{"id":30426,"date":"2025-10-29T17:27:53","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T21:27:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=30426"},"modified":"2025-10-29T17:27:54","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T21:27:54","slug":"parade-changes-vowed-after-raucous-affair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/29\/parade-changes-vowed-after-raucous-affair\/","title":{"rendered":"Parade changes vowed after raucous affair"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Decatur Police Chief Kevin Gerber called it a \u201cmind-boggling\u201d night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Decatur Mayor Dan Rickord adamantly vowed that \u201cchanges will be made.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both were referring to the city&#8217;s latest edition of the 100-plus-year-old Callithumpian Parade, which drew a huge crowd Monday night but at same time proved to be a raucous affair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"370\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Parade.jpg?resize=640%2C370&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-30427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Parade.jpg?w=785&amp;ssl=1 785w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Parade.jpg?resize=300%2C174&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Parade.jpg?resize=768%2C444&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Youngsters \u2013 and some teens and adults \u2013 were crowding toward the middle of the street in numerous downtown locations while the parade was going on. They were, of course, seeking candy from those in the parade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt was very disheartening to see adults not acting like adults in front of their children,\u201d the chief said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cChanges need to be made. There were a lot of close calls (children nearly being hit by a parade vehicle),\u201d the mayor added. \u201cChanges will be made.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rickord said he received numerous complaints from parade participants about children coming far off the sidewalk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s the adults (causing the problems), not the kids,\u201d another city official said during the discussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s all about the safety of the kids. A piece of candy is not worth an injury or a death \u2013 it&#8217;s just not,\u201d the mayor exclaimed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chief Gerber said some people leaving following the conclusion of the parade were going the wrong way in the new roundabout and ignoring orders from officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt was a mind-boggling night,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com Decatur Police Chief Kevin Gerber called it a \u201cmind-boggling\u201d night. Decatur Mayor Dan Rickord<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30427,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14,15,21],"class_list":["post-30426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-decatur","tag-featured","tag-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Parade.jpg?fit=785%2C454&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30426"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30428,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30426\/revisions\/30428"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}