Six flags america..racist
MandMandM3
incident there. Is there something I can do about this?
=====================================================
Lisa M. Behuncik, administration
Six Flags America
301-249-1500 ext. 3203
P.O. box 4210
Largo, Maryland 20775
I would like for it to go on record that on Saturday 6-12-99 there was a
problem with both your security force and your employees.
First there was a small incident at the train. The operator was talking with
his buddies and when asked if the train was operating, he told me no, then
continued to talk with his buddies. A few minutes later, the train was coming
around by the Batman Adventure, obviously running. Note that the employee and
the buddies were black.
The next incident was at the Bumper Cars, where a black boy "about" 16 cut in
line. My wife told him no, he cannot do that. It was a long line and we were
waiting patiently. He had to get back. This was after him and his friends were
picking on two white teenage boys also in line, calling them "GAY" and such
harassment. It was obvious they were punks looking for trouble and thought they
could get away with anything they wanted. My wife called him on cutting in
line, Then he got nasty and ignorant, and his friends got involved. One of his
friend said, " That's how people get shot."( a threat in its own right) As the
incident went on the one who started, stood up on the rail like he was going to
lunge on top of my wife. He climbed down then continued his insults and said, "
Don't turn this into a racial thing."
My wife did not say anything racial and did not think of it as such until he
said something. He started to take off his shirt and lunge at my wife, then one
of his buddies held him back and I got in between my wife and him. Then he
walked away and talked to the operator( also black), telling him something like
we did something wrong & racial and then when it was our turn to get on the
ride with our 4 year old son, he was not allowed on, which bumper cars is his
favorite ride. The "excuse" the ride operator used was that our son was too
small to get on. This is not true, as he has been on many times before and kids
smaller then him were allowed on.
My wife asked the ride operator to call security, which he SHOULD have done
from the start. When security arrived they met him out side the ride and
questioned him. The security was black and police officers. Around 8 officers,
one was white and he never even opened his mouth. Officer Daniels was very
ignorant and unprofessional. He made it sound like we started it. All he did
was tell the other guy to go to another part of the park. AFTER HE PHYSICALLY
THREATENED MY WIFE! He yelled at my wife to back down and that was his final
decision!! My wife pointed out that there are signs all over the park saying if
you cut in line, you get kicked out, so the person should at least have been
ejected for that. Officer Daniels justified him not getting ejected by saying
this guy did not cut in line because my wife made him go back. Come on now,
that is ridiculous! Officer Daniel acted like we did something wrong!! How
could we possibly feel safe after that? They were a group of 10-15 punks, we
are a married couple with our small son. My wife, who is diagnosed bi-polar
with panic attacks to begin with was so upset & crying. We went straight to the
office and asked what could be done. Still nothing was done. My wife was told
she could press charges, but we found out she could not even do that because
officer Robert Daniels did not even take this guys name or make a report! After
this man threatened and attacked my wife!! My wife and I had to leave the park
with our son, because it was not a safe environment. Even though it was a
verbal threat, a threat was made. We are season pass holders and now do not
even feel safe to return.
We feel this is a totally racial incident. The customers of Six flags
America are predominantly black. As are the employees and security. Until this
incident, we thought nothing of this. Now, though, it is plain to see why we
were treated so shabby. We are white. Plain and simple. If this was reverse,
and it was predominantly white and a black family was treated like this, all
hell would break loose and the NAACP would jump all over this. . Racism goes
both ways. Not even once during this incident did anyone involved with Six
flags even apologize for what had happened to my wife. Not once! And believe
me, at this point she was crying hysterically. Not even "WE ARE SORRY". We feel
that it is the responsibility of the park to make sure patrons are safe.
Especially after the one guy said the remark about getting shot. Who knows if
they had guns in their car.
Unfortunately, this came at a very bad time for my wife. She is as I mentioned
bi-polar and very fragile emotionally. She was hospitalized just the week
before because of a suicide attempt. This was supposed to be her new beginning
on new medications before she was to start an intense outpatient hospital
treatment on Tuesday. Now She is an emotional wreck and is afraid to even go in
case she is attacked. I will be in contact with her therapist Monday morning to
see what damage was caused by this.
This is a very serious problem for us and we intend to contact our lawyer and
the ACLU to go about getting something done about this. It is totally
unacceptable. We expect Six Flags to take some responsibility for this and do
something about this, even though it is too late to rectify the situation.
Sincerely,
Michael T. Simmons.
FORMER season pass holder.
SteelForce
I'm sorry you had such a frightening experience, generally you should "only"
notify the ride op or security and not confront any stranger about their
questionable behaviour.
Putting anyone "even your own" personal safety at risk for a simple rude teen
is wrong. Nothing is worth the damage your "confrontation" could have done to
your family. Indeed the other person "caused" the problem, but letting the
situation get as heated as it did is also wrong.
I hope you can again go to a park and enjoy yourselves, and I hope that you can
get away from black and white issues. The "whole" world is becoming a self
centered no holds barred place to live. There are times when you simply MUST
look the other way and thank God that "you" are honest, kind, and thoughtful.
I hope your family recovers from this sad occurance.
Sam A. Marks
PopKiller
advance
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New Weezer Album Due Out February 31st!
Corey
be ok.
Corey
"You are about to discover what lies beyond the fifth dimension, beyond
the deepest darkest corner of the imagination...in the Tower of Terror"
MandMandM3
>advance
>
>
'The following is a copy of a letter I wrote to six flags america involving an
upl...@my-deja.com
mandm...@aol.com (MandMandM3) wrote:
> The following is a copy of a letter I wrote to six flags america
involving an
> incident there. Is there something I can do about this?
