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| Decatur, Ala. | Wednesday, May 22, 2013 |
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3/14/13
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3621 views
Rowdy first weekend
New Carmike theater sees unruly, disruptive crowds; police on site
The new Carmike 12 movie theater at Decatur Mall is looking to improve security after unruly crowds disrupted screenings during its opening weekend.
The long-anticipated theater apparently didn’t even make it through opening night without incident.
Decatur police officers spoke with a 23-year-old man at Decatur Morgan Hospital Decatur General Campus’ emergency room Friday who claimed to have been injured in a fight at the theater the previous night.
The man’s right eye was swollen shut, his left eye was bruised, and he had small lacerations on the back of his head, police spokesman Lt. John Crouch said.
Capt. Nadis Carlisle and officer Wesley Swoopes were working off-duty as security at the mall Saturday night when disturbances caused them to halt two shows after 9 p.m.
“We asked the manager to stop the movie so we could talk to everybody and ask them to behave themselves or we would remove them and they wouldn’t get a refund,” Carlisle said.
Carlisle said two teens were removed from the theater, but “we gave out plenty of warnings.”
One moviegoer, Grace Anne Clardy, 13, of Hartselle, said her attempt to watch “Dark Skies” with friends was disrupted by another group of teens.
“When it started, they just wouldn’t be quiet, and then they would stand up and start hitting each other and cussing at each other — but not quietly, very loud,” Clardy said.
She said the lights went up about a third of the way through the movie and officers came in to restore order.
“Before the cops came in, I felt a little scared,” she said. “It was just me and eight of my friends and the movie theater was pretty much full. It was a little intimidating, but then the cops came, and it got better.”
Clardy said Carmike workers stayed in the theater for the rest of the movie and officers checked in repeatedly, but the trouble continued after the show.
“At the end of the movie, they threw cups and popcorn at the screen and all over the floor. There was a little bit of a fight,” she said.
Clardy said her impression of the new theater as “very nice” was clouded by the antics of other moviegoers.
“It was a really good improvement from our last theater,” she said. “It just wasn’t a very good experience because of what happened.
“I might go back, but I won’t be going that late, and I probably won’t be going without an adult again.”
Officers also interrupted a showing of “The Last Exorcism Part II,” Carlisle said.
Both movies are rated PG-13.
“We at the Police Department recognize the need to help the Decatur Mall prosper, and the cinema is going to go a long way toward doing that,” Carlisle said. “But one thing we’re going to have to come to grips with is the number of unsupervised teenagers.”
Carlisle said he anticipates increased police presence around the theater. “Officers were coming by all weekend and checking on things,” he said.
This week, Carmike put word out that the theater would like to hire two off-duty officers to work 8 to midnight Saturdays.
A call to the theater was not returned Wednesday.
The mall arranged to have additional security before opening in anticipation of large crowds, Decatur Mall General Manager Kathy Hammond said.
“With any new business opening, there’s going to be kinks to work out,” Hammond said. “We were prepared with the extra security on site. But overall, I think it was a great weekend for the movie theater and mall because we had so much more foot traffic through here.”
Huge crowds queued outside the theater entrance inside the mall, where shops were closed by the time of the late shows.
Carlisle said the waiting moviegoers — mostly teens — didn’t cause real problems, such as vandalism or fights, but did create a noise problem simply by talking.
“It was just so loud — a roar,” he said. “There’s nothing you can do about the acoustics, but … there were so many folks waiting to get into the movie theater, they couldn’t let them all in.”
Seth Burkett can be reached at 256-340-2446 or sburkett@decaturdaily.com.
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Welcome to the New Decatur, folks!
These are the same kids we get to teach. Yay. Great parental guidance. It's the movie theaters fault!
Sad that an evening was interuppted because of the ignorance of a few. This will spread & decent people will stay away. Loud talking how about food being thrown around so the begining of a new theater that the people wanted will be just as nasty as the old one. NOT the theaters fault but the moviegoers.
DPD crack down now ! Give some of these little punks a free ride to juvie in Tuscumbia !!
Looks like decent folk will still have to go to Huntsville or Athens to watch a movie in peace! Maybe we need a tazer to shut the unruly kids up!
Well, we tried but back to Monoco we go. That nice of a theatre looked so out of place at the out dated mall. Not once since we started going to Huntsville movie theaters have we ever seen such disrespect by the young people. And you wonder why so many good people are getting out of this carnival town.
This is why I drive to Cullman to watch movies.
The kids who were acting up should have been thrown out when they first started acting up. It should have been nipped in the bud. As for kids acting up at school -- maybe things would improve if they were thrown out of school and their PARENTS held accountable. It is unfair to both the teachers and the students who want to learn that they have to tolerate this behavior at school, because the administration cares only about counting bodies in desks (i.e., maximum state and federal funding per student, based upon average daily attendance). Back when I was in school, the only "alternative" school was the D-Home or Mt. Meigs.
