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Story by Melanie Heimburg

Maybe it’s my inner child that naively wishes for utopian harmony among people, but I always find myself amazed when a few jack-assed jerks manage to taint what could be a congenial social event.

According to SFgate.com, 10 people were shot during Castro’s Halloween celebration. I’ve heard and read rumors of reason ranging from gay bashing to gang violence and the number of injured people go from three to 10. In any case, the unnecessary shooting seems to have left everyone in a gloomy state of paralysis - which I believe has become a unifying mood lately. Just take a look at our living environment and add up recent trends that are out of our control: terrorism, AIDS, rising debt…. A shooting during the middle of massive celebration seems more sad than shocking.

Interestingly, city officials and the SFPD made an effort hike up security and stop the party early to prevent violence, which supposedly began in 2002. An officer I briefly chatted with voiced his obvious doubt about stopping the party early and despite the increased number of fellow officers, he didn’t seem convinced that Halloween 2006 would end without a glitch.

Simply seeing five or six cops at every corner did make me feel safer, but logic told me trouble would brew in the middle of the crowds, not on the sidewalks by the police. I guess heightened security meant stationing people in official uniforms at the party’s outskirts and not checking civilians for weapons. Sure, it’d be impossible and ridiculously time consuming to frisk each person upon entry, but my money’s on the fact that the effort would have done more good than harm.

Luckily, my friends and I managed to make it down to Castro - frisk-free – by about 8:30-ish. Instead of roaming the streets with the thousands of happily costumed partiers, our small group - dressed as Dalmatians and Eurotrash - simply indulged in pizza and beer in the safety and warmth of a market street restaurant. We spent more time trying to get home due to blocked off and overly crowded Muni stations than we did at the party, which I found ironic considering officials actually wanted people to leave early.

In fact, before getting word of the shooting while riding MUNI home, the most disturbingly horrible thing I saw was a baby. A couple, apparently both unable to secure a baby sitter and incapable of not attending the Castro party, decided to bring their 3-month-old to the streets, where random inebriates touched it to decided whether it was real. Seriously.

Wednesday morning at SF State yielded students talking about the violence instead of fun. And that leaves me saddened, wondering what is to become of my favorite holiday and San Francisco’s annual rite of Halloween partying passage.