BRIGHTON LUNACY

The following tale comes from UK Steve…

LONDON (AFP) - A police force is to put more officers on the streets during full moons because they believe the lunar cycle may be linked to violent behaviour, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. Sussex Police have found that drinkers in the seaside city of Brighton and Hove are particularly aggressive during full moons, despite mixed findings from researchers who have examined the issue previously. "I compared a graph of full moons and a graph of last year's violent crimes and there is a trend," Inspector Andy Parr told the Brighton Argus newspaper. "People tend to be more aggressive generally. I would be interested in approaching the universities and seeing if any of their post-graduates would be interested in looking into it further. This could be helpful to us."

This crime-at-full-moon has been an urban law-enforcement legend for as long as I can remember – kinda like the one that claims domestic violence peaks at 89F – but I never heard it officially acted upon before. Also I grew up in Brighton, during the Mods and Rockers wars, when – forget the moon – a careless discussion of the relative and contrasting merits of Jerry Lee Lewis and The Who could trigger a bloody battle with rocks, bottles, and lengths of primary chain.