"But there's a very good chance this clown hysteria is just the stuff of urban legends."

This. When I was a child, clowns were funny. Only a few very small children (like, pre-toddlers) were ever afraid of them. Chrissakes, we all watched Bozo the Clown religiously every Saturday morning.

There has been something of a cultural shift, because clown characters have been used ironically in a few horror movies. Nonetheless, if a child came to the party dressed as Jason, nobody would bat an eye. I think a lot of people who claim to be afraid of clowns only say that because it's hip.

My kids school had a 'fall festival'. DON'T call it Halloween! (ignore the costumes) And while everyone obeyed the name change they also indicated their contempt with it. It's pretty clear there are only one or two people who would have been offended and much more likely there are zero people, but someone was afraid they might be criticized and hence the official command.

And we do have the fashion police. If you want to do the horny priest costume with the flip out dildo, please only flip it out at a private party for adults. Don't do it on a public street in front of granny and the toddlers. We have public decency laws for a reason.

parents who said their kids had anxieties about evil looking clowns.

And I assume that their kids are just fine with ghosts, ax/chainsaw murderers, vampires, witches, etc.

The object of the game is to be scary, duh. Teach your kids to build a bridge and get over it.

Thanks, Ben. I think a good rule is: If you're an average person and you suspect that the costume you were going to wear is likely to offend strangers...it will, and there's likely no clever reason to wear it. Have a heart, average person. There are perfectly good reasons why blackface makeup hasn't been acceptable for years, even at Halloween. Or, even, why kids haven't dressed as homeless people for quite a while either. (Of course, the last time it WAS pretty acceptable was in the 1970s, before homeless people became common - as opposed to gutter punks, who choose it as a lifestyle.)

There is always someone who either doesn't understand or doesn't accept the minimum boundaries most people have. I don't have an issue with the horny priest outfit. At a private party for adults it is fine. But wandering the streets waving a dildo isn't. Same with other genital based costumes. But we still have clueless people like the women in New York standing in public naked and growling to show how powerful they are. And instead revealing how clueless and pathetic they are. Or that preschool in China that had strippers on opening day. Who the heck knows why!

So I am in favor of minimum standards. Banning clown costumes doesn't hit that bar.

"...some frightening incidents nationally of people dressing up as clowns and scaring others, in some cases assaulting them."

Gosh, maybe they should make a law against assault.

When my daughter was 2 she would cry if grandma pushed her stroller--do we ban grandmas? Kids are scared of all sorts of things, from birds to dogs to food items to worms. Ban everything?
Let's remember how halloween originated. Winter in Medieval Europe was when people died: the cold, flu, lack of food. It was a terrifying time. Halloween was sort of a make-jokes-about-death sort of event: ghosts, witches, goblins, etc. costumes. We will show death we are not afraid.

People are hopeless. They seek power over others in the most trivial ways.

How can a costume be offensive to a public which insists that it is entertainment to have a thug shout obscenities on stage while grabbing his crotch?