Louisiana Sheriff Goes Off In Facebook Rant After St. Charles Parish ‘Moves’ Halloween
Halloween is not recognized as a government holiday, but it is a holiday none-the-less to many people. A sheriff in Louisiana is having to deal with a lot of compliments and complaints as St. Charles Parish has decided to “move” Halloween due to a weather forecast predicting strong storms on Saturday night. Sheriff Greg Champagne decided to take to Facebook to deliver a message to all, and it appeared to get the point across.
The forecast for many parts of southern Louisiana calls for big showers and thunderstorms on Saturday night. The Advocate is reporting that many in St. John the Baptist Parish have since asked residents to move their trick-or-treating to Friday instead of doing it on Halloween night.
With the request that Halloween, at least the trick-or-treating portion of it, be moved from Saturday to Friday, it’s drawn a lot of criticism. St. Charles Parish Sheriff Greg Champagne has apparently been getting a number of complaints and he decided to take to Facebook to respond.
“First, I would like to clarify that Halloween is not a legal holiday nor a government sanctioned event. It is a ‘custom’ observed by most (but not all people). There are no state laws nor local ordinances regulating Halloween customs including “trick or treating” in St. Charles Parish. The only exception to this is a statute prohibiting certain convicted sex offenders from participating.”
Champagne went on to say that his office does “employ certain actions” to handle the Halloween customs that many people take part in every year. That includes adding extra personnel and officers to the streets to help with crowd control, traffic, and the safety of everyone.
The sheriff continued on with certain sarcastic jabs being thrown in once in a while.
“Without getting overly technical, I do not feel that government has the legal authority to officially ‘move’ what is only a customary event. At most, government officials such as myself can only ‘recommend’ or ‘suggest’ that the Halloween custom of kids’ ‘trick or treating’ be moved.”
Once all was said and done, Champagne said that St. Charles Parish would wait until Thursday morning so as to keep an eye on weather forecasts and then make their “recommendation.” He did say that everyone is free to participate or not with Halloween events as they wish, despite recommendations.
Kriss Forunato, spokeswoman for Jefferson Parish, has said that a decision will be made by Thursday morning. Forecast predict that anywhere from two to four inches of rain could cause a lot of problems on Saturday night. Councilman Chris Roberts elaborated on the possibility of bad weather.
“Should the forecast hold true into Thursday morning, Jefferson Parish will recommend that trick-or-treating should take place on Friday instead of Saturday.”
A number of cities and parishes in Louisiana have already moved trick-or-treating hours from Saturday to Friday. Not just that, but the hours are now being listed as 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday evening. Those participating so far are few – Ponchatoula, St. John the Baptist Parish, and Lafourche Parish.
Abita Springs, Mandeville, Slidell, St. Tammany Parish, Madisonville, and Covington have all said that trick-or-treating will still take place on Saturday – Halloween night.
The weather may not bring just thunder and lightning, but there is the possibility of flooding in some areas. The Monster Bash Halloween festival held in Lafreniere Park in Metairie has already been canceled. The free event organizers have already said they can’t ask everyone to come out in such bad weather.
Halloween may be “moved” in some cities and parishes in Louisiana, but the St. Charles Parish Sheriff isn’t going to sit by and just let everyone go off on him. That is the main reason for his Facebook rant and it seems to have now gotten the point across that they are looking at safety over customs.
[Image via Getty Images – Natalie Barber]
