Clowns - to wish the media would stop reporting them

[MsJamieFraser]

If anyone hasn't heard, the new popular thing to do, is dress up as a clown with a weapon and go about terrifying people by intimidation and brandishing a weapon.

AIBU to think the media should stop reporting on this and these idiots will just go onto the next trend.

Currently my quiet home town is full of police and sirens blaring as a few idiots are out terrorising the public.

As if carrying guns is a solution for anything ffs

I love the word "pounced". It's not used enough, especially by the police.

My year 7 child came home yesterday having talked about this with peers at school. She was worried at bedtime. I saw a Facebook post this morning showing a photo of one such idiot outside our local shop. Whilst I am able to understand this is a prank done by idiots, it makes me mad that my dd is worried. She won't be out alone after dark obviously but still nervous because some fools think this is 'fun'.

Favourite tweet of the day ...
About to text my ex and tell him to be safe
After all, people are out there shooting clowns. #clownpocalypse

Have clowns always had such a bad reputation?
You don't see many actual real clowns at kids parties these days, probably because of the bad press they get.
I remember sitting on a clowns knee and getting balloons pulled from my ears!

I can't think of any bad ones apart from Pennywise and John Wayne Gacy.

Fizbo from Modern Family is quite creepy too though

Clowns need to reclaim their good clown name and be seen as funny not scary

Was talking about this to my DD 16 yesterday, although more about it happening in the US. I didn't realise it was becoming a "thing" here too.

She showed me this clown character from American Horror Story - pretty horrific!

One of our local schools had to implement a lunch time lock down after threatening Instagram messages were sent. My friend and I spent yesterday evening calming down 3 teen girls and then walking them home. (Love my friend but she has a serious clown phobia and would have been paralysed if she saw one, so as much use as a chocolate teapot) The police are getting mightily peeved and the schools and police have issued statements saying that anyone caught either sending messages or dressing up will be dealt with severely.

cat think scarymonster is the other side of Kent from you

Can people please stop posting pictures of fucking clowns!! Please.

The police went into our local schools yesterday and were patrolling all day on the school routes. I'm in an affluent small market town in the north.

Dd is terrified.

Like zee I have a dd with ASD. She's frightened of ordinary happy clowns.

Media reporting it is probably far less effective at spreading a craze than individuals using social media. Perhaps the police should arrest a couple, detain them and charge them with breaching the peace. And plaster that on social media.

Can people please stop posting pictures of fucking clowns!! Please Why? The thread title is pretty clear, it's about clowns! Just don't look!

hmm where have I suggested it's the medias fault?

Well, in your thread title. Why didn't you say "I wish people would stop dressing up as killer clowns and scaring people"? Instead, you blamed media reporting.

Should the media also stop reporting murders in case other people get the idea in their head and, um, murder someone? Or should they stop reporting rapes in case people start raping people left, right and centre?

And if 'the media' (as though we are one, homogenous mass of uncaring, scurrilous hacks) stop reporting this kind of thing, then maybe people should also stop talking about it on Facebook. And on forums, like, um, Mumsnet?

These things have to be reported. You can't have a media blackout on anything negative FFS or you end up like fucking North Korea.

Ds wants to dress up as a clown for halloween

Not sure thats a good idea now

I dont want him shot! He is irritating but not that irritating

It's huge in the US. Although tbh, it's only a matter of time before one of them scares the wrong person and gets themselves shot.

Yes but I want to read the debate without having to look at the rotten things! 😱 Given I would shit myself with fear if one jumped out at me I want to have my wits about me and stay indoors!

And to be fair to the OP, I think the media's sentsationalisation of the whole thing HAS excacerbated the situation.

SENTSATIONALISATION?!! What am I writing?!!

It would be a bit strange if packs of clowns were roaming the nation scaring people and the media said: 'Move along please. Nothing to see here.'

The OP's thread was the first I'd heard of this worrying trend. But I'm glad she reported it. I've put one of those fake flowers in my buttonhole and anyone with big feet and a red nose is going to get it right between the eyes. I'll squirt first and ask questions later. They'll have brought it on themselves

Ds (12) came home from school at the start of the week talking about this. I told him not to worry coz it was just something that had happened in the US but not here.

Then i wake this morning to a note on fb from police scotland about it. So glad it is the holidays because ds very rarely leaves his room during the holidays.

I think the world has completely lost it.

The reasonable response to people behaving like twats is clearly to shoot them.

There was a robbery in a Co-op in the North-East a couple of weeks ago by someone wearing a "floral dress" and a clown mask. Not just pranksters so the media do have to report it.