By Courtney Anderson
Creepy clowns have been popping up all over the country.
There’s been so many sightings, heavy.com has compiled a list of states that have reported clown sightings. And it’s a long list.
So far, at least 28 states have reported weirdness in the form of people in clown costumes intimidating and even assaulting people.
And most of the states have reported varying degrees of violence and intimidation from the clowns.
While some the police departments in some states have found the clowns to be just annoying hoaxes, some have had it much worse.
In Memphis, Tennessee, someone in a clown mask robbed a bank and threatened customers with explosives.
A couple of weeks earlier, students at the University of Tennessee received an alert from the university stating that students in clown costumes were physically assaulting students who on campus after dark as a part of a “Purge” re-enactment.
A Georgia news site reported that someone in a clown mask tried to lure children into a wooded area.
The article on Heavy.com reported an 11-year old girl in Athens took a knife to school to protect herself from clowns that had been spotted in the area.
A 10th grade student in Pennsylvania was fatally stabbed after getting into a fight with someone in a clown mask, according to Pennsylvania news site Pennlive.com.
Police have been arresting many clowns, but it hasn’t stopped many others from popping up in their place.
It’s got to be one of the strangest—and most frightening–trends, but it’s not a trend that’s entirely new.
In 2014, California dealt with creepy clowns.
According to a report from CNN, while California is sans-clowns in 2016 (as of now), Bakersfield police had about 20 reports about clowns threatening people in the area.
And then there is the 2013 clown sighting in England that turned out to be a “performance art” stunt.
Not to mention the various reports of “Ain’t Clowning Around” social media accounts that have been created and deleted or proven to be hoaxes over the past couple of years.
One major question regarding these sightings is “why?”
Why are people deciding to dress up as clowns and terrorize people?
People.com tried to answer the question in its article “Why You Shouldn’t Panic About This Year’s Clown Panic.”
In the article, author of Bad Clowns, Benjamin Radford states that many of the creepy clowns are “copy cats,” taking inspiration from previous reports.
Radford also said that social media has been a “powerful amplifier” for the sightings.
And he doesn’t really see it going away permanently, especially with the escalating reactions to the clowns.
“These archetypes are in our culture, they are not going away,” Radford said to People.com. “I guarantee you there will be another phantom clown panic – maybe two years, maybe five years, but it’ll happen again.”
Well, as long as the sightings continue, so will the creepiness.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
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AT&T Is Ending Two-Year Contracts, But There’s A Catch For Existing Customers
A leaked memo sent to AT&T employees this morning reveals that the company is finally putting and end to two-year contracts for all customers. While some might be excited that AT&T has finally given in to the contract-free peer pressure, there appears to be a catch for existing customers. Looking at the memo, which Engadget received… Read More
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Why Young People Should Care About PTSD (It Doesn’t Just Impact Soldiers)
By Stephen Goth
Posttraumatic stress disorder or PTSD is a mental illness that can develop after a person is exposed to one or more traumatic events, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, terrorism or other threats on a person’s life.
Symptoms can include disturbing recurring flashbacks, avoidance or numbing of memories of the event, and hyperarousal.
These symptoms tend to disturb the everyday actions in a person’s life. Whether it be relationships, friendships, performance at school, performance in a job, or even something as simple as sleeping, nothing feels the same when you’re actively living with PTSD.
Many times, people who develop PTSD are at a young age, and are unaware of the traumatic damage their brain is enduring. PTSD can form from something as simple as a single event i.e. divorce, or even the collection of various traumatic occurrences, such as bullying.
According to Matthew Tull, a Posttraumatic stress disorder expert, many people with PTSD experience memory-related difficulties.
They may have difficulty recalling certain parts of their traumatic event, or alternatively, memories may be vivid as if the person is reliving the event in the present.
People with PTSD may also have problems overcoming their fear response to thoughts, memories or situations that are reminiscent of their traumatic event. Due to the hippocampus’ role in memory and emotional experience, it is thought that some of the problems people with PTSD experience may lie in the hippocampus.
Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Lesley Goth who runs her own private practice outside of Denver, CO, specializes in treating clients who are diagnosed with PTSD.
