No clowns allowed. Michigan city bans clowns on Halloween

OAK PARK, Mich. – If you plan to attend the Boo Bash in the Detroit suburb of Oak Park on Halloween, you can be a ghost, goblin, zombie, vampire or any other character that you wish, but you can't be a clown.

City officials have banned clown costumes because they are too scary.

The annual Boo Bash is held at the city's community center. The city's public invitation invites people to "enjoy cider and donuts" at the trick-or-treating event. Kids are invited to wear their favorite costume, but the invitation says "clown costumes are not allowed."

The Oakland County Times got the following explanation from the city's recreation director:

“This event is centered around young children,” Laurie Stasiak said in an email to the newspaper.  "In the past few years many clown costumes have been given a very scary and evil look.  Many scary and horror movies are centered around these types of characters.  About 3 years [ago] there were national incidents in the news were 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.”