Trick-or-Treat

How’s this for a frightening law? Belleville is limiting trick-or-treating to kids in eighth grade and younger.

Happily for the Belleville teenagers, this doesn’t sound enforceable. Many eighth graders look as big and scary as college freshman. It’s hard to tell the difference between a 13-year-old and a 15-year-old when they’re in costume. Besides, the new ordinance makes an exception for teens who accompany younger siblings, so all a ninth grader has to do is team up with some eighth-grade friends and pretend to be a chaperone.

Still, the last thing any city needs is a bunch of redundant, unenforceable laws. Perhaps they’ll rethink the concept when they figure out that eighth graders don’t carry photo IDs.