[WonderNine]

Pair Arrested At Theater

POSTED: 6:47 am EDT July 27, 2004
UPDATED: 6:50 am EDT July 27, 2004


ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- A college student who took a cell phone call from her mother in a movie theater was pepper sprayed by an officer and charged with disorderly conduct, along with her boyfriend.

Warronnica Harris, 23, was at the Muvico theater at BayWalk Saturday night, watching the opening credits to Catwoman when her cell phone rang.

"It was my mom calling me," Harris said. "It was a family emergency."

Harris said she spoke so quietly that her mother couldn't hear her. Then Officer John Douglas shone a flashlight in her eyes.

He asked Harris and her boyfriend, Terrell "KC" Tolson, 25, to leave. He pushed Harris in the hallway, then pepper sprayed both of them in the lobby, the couple said. Neither Harris nor Tolson has a criminal record.

Police denied their account, saying Harris refused to end her cell phone conversation, yelled at the Douglas and refused to leave the theater. Her boyfriend also refused to leave and threatened the officer, police said.

Witnesses said the pair did nothing wrong.

Marcia Gray, a 49-year-old Tampa accountant, was in the lobby when the couple were pepper sprayed.

"The man turned and asked the officer why he was making them leave and the cop just maced him in the face," Gray said. "They weren't yelling or touching him. The man bent over and the girl asked why he maced her boyfriend. Then the cop maced her, and she dropped her soda."

http://www.local6.com/news/3581522/detail.html



What the hell is going on in this country???????? :cuss:

[mattf7184]

If a cop tried to unjustly pepper spray me he or she is gunna have some trouble... :fire: :uhoh:

I could see anyone asking her to step out of the movie, but to pepper spray her that blatantly? Either we arent hearing everything or he needs to be thrown off the police unit. And a witness said what the "victims" also claim. :confused: :scrutiny:

[Wildalaska]

What the hell is going on in this country????????

People have lost the capacity for critical thinking and ergo, they beleive everything the press writes as long as it fits their own personal weltanshauung

WildyouaskedAlaska

[joab]

This reminds me of the cop, shown on a cop show, believing that a cashier at a Wendy's had short changed him tried to arrest her and maced her when she tried to call her mother. She didn't short change him and was awarded 60k in damages. Sherriff John Bunnell still would not admit that the officer was wrong

Some have not seen the "I'm better than you" attitude that nore and more cops are assuming but it is there and getting more frequent.

[Justin]

Wow.

This is awesome. If only more people were empowered to pepperspray jack-jawing morons in movie theaters.


But then again, I despise rudeness in a movie theater.


</But I also happen to think that they should invent candy packaging that doesn't make that annoying "CRINKLE" sound too.>

[Steve in PA]

And the point behind the posting of this article is........??????

THR has become a national clearing board for anything involving LEOs??

[WonderNine]

And the point behind the posting of this article is........??????

THR has become a national clearing board for anything involving LEOs??

This is the legal & political forum. You're certainly entitled to post your comments as I am. :rolleyes:

[Warren]

</But I also happen to think that they should invent candy packaging that doesn't make that annoying "CRINKLE" sound too.>

I happen to like that sound and thinks it goes great in a movie theatre. Just like the sound of popcorn being moved around and sodas being slurped.

There have been times I've nearly done violence to an idiot talker. But these situations took a lot longer to develop than what this sounds like.

[Wildalaska]

THR has become a national clearing board for anything involving LEOs??

Naw its america ya gotta let the Reynolds wrappers vent after all if its published at The Big Bad Conspiracy Website (www.infowars.com) its got to be true.

WildimsogladicangothroughlifehappilyAlaska

[WonderNine]

Naw its america ya gotta let the Reynolds wrappers vent after all if its published at The Big Bad Conspiracy Website its got to be true.

WildimsogladicangothroughlifehappilyAlaska

Actually, it came from your favorite news source, The Drudge Report (http://www.drudgereport.com/) :)

[gunsmith]

take your "emergengy" phone calls to the lobby.

:rolleyes:

[Subliminal One]

Sounds like two black folks too. There's gonna be some fireworks if the officer was white.

On another note. The world doesn't stop just cuz you have a personal emergency. The appropriate thing to do was to put the phone on silent, walk out of the theatre or atleast to the aisle on one side of the room and then take your darn phone call. Or dial the number back since apparently the phone had caller ID if she knew it was her mom. Pompous moron.

