iStock/Chalabala(LOS ANGELES) — As if residents of Crowley, LA didn’t have enough to worry about — with the COVID-19 pandemic situation and all — they got an extra dose of anxiety Sunday night, when the local cops blared the siren from the Purge movies to signal a coronavirus curfew was beginning.
For the uninitiated, The Purge movies imagined an America in which every crime — including murder — is legal for one night only, and the signal to start your crime spree happens to be the same siren that cops played throughout the town in real life.
Jimmy Broussard, the city’s police chief, apologized to the public. He told local ABC affiliate KATC-TV that he didn’t know the siren was used in the movies and said they won’t be using a siren going forward.
“Last night a ‘Purge Siren’ was utilized by the Crowley Police Department as part of their starting curfew. We have received numerous complaints with the belief that our agency was involved in this process,” Acadia Parish Sheriff K.P. Gibson said in a statement to the news station.
“We were not involved in the use of the ‘Purge Siren’ and will not utilize any type of siren for this purpose.”
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