Attack of the clowns

Patrick LaLiberte 
Staff Writer
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              It seems America has a new villain, a force so terrifying and disturbing that is has people all over the country calling the police and hiding their children in their homes. No, I’m not talking about either presidential candidate; I’m talking about people walking around dressed as creepy clowns. I know that may sound funny, but these clowns are no laughing matter. Most of these clowns do not seem to be doing anything in particular, but some of these sinister-looking jesters have been accused of trying to lure children into the woods, harassing kids at an Alabama school, and even threatening to bring a bomb to the school on Facebook, causing panic and fear on social media and among the public. The good news about these clown sightings is that most of them turn out to be pranksters in a mask or made up, false reports. However, some of these people in clown costumes are up to no good and could take advantage of children who do not know any better.

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           While I can definitely see why these clown sightings might freak someone out, some people may be a little too premature to grab their phones and call 911. Like I said: most of these clown costume-wearing fools are nothing more than that, fools. They do not mean any harm to anyone; they are just doing it for a laugh. After all, it is not illegal to dress funny and walk around town. They are just trying to scare a few people on the streets for a joke. Also a lot of the recent clown sighting calls were completely fabricated as a joke. So it seems like most of these clown sighting stories are not as dark and frightening as they appear.
            The scary thing about these clown sightings is that you can never really tell if these people in clown costumes are just pranksters or are actually out to cause harm to others. This is especially scary when you consider that little children would not really be scared of a man in a clown costume. They would likely interact with a clown because they look so inviting, colorful, and interesting. This type of thing happens in the Stephen King novel/movie It, which revolves around an evil clown with great powers terrorizing a small town. In fact, movies like It are largely responsible for the fear of clowns among people today, which seems to be getting more and more common every year. So if these people in clown costumes are doing anything suspicious or seem to have a motive other than scaring people for a laugh, they should be reported to the police immediately.
             In conclusion, a shocking number of clown costume-wearing men walking around towns all across the country have been reported to the police recently; however, most of them do not seem to be doing anything too bad, other than creeping out many people. The clowns who are a real problem are the ones who try to lure children into the woods and threaten to blow up a school on Facebook. Those clowns are no joke and should be taken seriously.