A century ago, Halloween in 1925 had been “from a police standpoint … the quietest in years,” the Berkeley Daily Gazette reported Nov. 2, 1925. “Mischief’ included soaping store windows (including “almost every downtown store”), turning off electricity to homes from the outdoor panels and “doorbells being rung” with the perpetrator then running away. The whole Berkeley police force had been on duty during the nighttime hours.

“Police kept youngsters moving mostly towards their own homes,” according to the Gazette.

In North Oakland, “annoyed by boys playing harmless Hallowe’en pranks on Chabot Road” by “rolling tin cans on the porch of a house … an irate citizen fired into a crowd of boys.” He was apparently using a 22-caliber rifle, “grazed” a 13-year-old in the chest and shot a 14-year-

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