When I go to the movie theater, I am often excited to see a great fight. Jaegers versus Kaiju? Bring it on. The Rock versus a giant flying wolf? You didn't even have to ask. The Avengers versus Thanos? Is that even a question? Everyone loves a great cinematic fight. But what I can guarantee was not a great fight is any brawl involving a bunch of teenagers. Yet that is exactly what some patrons at a movie theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin had to witness last week.
The incident took place at the Marcus Southgate Cinema in Milwaukee on March 27, and it ended with at least two teenage girls under arrest and police officers suffering minor injuries. The Milwaukee police officers were apparently injured while trying to break up the fight that reportedly involved at least three teenage girls, but possibly more. The mother of two of the girls arrested, Loyalty Dixon, told Fox6 News that she felt the children should have been ticketed, not arrested, and that her daughters suffered bruises during the arrest. According to one of Dixon's daughters, the fight started when another girl bumped into them in line, and the confrontation escalated into a fist fight when the other girl threw a punch. This was apparently a wild one too, as the fight started inside and eventually became an outdoor affair.
I wonder what percentage of fights in human history have begun with someone accidentally bumping in to someone else. It has to be high, right? This was while in line too, so these kids fought each other, got arrested and didn't even get to see the movie. That is not the best night. The mom is just defending her kids, of course, but it is pretty funny that she thought they should have all just gotten tickets. That's a bit of wishful thinking. Has that ever happened, ever? Also, hitting a cop is definitely not the best play and probably made this whole incident much worse, though I'm not surprised that the officers took a few licks while trying to break up a brawl like this.
This is no anomaly though. Movie theaters and malls are the prime battlegrounds for teenagers to get into fights. Public spaces can only contain so many inflated egos before they erupt. And there is no segment of the population simultaneously more prone to fighting and worse at it than teenagers. It's a good thing that the other people at the movie theater didn't have to pay to see this because I suspect it was quite terrible. Fortunately, it sounds like the fight took place either in line to get tickets or concessions, and not in the auditorium itself. A fight breaking out in the auditorium would have ruined the movie for people and probably escalated things, adding a few more contestants to the bout.
You can see how important it is to be silent in a movie theater when A Quiet Place hits theaters this Friday, April 6. For all the movies you hopefully won't get into fights at this year, check out our release schedule.
