This is something that you might expect to hear outside of a horror movie or perhaps an action movie, but certainly not outside a screening of Frozen 2. According to Jeremy Dick of MovieWeb a major scrum broke out during a screening of the Disney movie that managed to engage nearly 100 teenagers, during which a couple of them pulled out machetes and one reportedly had a knife. While it’s easy to see how bringing a weapon into this type of fight could be a very bad idea it’s also easy to see how two machetes could become a very serious problem that might make a lot of people feel that the teens were all waving around blades as though they were in a remake of The Raid. This time however there were only two of the aforementioned weapons, but that could have been more than enough had the fight been allowed to go on for an extended period of time. As it was a great number of people have likely been traumatized by this event and will likely need some time to get over it. The fact that it was done around small children is absolutely abhorrent since it indicates that the teens, to a one, had no better sense than to simply get into it for no better reason than to cause a bit of trouble.
Thankfully the police, y’know, those guys and gals in blue that so many people want to vilify these days, were quick on the scene and shut the fight down as quickly as they could in order to minimize any real injuries that might have occurred. Jon Haworth of ABC News has more on this subject. While it probably didn’t help the kids that were watching the cops weren’t as gentle as they could, and in truth this is probably for the best since the odds were still stacked against them given the numbers. Too many people fail to realize that when cops are called out they’re not coming out in force, there’s usually not a ratio of one to one when it comes to cops and perpetrators unless the scene is small and easily contained. In some cases too many cops seems like overkill and can be seen as a show of force. In other cases, such as this, the use of force is usually a little more justified if only to get the point across that despite being outnumbered the cops are the ones in control and will be dishing out the punishment if those involved in the fight are willing to fight back. The attempt to bring order to the mess was handled in a way that was professional thankfully and was done in a manner that some might have found disturbing but was still quite necessary in order to cool the situation down.
Apparently the machetes were brought in by a couple of teens in response to Blue Story, a BBC-backed movie that is about two friends that represent different gangs. After learning this the theater quickly pulled the movie from their screens and, as Toyin Owoseje of CNN has said, they have even gone so far as to defend their stance stating that the safety of the guests was of the utmost importance. Despite this the movie was back in theaters on Monday with ‘increased security protocols’ being instituted by the theater, which some might agree with and others might feel is kind of a weak stance to go from. Six of those fighting were arrested but it’s safe to say that the rest that were involved in the riot were at the very least apprehended and then released, or at least several of them were. The fact that this happened is something that is still a bit confusing as it seems to imply that moviegoers, some of them at least, are still under the impression that one can’t simply go to see a movie without causing some sort of trouble. The brawl does seem as though it might have been touched off by something else that we’re not getting wind of just yet, but it also feels as though society abroad, not just in the US, is in just as much of a flux as America might be. The fact that people are willing to fight over just about anything isn’t news, but the fact that many people seem to be walking powder kegs that need only a little heat to go off is a growing problem that continues to spark now and again.
It’s interesting enough to note that Frozen 2 only gets mentioned in this article since so many had come out to see the movie and were caught up in this mess, as the fight seemed to be more aligned with Blue Story if anything. But that’s the thing about drama, it doesn’t always have well-defined boundaries and can spill over without warning.
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