In the body of Florida's laws, there are bound to be quite a few that defy explanation. For example, Florida statute 876.13 which states: No person or persons shall in this state, while wearing any mask, hood, or device whereby any portion of the face is so hidden, concealed, or covered as to conceal the identity of the wearer, enter upon, or be, or appear upon or within the public property of any municipality or county of the state. That said, we can now understand what the cop was thinking when he arrested 18 year old Matthew David Lopez on Tuesday. Because Mr. Lopez was walking down a public street wearing a clown mask and orange wig. You can read about his arrest here. The reader comments range from jokes about the stupidity of the police for turning this into an arrest in the first place, to those who defend the cop's actions, and those who insist that if the police want to arrest anyone for this, it ought to be aimed at Muslim women who wear the niqab (face veil).
Continuing WU's focus on clowns good and evil, here we see a photo of some bad ones, courtesy of Jeff Balke's Flickr page. The photo was taken at a Houston, Texas, parade, so WU readers in that vicinity who have clown-o-phobia need to be on the alert.
Alex Boese
Alex is best known as the curator of the Museum of Hoaxes, but he has also explored the world of weird science in his most recent book, Elephants on Acid: And Other Bizarre Experiments.
Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1.
Chuck Shepherd
Chuck is the purveyor of News of the Weird, the syndicated column which for decades has set the gold-standard for reporting on oddities and the bizarre.
Our banner was drawn by the legendary underground cartoonist Rick Altergott.
Category: Clowns, Crime, Sightseeing