LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) -- Reports of sightings of clowns carrying weapons or trying to lure children are spreading across the country. Multiple claims of clown encounters have been made in Central Arkansas, and a White Hall police officer was suspended after posing for a photo in a clown costume.
Even though most of the reported sightings are not verified, the phenomenon continues to grow.
“All you have to do,” said Dr. Terry Richard, a sociology professor at University of Arkansas at Little Rock, “is get on the internet and immediately they’ll have some report, some sighting of a scary clown.”
The first reported clown attacked occurred in South Carolina, and its oddity carried the story nationwide. Other reports quickly followed of threatening clowns; some armed with machetes, some lurking near schools
Richard believes the idea has spread as quickly as it has because of pop culture.
“When I was a kid, there wasn’t this connotation of clowns really being scary things,” he mentioned. “Those on TV, as well as when you went to the circus, or you went to birthday parties, or stuff. Or they had Bozo the Clown, and basically it was a pretty happy, and it was associated with good things. But there’s been a shift and a change, and I think I blame Stephen King for it.”
He added that the violation of our preconceived ideas of childhood entertainment make the evil clown an image that Americans are likely to focus on.
Thongsay Singkhek said he is “personally, not really scared of clowns. But, I mean, if I know they’re gonna harm people, I’ll be terrified. Pretty scared.”
Singkhek said he does not think the reported sightings are real. People have claimed to see them in White Hall and North Little Rock, and it is easy to go online and find people talking about them.
“Words can get around now, especially with social media,” Singkhek said. “And that’s where I saw the ads and stuff like that, by my friends sharing it on her wall.”
Facebook and Twitter can help people spread stories, but they also make people disappear into a virtual crowd.
“There may be some individuals,” Richard said, “because they heard of these scary clown things, there may be individuals who would be like copycats, and try to do it just as a prank, or something that’s going to be fun to do.”
Richard believes the media is also culpable for the spread of the craze.
“Any rumors really become much more exaggerated than what is the reality. And it sells, it actually sells stories. I mean, I was reading one today! But almost all of those cases, the sightings are never verified and all the warnings go for naught.”
He also claimed that Americans enjoy being scared, mentioning that horror movies, even poorly made films, often perform well at the box office. But he thinks the dangerous clown stories are a fad that will end fairly soon.
“It’ll fade away. I don’t think it’ll fade away before Halloween,” he stated. “Let me tell you, Halloween’s gonna be big-time! We’re gonna see a lot of clowns.”
According to a statement from the White Hall Police Department, its officer was suspended for not meeting their high standards of conduct, but no evidence was found linking him to the three reported sightings in the city.
White Hall Mayor Noel Foster said he thought the photo was made as a joke, but he did not find it funny. He added that having officers chase reports of a clown with a knife wasted valuable resources.