It's OK to Be a Bozo In Oak Park After All

All you Bozos: It's now OK again to be a clown in Oak Park.

The city reverses a clown costume ban at a yearly Halloween event, which was aimed at avoiding potential scares for children.

The ban drew criticism, so a three-sentence announcement (at end, below video) post says the Oakland County suburb won’t ban any costumes from next Wednesday's Boo Bash.

Officials encourage parents to use judgment about costumes for the thgree hour Community Center event Oct. 31, which includes trick-or-treating, hay rides, music and a magic show. Some skittish adults there, perhaps frightened themselves, complained in recent years about scary clowns.

"In the past few years, many clown costumes have been given a very scary and evil look," city Recreation Director Laurie Stasiak told Crystal A. Proxmire of The Oakland County Times last week.

"Many scary and horror movies are centered around these types of characters. About three years ago there were national incidents in the news -- people were dressing up as clowns and scaring people, and in some cases assaulting them.

"Many people have phobias and anxiety about clowns. It's because of this that we asked people not to dress up as clowns for this community event."