But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a good time, experts say.
I spent my senior year Halloween in bed by 1 a.m.
I woke up Sunday morning at 11:15 a.m., and the only notifications on my iPhone were a missed call and text from The Post’s local editor, Sam Howard. The text: “Y’all are in for a hell of a wake up call tomorrow.”
I sent a “?” back to him, followed by switching to Safari and going to our website.
“Breaking: Gunshots fired on Court Street early Sunday”
Hopefully the Halloween gunfire — which apparently harmed no one — can be used as a wake up call. The city’s beloved Halloween festival invites the inherent dangers that come with huge public events. At the same time, people should not be immediately alarmed our community was subjected to public gun violence — something that has become increasingly prevalent across the nation in recent years.
In the wake of the incident, it’s time to walk a fine line between carefully reviewing Halloween safety policies while not overreacting to an isolated incident.
Jimmy Taylor, a professor of sociology at Ohio University-Zanesville who specializes in gun culture, explained in an email that we shouldn’t be fearful of large public events as a result.
“It happens on occasion, but most gun violence is still more of a small-group, if not intimate group phenomenon,” he said. “While there are certainly more targets at large, public events, fear of victimization at public events is still largely misplaced. Most shooters don’t like or want witnesses and/or more enemies capable of retaliation.”
That is a concept widely accepted by public safety and gun culture experts.
“If you go to a football game, you walk through a scanner and make sure you’re not carrying any weapons,” said John Matthews, executive director of the Community Safety Institute in Texas, who is nationally recognized for his work in law enforcement and school safety.
“You can balance security” with fun he said.
I don’t doubt law enforcement feels this way. Athens Police Chief Tom Pyle is a rational and responsible steward of public safety, and he clearly cares deeply about the wellbeing of Athens citizens. Still, our local officials are right to consider changing how Halloween is policed.
I look forward to hearing from our local officials in the coming weeks and months.
On a similar but unrelated note, The Post reported online Monday and in Tuesday’s edition police have described the main suspect in the case as a black male in his 20s, 5’11” to 6’1” and of medium build. He wore a dark hoodie and jeans during the event, police said.
In reporting that information, The Post has received some (albeit limited) feedback that we inappropriately used the main suspect’s race in our coverage. In the interest of being proactive about seeking reader feedback, what do you think? Let me know. I’m interested to hear from anyone.
@joshjame
jj360410@ohio.edu
