A police force is cancelling Halloween after creating posters telling trick or treaters to stay away from homes due to Covid.
South Yorkshire Police has produced a printable downloadable poster headlined “No Trick or Treaters” below a red warning sign superimposed on a black Hallowe’en pumpkin.
I think it’s actually that they’ve got a downloadable poster which means “I don’t want to take part”. Rather missing the “trick” part but still. It’s not cancellation.
Not that the police have the power to cancel it anyway.
The local councillor in a neighbouring ward produced an ‘OK to trick or treat’ ‘Please don’t’ poster for his constituents to place in their window. Seems perfectly sensible to me and I believe that some people will only go to those homes that have halloween stuff on display.
Since 90% of the theatre we have been following has been based on “guidance” issued at press conferences rather than laws, I think the police do actually have the power to cancel halloween.
If one turns up at your door and says halloween is cancelled so comply or you are under arrest, how many constitutional court judges do you have on speed dial?
Low-level state agencies and employees have too much power, exercises it whimsically, and this needs to be stopped now it has gone too far.
Hampshire Police produced a similar Halloween poster a few years ago. Not actually a poster, just a printable pdf. They emailed it to me because I was a Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinator. It was in a combination of black, green and red. I gave them feedback on the practical shortcomings of the poster. 1) Expensive to print a solid black background poster. 2) The colour combinations would not come out well on a non-colour printer. 3) Low contrast colour combinations not visible in low-light conditions.
They sent out the same poster the following year.
I just put a big poster of Jimmy Savile in the window, and none of the local kids bother us.
a red warning sign superimposed on a black Hallowe’en pumpkin
Black, eh? I’m surprised their diversity teams let that slip through. When all’s said and done we’re not talking Rochdale or Bradford.
Round here if you want kids to visit put a pumpkin outside a few days before, otherwise you get left alone.
Of course they aren’t cancelling trick-or-treating. They would have to then cancel all food delivery, since it’s ultimately the same thing.