Creepy clowns not worth our time

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/10/2016 (3366 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The hysteria has hit Winnipeg. Police spokesman Const. Jason Michalyshen told the media Sunday police took two teenaged boys into custody because they chased three teenagers while dressed as clowns with what looked like a weapon. In earnest cop-speak, the media were informed “clown-like masks with purple hair and a large flashlight were located.”

Apparently, creepy clowns are a new social-media fad. Teenagers have been scaring each other on Twitter for months now with stories about clown sightings, and some kids are taking it further, dressing up as scary clowns and getting a rush from causing fear. This all ties in nicely with coulrophobia — a fear of clowns. Blame Stephen King and his eerie clown Pennywise from his novel It for this one. 

This is the 2016 version of the War of the Worlds broadcast on a different medium — radio — on Oct. 30, 1938. The dramatization of a Martian invasion also caused panic (although reports of thousands of people running onto the streets of New York were highly overstated).  

The scary clowns phenomenon has gone international. There are reports coming from Australia, Britain and the United States. Police swarmed a school in Essex after an Instagram account claimed 20 clowns armed with knives were on their way. In South Carolina, police had reports of creepy clowns trying to lure children into the woods. That report was unsubstantiated.

Around 500 Penn State University students took to the streets earlier this month to pursue three creepy clowns after social media warned they were on the loose. Several hundred University of Connecticut students carrying golf clubs and shovels gathered at a cemetery amid reports there were menacing clowns lurking in the area.

Meanwhile, here in Winnipeg, the police issued a warning: “We want to make sure people hear us loud and clear. From the Winnipeg Police Service perspective is the fact that we’re not taking this lightly. We, as a police service, want to address it, acknowledge it, talk about it and just forewarn those individuals who might be willing or considering becoming involved in something like this that they could find themselves in the back seat of a cruiser car.”

Winnipeg School Division followed suit, issuing a warning that scary clown costumes on Halloween should be avoided. To add to the hysteria, two corn mazes operating in the area have stopped having clowns chase folks. McDonald’s has put poor old Ronald McDonald into hiding. Target stores in the U.S. has pulled the masks from their inventory. 

So far, there has been no clarification if creepy Batman is next.

Meanwhile, if you go onto Amazon.ca, you can still buy the sexy “Indian Maiden” or “Flirty Native American Princess” costumes. Now that’s truly frightening.

Let’s get a grip. These are in essence teenaged pranks aimed at putting another notch into their establishment-rebellion belt. It doesn’t need police involvement. It doesn’t need school edicts. No clowns should lose their job. Responding just fuels their rebellion further.