Although she and Kathy Cannon enjoy clowning around, lately their smiles have turned into frowns by social media posts of scary clowns threatening to come after people.
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“The increase in creepy clown sightings is risky”, he wrote in a tweet.
If you’ve heard about the creepy clown sightings that have been popping up all around the country, you know they’re giving all the real clowns a bad rep. But the 2016 strain of clowns is a particularly virulent one, with the season’s sightings spreading from Greenville to North Carolina, to southern states like Kentucky and Alabama, before sweeping across the rest of the country. The “malevolent clown was a student doing a performance-art project”.
Manuel performs under the name Priscilla Mooseburger.
It goes on to warn students against joining in on the prank, asking them to “think again” if they’re “thinking that putting on a clown mask and hanging around town might be a amusing prank”.
Students reported that one of the clowns had a knife, one had a briefcase and one had a gun “in his pocket”, police said. In other cases people have been assaulted and threatened.
“It’s heartbreaking”, Manuel said.
“We appreciate everyone’s neighborly concern for one another”.
Like other agencies across the country, NIU Police and DeKalb Police say they will treat seriously any “clowning” incidents created to cause a disturbance in the community. The incident was recorded and later posted on social media. Manuel says it is vital that kids have a positive experience with clowns in order to produce adults willing to carry the art form’s torch.
Footage of the mobbing on Twitter shows students screaming, warning the clowns, stampeding in one direction.
The clown scare has had a dramatic impact on those who make a legitimate living as clown performers.
Police hope it the clown craze will eventually fade away like many social media phenomenon.
Clowning around on Halloween could land you behind bars.
“I don’t expect to be getting business from them anytime soon”, she said. “No arrest, says UIC police”.
Phil Roeder, director of communications for the Des Moines Public Schools, told the Register Tuesday that they take all threats seriously.
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Actually, yes. As much as this clown craze has been rife with hoaxes and false alarms, there have also been some legitimate incidents where costumed people have been caught trying to intimidate or attack others. Worse yet, some people have taken it upon themselves to go looking for anyone dressed as a clown to meet out their own justice.