> =====================================================
-snip-
We encounter the same sort of "environment" every time we go to
Astroworld. I think the solution is to dump the season passes. SFAW
is becoming a crime mecca.
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Share what you know. Learn what you don't.
upl...@my-deja.com
involving an
> incident there. Is there something I can do about this?
> =====================================================
-snip-
MktgMan1
happened. All I can recommend is that you go to a TRUE family theme park. Yes,
these are smaller and don't have the latest, greatest, tallest, or fastest
rides. But the big thing they don't have is teens and trouble-makers. Most big
parks have metal detectors and security searches of bags....that should be a
tip off as to what the park has encountered in the past.
Unrelated to this is your wife's health condition. You probably shouldn't have
taken her out to such a large, crowded public place. This doesn't justify the
behavior of the other guest and park personnel, but the likelyhood of an event
like you described is pretty high these days in popular, crowded environments.
SteelForce
>these are smaller and don't have the latest, greatest, tallest, or fastest
>rides. But the big thing they don't have is teens and trouble-makers. Most
>big
>parks have metal detectors and security searches of bags....
I'd feel safer in a park with metal detectors than without........there is
something comforting about knowing that the idiot next to me isn't armed. '
Some of the folks I see in the family parks can be just a frightening. My
point in an earlier post is, that the best defense at any park is to NOT
confront line jumpers but let the park take care of them. (even if the park
seems un-responsive) there's no need to endanger yourself to stop a simple line
jumper.
SAM
SAM
Screamscape
> In article <19990616153440...@ng65.aol.com>,
> mandm...@aol.com (MandMandM3) wrote:
> > The following is a copy of a letter I wrote to six flags america
> involving an
> > incident there. Is there something I can do about this?
> > =====================================================
>
> -snip-
>
> We encounter the same sort of "environment" every time we go to
> Astroworld. I think the solution is to dump the season passes. SFAW
> is becoming a crime mecca.
On a very POSITIVE NOTE... I witnessed a very similar transaction
at Six Flags MarineWorld... which also has a lot of african-american
employees. In this case it was a group of about 4 or 5 girls who were
cutting, smoking in line, cussing out and abusing the other guests in
line
who complained, etc...
As soon as we got up the steps and into the station of Roar, a female
ride
op was called over and in less than two minutes security was on-site and
took the entire group of troublemakers out of the ride and into a back
area
on the way to the front gate to be hence-forth kicked out of the park.
I was shocked, since I see people allowed to cut at Six Flags Magic
Mountain
all the time. Then in the news I heard about MarineWorld kicking another
kid
out of the park for burping in people's faces and being generally
obnoxious.
Two giant thumbs up for the park and the excellent and mostly
african-american
ride crew of SFMW's ROAR for handling that situation so effectively.
NOTE: I was not involved in any way other than as being another
"observer" in
the line who witnessed the entire events in question. But I was very
impressed
by the new park standards.
Now the ride ops on some of the other rides may need a little help in
loading
and dispatching their rides a little more quickly, such as Kong or
Boomerang.
They also seemed to be understaffed and weren't running Hammerhead &
Tasmanian Devil much to my dismay... but this was in Mid May.
Perhaps the management of Six Flags America, Astroworld, and Magic
Mountain
need to take notice of how well SFMW is handling these situations.
Bravo!!
Brenda
> Most big
> parks have metal detectors and security searches of bags....that should be a
> tip off as to what the park has encountered in the past.
Really? Never experienced this myself. I'm curious which parks have metal
detectors and security searches.
Brenda
Lee Gainer
not have been in a theme park, a place for excitement. This does not
excuse the behavior of the employees, but a lawsuit would be a waste
of tax money and the courts time.
To the husband, Use your energy to help your wife, write your local
BBB, and various state agencies, and then get on with it. Do not
spend your money with them again and tell your friends. They will not
go there either. She needs you now, not the lawyers...I wish you the
best of luck, Lee
On 17 Jun 1999 16:11:16 GMT, mktg...@aol.com (MktgMan1) wrote:
>As I work at a different, non-affliated park, I'm sorry but not surprised this
>happened. All I can recommend is that you go to a TRUE family theme park. Yes,
>these are smaller and don't have the latest, greatest, tallest, or fastest
>rides. But the big thing they don't have is teens and trouble-makers. Most big
>parks have metal detectors and security searches of bags....that should be a
>tip off as to what the park has encountered in the past.
>
Dave Christian
> MktgMan1 wrote:
>
> > Most big
> > parks have metal detectors and security searches of bags....that should be a
> > tip off as to what the park has encountered in the past.
>
> detectors and security searches.
>
> Brenda
I've NEVER encountered this.
--
Dave Christian
To email me, change my domain name to what's right.
You're smart, you figure it out.
Hawky98
> detectors and security searches.
Paramounts Kings Dominion and Six Flags America have them, as well as (I've
heard) Six Flags Great Adventure. I don't remember going through metal
detectors at Busch Gardens.
Monte Porche
> detectors and security searches.
Great America has them..
Monte
--
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"Soon we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi."
"Soon we will have our revenge."
(Darth Maul, a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away)
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SteelForce
>heard) Six Flags Great Adventure. I don't remember going through metal
>detectors at Busch Gardens.
Kennywood has them
Keety91063
Screamscape
are supposed to have them in for 1999...
SFMM just got a set as well this year.