Thread: My Town Sucks!

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I live in a small to medium sized town called Fishkill, NY that is hell bent on being a police state. Look at this crap the was written in a local paper

Poughkeepsie Journal

and just in case the article disappears...

Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Local brief:


Town of Fishkill sets Halloween curfew
FISHKILL — The town has enacted a curfew effective today through Wednesday.

The curfew makes it unlawful for any person under age 18 to congregate, stroll, wander, play or operate a motor vehicle in, about or upon any public park, public area, street, road, or highway from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m.

Call 845-831-7800.

Other selfish towns near me are:

• FREEDOM PLAINS — At 7 p.m., Halloween curfew
• NEWBURGH — The curfew will be in effect from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Thank God for New Paltz - That says get out in streets and have fun

Revelers haunt the night
Parade of 100 Pumpkins is highlight in New Paltz


By Alice Hunt
Poughkeepsie Journal



NEW PALTZ — Thousands of revelers — young and old alike — flooded Main Street to celebrate the macabre as part of the village's annual Halloween celebration.

The festivities, which included a parade, haunted house and pumpkin-carving contest, were held throughout the village.

Sara Lutz, 8, dressed as a "Fifties Girl," complete with a pink scarf around her ponytail and a poodle on the skirt.

Her favorite part of All Hallow's Eve?

"You get to trick or treat all over the neighborhood and get candy," she said.

She and her mother, Rose, have been coming to the parade for several years.

"I love to see everyone's costumes," Rose Lutz said.

Trailing behind a hearse, a band of children playing the "Addams Family" theme led the ghoulish procession down the parade's route.

Jacorra Webb, 8, danced down the street. Her dark hair was streaked with purple, and her velvety blood-red and black dress shone in the streetlights. She said she was dressed as a vampire.

"Because I like to suck blood!" Webb cried. But, she said reassuringly, she did not have her vampired teeth with her.

Some parade-goers stuck to tried-and-true costumes such as witches and ghosts. Others got creative.

A wedding cake and milk carton marched. A family dressed as the "The Wizard of Oz," cast, complete with the house that fell on the Wicked Witch of the East. A couple dressed as ketchup and mustard. Their dachshund masqueraded as, what else? A hot dog.

"Here, you get political costumes, funny costumes, scary costumes," said Sean Pellegrini, who dressed as a "zombie monk."

A 12-year New Paltz resident and employee at the Wayside Inn hostel, Pellegrini greeted children as they went to collect candy at the hostel's door.

"In New Paltz, people like to do their own thing," he said. "On this night, you can be who you want to be, not who you have to be."

Police agencies reported scattered vandalism throughout the Hudson Valley. Most said the events were "typical" Halloween crimes such as children and teens throwing eggs at houses and passersby.

New Paltz was among several local towns to install curfews for children in hopes of curbing delinquent activity.

The New Paltz curfew was 9:30 p.m., but broken eggs littering the sidewalk by 7 p.m. showed the "trick" had not completely left "trick or treat."

After marchers reached the New Paltz Fire Department on Plattekill Avenue, the group split to visit New Paltz's two major Halloween attractions: the haunted house run by Dan and Ann Guenther, and The Bakery's pumpkin-carving contest and celebration.

David Santner, owner of The Bakery, has invited the community to celebrate Halloween at his shop for 16 years.

While it began as a suggestion by his wife, a kindergarten teacher, the "Night of 100 Pumpkins" has come to include 150 entries in the carving contest and more than 1,000 visitors per year.

"We never thought it would get this big," Santner said.

Artists judge the pumpkins and hand out prizes. This year, about 60 prizes were donated by local businesses.

For Santner, it's the fun on people's faces that makes the night worthwhile.

"People tell me this makes New Paltz what it is," he said.

I have never heard of something like this! I wonder what the curfew is in response to: to prevent the unsupervised from getting into mischief, prevent something untoward form happening to the children, to just squash Halloween in the name of extreme political correctness or religion-related fundamentalism?

The town shouldn't deny a holiday (unless it's a family's choice, which is a different kettle of fish...) I can't imagine why the civic leaders would enact a curfew.

I am pleased to read, however, that many states have stepped up with their registered sex offender programs and put curfews on their known sex offenders. In Maryland the curfew went from 3pm on the 31st to 6am on the 1st, and no registered offender was allowed to decorate, turn the porch light on, or answer the door should someone knock.

I've read a couple of things lately in my paper that seems they are trying to get rid of halloween altogether. Miss Manners called it extortion in her sunday article, the area teachers are tired of having to deal with sugar rushed kids the next day and then claim they are exhausted from staying up all night toting even tho' it ends at 9 or before.

Do you suppose that's behind moving the end of Daylight Savings Time a week later from now on? One more nail in the coffin?

The question that always springs to my mind when I read about these towns is, "What are you doing about it"? Have you called and/or written the local politicians and made it clear that they won't be getting your vote next time, do you have a petition out there in the haunt for people to sign? I'd be raising a stink about it every chance I got.