I'll still stay at home with my popcorn and soda and watch the movies in my comfortable recliner chair. Ah, how sweet it is.
Jackson, then you must not have been there on the four times I have seen them clear out a theatre at the Monoco, then have people go back in one by one so they can take out the kids acting up, or the time they had to clear out the lobby because of the fight. It happens in Huntsville also.
If this happens and I am at the movies I will get up and go grab a cop.
I think it may be time to move. 22 years I have lived here, but it has never been this bad.
The lawyers are rubbing their hands and leering greedily!!! Unruly teenagers are truly a lawyer's dream come true! Both their victims AND their parents will get involved in legal issues!!! The kid gets a defense team, his parents get a lawsuit team, the business gets a lawsuit-defense team. Everybody wins!!! Except the real victims. If we don't get an effective system of government REAL SOON, we are doomed as a society!!!
Decatur thugs that have taken our town over and our peaceful neighborhoods are no longer peaceful or quiet thanks to all the uneducated wanna be thug / trash that has proliferated in our once nice quiet little town . Over run with entitlement folk
What should have happend was a dishing out of a good ole a$$ kicking. Leave 2 or 3 of these punks in the floor doubled over and they may think twice about it next time. I bet you could find many of the other movie goers to testify they did not see you do a thing to them.
The movie theater up here in Athens is very nice and is only $5 to $8 bucks.
What is interesting about it is the kids were not even from Decatur.......
George.....how do you know where the kids were from?
plot twist: because he was one of them!
Arrest them. Post bail @ $100.00!!!!!! Let them out so they can do it again next week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Folks, they DID deal with it. Give the theatre a chance. Thugs were going to come in and try to establish rule, and the theatre and police have run them off and established that their behavior will not be tolerated.
Theatre management needs to stay firm on this. They WILL make it a good, peaceful place to watch a movie.
Most of these comments make my eyes roll. These are the same problems that ALL public places face. There is nothing about Decatur that 'creates' such an environment. People here are the same as they are everywhere. It is ridiculous and ignorant to make such statements. The theater will be a great asset to the community and they are working to make sure these incidents don't happen again.
What a pathetic show of community solidarity. So there was a fight, so a few teenagers caused a scene? If you people are so distraught at the prospect of your city being "taken over" by thugs, then why are you so quick to abandon it? This theater was a brave investment in a community struggling with sever economic decline and social problems. It is an attempt to breath new life into a town that desperately needs to compete with other cities in North Alabama for industry and business. You can't sit back complain about the lack of quality entertainment or the state of your community if you are unwilling to work for it, to fight for it. That means supporting local business and having a positive attitude, that means not giving up immediately when faced with a challenge. Quitting because a problem is difficult is the very reason Decatur is in the situation it's in now. How about pulling together, how about overcoming obstacles that hinder progress to build a better city? "The schools are in bad shape, lets just bus our kids to a different school." "The city is struggling economically and the sales tax is too high, lets just spend money elsewhere instead of working to get it lowered." A defeatist attitude, not surprisingly, tends to lead to defeat. So if you don't care enough, or you're too lazy to be part of the solution, then shut up about the problem.
How are you part of the solution Kenneth? Are you leading the repeal the sales tax movement?
Kenneth,
Shut up.
Excellent post, Kenneth! I wish more people around here had your attitude, including myself.
Kenneth . . . what are YOU doing to resolve the problem? Or is your role in this to point out everyone else's faults? You posted a nice essay above but yet you offered not a single suggestion for resolution.
Thank you Daryn. I realize that first impressions are important, but give me a break. The theater expected some commotion and prepared accordingly. So, it was a bit more than they anticipated and some folks had a bad experience. It happens at the Carmike, the Monaco, and any other establishment that is open to the public. But, there is usually a silver lining with these type incidents and this is no exception. Now, the rowdy folks will be better controlled and the haughty folks will stay away!
Why did everryone get mad at Kenneth?? Because he's right? Or because you all do not know him personally to know whether he is doing anything himself or not? Does it reall matter if he is? HE IS RIGHT. Not saying that I am doing anything for Decatur right now either, however, I am deployed in the Army overseas right now and I will be coming home soon. I will be out of the military and ready to start my life, this article is not what I want to come home to. We do need to stand up as a People. Our nation was founded on the people doing the very same thing. One of the greatest Americans said "If there is something wrong, those who have the ability, have the responsibility to take action"-Thomas Jefferson.
Hes not wrong... Neither is Kenneth. We, who sit back and do nothing, are. I am sure if Kenneth isn't doing anything yet, he wrote that statement with the same intent of stating that he is going to start making a change himself.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I vow, when I return to Decatur I will stand against this and make a change.
The kids that caused trouble should have been made to sit thru the movie with adult supervision and then cleaned up the mess they made. The adults should be their parents because they need to know how their kids act if they didn't already know.
Or they should sit in the lobby with security and when the movie is over apologize to every person coming out of the movie for causing a disruption and then made to clean the theatre