Clowning Around in California

[Antilogic]

Something is rotten in the state of California.

Instagram Link

It's like a scene from a horror film.

Residents of a California city are being terrorized by people dressed as clowns, some reportedly wielding machetes or baseball bats, police said.

"There's a natural phobia of clowns," Sgt. Joe Grubbs of the Bakersfield Police Department told ABC News today. "And, clearly, if someone is dressed up as a clown and holding a weapon in a threatening manner, that's going to frighten people."

There have been 20 sightings in a week, but only one clown has landed in cuffs. Bakersfield police arrested one juvenile last week for allegedly chasing other juveniles while in a clown costume. The 14-year-old suspect, who wasn't armed, told police he was participating in a hoax he had seen online.

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Link.

Halloween prank? Art project gone wrong? Should we call in the Batman to deal with them?

 

[MilesGregarius]

"And, clearly, if someone is dressed up as a clown and holding a weapon in a threatening manner, that's going to frighten people."

So, "holding a weapon in a threatening manner" while in street clothes, business attire, a wedding gown, buck nekkid, what-have-you ain't going to frighten people?

 

[JollyRoger]

We have the same thing in Texas:

 

[MilesGregarius]

The only folk I feel inclined to deny their right to bear arms are those who feel the need to constantly assert their right to bear arms.

 

[Borachio]

This reminds me: I really, really want a clown car. One where you drive up to a set of traffic lights on red and all the doors fall off. And then 50 people climb out of it.

I did have a car where one of the windows used to regularly fall off. But, although pleasing in its own way, it wasn't the same as my dream clown car.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

My dad once fit 16 elementary-age kids in a small 4-door car (15 on the way home). It was an especially cold snap during the winter of 1973, and not the kind of weather in which we felt up to a long walk to school (15 minutes one way in good weather; longer in winter, with all the ice and before the snow bylaws).

This wasn't remotely legal, even before seatbelt laws. But we took a chance that no cops would notice and they didn't.

 

[classical_hero]

Not good quality, but you get the drift.

Link to video.

 

[Borachio]

Yeah. I was going to ask: why do some people fear clowns?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coulrophobia

Maybe this guy knows why.

Throughout his childhood, Gacy strived to make his father proud of him, but seldom received his approval: one of Gacy's earliest childhood memories was of being beaten with a leather belt by his father at the age of 4 for accidentally disarranging car engine components his father had assembled.[7] On another occasion, his father struck him across the head with a broomstick, rendering him unconscious.[8] He was regularly belittled by his father and often compared unfavorably with his sisters, enduring disdainful accusations of being "dumb and stupid". The friction between father and son was constant throughout his childhood and adolescence. Although Gacy regularly commented that he was "never good enough"[9] in his father's eyes, in interviews after his arrest he always vehemently denied he hated him

 

[illram]

I saw one of these guys standing in front of a ride at Disneyland. I thought it was some weird creepy part of the show but it didn't make sense at the time. Then I read about this and now I realize it was just some random douchebag.