
