Toward the end of the school year, Beacon City School kids could be seen at school’s dismissal running from the areas of the Beacon High School and Rombout Middle School through Memorial Park with water guns, shooting at each other. Variations of the game have extended to elementary school students at the Skate Park who gather there during parent baseball games, and shoot plastic pellets that resemble Orbeez (which never decompose) all over the blacktop.

The Beacon Police have issued a warning, or advice, or a manual, on how not to have the police called on them. ALBB has not confirmed who runs the police department’s Facebook page, but Chief Tom Figlia (formerly Lieutenant until this month’s promotion), is well known for his verbose writing skills.

As published by the Beacon Police

“The Beacon Police Department recently became aware of a High School Senior game which involves finding other players and shooting them with water guns in order to eliminate them from the game. We’re not kidding ourselves into thinking that many high school seniors are spending a lot of time on our Facebook Page, but on the off chance that some might see this, we would like to offer a couple of suggestions for avoiding police contact while playing the game, because everyone knows that most of the time, the fun ends when the cops show up. This list isn’t all inclusive, so use your head but…”

1. Keep the game out of the road.
”Creating dangerous situations by running into the road or, worse yet, involving moving cars may create a situation where people get injured or where officers have no choice but to issue tickets or make arrests.”

2. Use water guns that don’t look anything like real guns.
”When people see someone running around with what might be a real gun, they usually call the police and tell us someone is running around with a gun. When that happens, we have to respond as if someone is running around with a gun until we know otherwise. We’re sure you can see why that’s a problem.”

ALBB Editor’s Note: The Beacon Police have recently proven themselves to take down people with threats of guns, as in the case of the Sunday Morning “He’s Got A Gun” Police call, when a person relaxing with his dog near a doughnut shop didn’t like when another man went to pet his dog, told the man such, and then the man threatened to shoot him. The Police later identified the threat-making man, who is a known person in Beacon to make such aggressive comments, and indeed, was taken down with two Use Of Force techniques: a rifle and a hand to the neck. Participating Officer Sirrine, however, said he had never seen the man before.

Additionally, you’ll remember Tamir Rice, the child who was playing with a toy gun and was shot and killed by a police officer in Cleveland, OH. “On November 22, 2014, Tamir Rice was throwing snowballs and playing with a toy pellet gun in a Cleveland park when a police car rolled into the snowy field. Within two seconds of getting out of his squad car, officer Timothy Loehmann shot and killed the 12-year-old.” That officer was fired 2.5 years later, with no criminal charges, as reported by Vox.

3. Stay off of the property of non-participants.
”When people see someone, they don’t know lurking around their property, they tend to get concerned and call the police.”

4. Again, use your head.
”If you’re doing something that makes it look more like you’re a murderer than a high school kid playing a prank, someone is probably going to call the police.”