Amusement parks are supposed to be fun places where families and friends can gather, ride some rides, eat some food on a stick, and get a sunburn.
That is unless you are at Six Flags Great American in Illinois. Apparently the main attraction there are the fisticuffs and wild teenagers terrorizing people and injuring cops in the parking lot. I don’t think I’m waiting in line for that ride.
Monday night, at the park on the outskirts of Gurnee, Illinois, a massive fight broke out, resulting in k9 units and backup from other departments. As police attempted to disperse the unruly mob, the fight spilled out into the parking lot, resulting in officers being injured and 6 teens being arrested.
The fight began between two groups and spread into the amusement park’s parking lot, witnesses said.
Police tried to break up the fight but failed, with one Gurnee police officer deploying pepper spray at the people who were being disruptive.
Four Gurnee police officers received minor injuries while trying to break up the fight.
Violent Illinois Six Flags brawl results in cops hurt, teens arrested https://t.co/A0ijfaveb2 pic.twitter.com/HkEvG4I25S
— New York Post (@nypost) May 31, 2023
It is a recurring theme across America; large groups of teenagers congregating and invariably almost always causing trouble. Numerous places, including shopping malls, Chik-fil-A, some beaches and now amusement parks have either had trouble, or have outright banned unaccompanied teenagers altogether in an attempt to curb the nonsense.
Still, brawls like this are taking place. The cause of the fight is unknown, but considering there were teens from Illinois and Indiana arrested, you can draw your own conclusion about the motivation. Perhaps a good, old fashioned turf war?
As the fighting continued, more law enforcement agencies were brought to the scene with some K9 units.
In total, six teenagers from Illinois and Indiana were arrested.
The teens arrested range in age from 14 to 18.
Three of the individuals arrested by police were also taken to a local hospital and released the same night.
Many amusement parks such as Kings Island in Mason, Ohio regularly host after dark events geared towards teens. Every Halloween, Kings Island hosts the ‘Halloween Haunt” where large groups of teens routinely run out of control and cause general unrest.
Part of the issue is the lack of, or unwillingness to employ more security to keep the kids under control. When you have hundreds of hormone driven teenagers, or more as often is the case, then invariably something bad is going to happen.
Many larger places like amusement parks at least have metal detectors, but public parks and beaches like those in Chicago and Miami that have been overrun often end in gunfire.
It isn’t enough that the inner cities are war zones. A person should be able to take their family to a park, beach or water park without having to worry about getting shot.
This also isn’t a gun issue. It is a parenting issue. Parents should not be dropping their kids off at large events for hours at a time. Kids, when left to their own devices are hard-wired to make bad decisions. We are seeing this over and over, and gun control isn’t going to fix the problem, but parental control might.
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