She believes when trauma occurs at a young age, long-term effects show up in all social, emotional, and physical areas of their lives.
For example, trauma that is experienced at a young age, can result in poor school performance, poor social interaction, and an overall feeling of lack of safety, which can ultimately lead to low self-esteem, depression, and anxiety.
When the feeling of lack of safety grows and grows and eventually becomes so intense, the victim of trauma turns towards dysfunctional coping mechanisms. Many addictions stem from the heavy need to numb out the suffering and agony that is caused from the memories of the traumatic events.
This is an important issue in today’s society, as many people try to cope with trauma through substances, and a variety of addictions. The most recent one being social media.
“Social media is a way that people can numb out from their pain and live in a false reality that is much more tolerable,” Dr. Goth said.
In conclusion, treatment is possible, and therapy can often times repair the unprocessed wounds.
EMDR or Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing, is a frequently used type of therapy used to help process unresolved issues.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. Anyone can write for you us as long as you are fiercely interested in making the world a better place.
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Black Lives Matter Group Plans Protest Outside Of Graceland During Elvis Week
By Courtney Anderson
Why Graceland?
Memphis,TN residents and the city’s chapter of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens have planned a Black Lives Matter protest outside of Graceland during Elvis Week.
It’s a bold move that has many questioning its appropriateness.
After all, Graceland is a major tourist attraction for Memphis.
Tourists, both national and international, pay good money to travel to Elvis’s home and participate in Elvis Week impressions, tours and vigils.
Protesting in front of it could potentially cause an economic hit to the attraction.
But maybe that’s the point.
According to a statement released by the Coalition of Concerned Citizens, the protest is a demonstrative rally against the “social injustice, police brutality, and socio-economic disparity” in the city of Memphis.
The socio-economic disparity felt by many in the city is a major concern for local leaders.
According to the group, that’s why Graceland is an appropriate place of action.
“Graceland was chosen as a protest site because it demonstrates one of Memphis’s most common forms of financial inequity,” the group’s statement reads.
Graceland is located right in the center of Whitehaven, a predominantly Black and almost entirely working-class neighborhood.
And while the museum brings in a lot of money, many citizens of Whitehaven don’t see that money being reflected in the state of roads, housing, and places of employment surrounding the house.
Whitehaven is victim to unevenly paved roads with potholes, empty buildings lining the streets and low-wage jobs moving in and only employing a few people.
The city of Memphis has made a promise to revitalize the area.
According to a report from WMC Action News 5, the Memphis City Council advanced a $43 million plan that would “expand and enhance the Whitehaven community.”
“This is Whitehaven, and the people of Whitehaven care about their community,” councilman Harold Collins said during that meeting in 2012.
The reconstruction is set to take place on Elvis Presley Blvd and includes new restaurants, businesses, new light fixtures and repaved roads.
There is also supposed to be a gate to Elvis Presley Blvd from the interstate.
So far, the only project that is underway and near completion is a new 450-room “Guest House” at the Graceland Hotel.
According to WREG News Channel 3, the Guest House cost $92 million and is set to open on October 27, 2016.
A recent Memphis Daily News editorial also claimed that $38.7 million of that money came from a “5 percent tourism surcharge on Graceland tickets and other Graceland items.”
The Graceland estate released a statement saying that those claims were false, and that the Graceland project has not received any money from the city or county.
“All financial risks associated with the construction, completion and continuing operations of expansion projects in Whitehaven will be borne by Graceland and related entities, not the taxpayers of Memphis and Shelby Count,” the statement reads. “The tax incentives for the project are based solely on Graceland’s performance and are site-specific, limited to the Graceland campus.”
Members of the coalition remain skeptical of the benefits of the Guest House to the larger community of Whitehaven.
“Project developers and city officials promised Whitehaven residents the project would be an economic boon to the community but, as has been case for decades, residents have seen little if any of that money ‘trickle down’ into the middle-class neighborhood’s economy. This is not an uncommon story,” the coalition’s statement reads.
That’s why the Graceland protest, named #OperationBlueSuedeShoes, is still a go for 6 p.m. on Monday, August 15, 2016.
Stay with RISE NEWS as we bring you updates to this story as it develops.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us.
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