[trapperjohn]

On another note. The world doesn't stop just cuz you have a personal emergency. The appropriate thing to do was to put the phone on silent, walk out of the theatre or atleast to the aisle on one side of the room and then take your darn phone call. Or dial the number back since apparently the phone had caller ID if she knew it was her mom. Pompous moron

I agree completely. BUT does it justify getting pepper sprayed by an LEO?
In addition she was already in the lobby when she got the spray.

I know we dont have all the info, but the fact witness say she didnt do anything wrong doesnt look good for the LEO

[GSB]

Warronnica Harris, 23, was at the Muvico theater at BayWalk Saturday night, watching the opening credits to Catwoman when her cell phone rang.

The real question is, would the officer have been justified in macing the director of "Catwoman"?

[hillbilly]

I have largely quit going to movie theaters precisely because of idiots with cell phones.


In the past, I have fought urges to snatch the cell phone away from an idiot and beat him to death with it.


Good Lord, I would personally love to pepper spray some moron who had a phone ring in a movie that I shelled out $7 to see.

Only, I would first gag them so their screams of pain wouldn't further annoy me as I tried to watch the movie.

If you have a personal situation so serious that you need to always carry a phone with you, then you have a personal situation you should be somewhere attending to, not at a movie.

hillbilly

[ID_shooting]

"If you have a personal situation so serious that you need to always carry a phone with you, then you have a personal situation you should be somewhere attending to, not at a movie."

So I we hire a sitter to stay home with our daughter I should not take my cell phone with me?

[hillbilly]

Oh yeah....here's a follow-up article on the "innocent" pair who did "nothing" to justify being maced by that evil, arrogant cop.



http://www.sptimes.com/2004/07/28/Southpinellas/Police__Belligerence_.shtml



Police: Belligerence led to couple's arrest


An off-duty officer's version of the cell phone incident in a movie theater differs from that of the pair.
By TOM ZUCCO, Times Staff Writer
Published July 28, 2004
------------------------------------------------------------------------


ST. PETERSBURG - The couple arrested Saturday at the Muvico theater at BayWalk repeatedly refused to end a cell phone call, used profanity toward an off-duty police officer and physically threatened him, St. Petersburg police say.

A police report released Tuesday sharply contradicts the accounts of Warronnica Harris and Terrell "KC" Tolson, as well as two witnesses, who claim Officer John Douglas acted without provocation when he used pepper spray to subdue the couple in the hallway of the theater.

Harris and Tolson were later charged with disorderly conduct.

The report, written by Douglas, says he was working off-duty in the BayWalk plaza when an unidentified woman complained about someone using a laser pointer in the theater.

Douglas, 41, entered the theater, saw people talking on cell phones and asked them to turn them off. Among the people he saw was Harris.

"She (Harris) said she could talk as much as she wanted on her phone," the report said. Douglas again asked Harris to stop, and again she refused.

Douglas told Harris to leave and that he would get their money back.

The couple got up, but Tolson "started to yell at the audience," the report reads. "He (Tolson) also started to yell at me. ... He stated ... I needed to keep my hands off him. That he would not go to jail because he would beat my a--."

As Douglas was escorting the couple into the hallway, Harris and Tolson "were yelling the entire time. (Tolson) kept escalating the situation."

When Tolson came at Douglas with a clenched fist, the officer wrote, he used his pepper spray. "Then (Harris) said she was going to "hit this cracker upside his head', and she swung her drink at my head."

Douglas said he then used his pepper spray on Harris.

Ray Weil, named as a witness in the report, was working as an usher in the theater that night. He entered the hallway just as Douglas, Harris and Tolson were walking by.

"As the cop was trying to get the guy to calm down," Weil, 20, told the Times, "the woman hit the officer in the back of the head with the soda. Then he (Douglas) maced her."

Two women, including one who knew Tolson, said Monday they agreed with the story presented by Harris and Tolson.

Harris and Tolson, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday, said Monday that Harris' cell phone conversation ended before Douglas arrived, that Douglas pushed Harris, and that they made no threatening remarks to Douglas before he used pepper spray.

Harris, 23, has no adult criminal record.

But Tolson, 25, was convicted of petty theft and resisting arrest in Hillsborough County in 1999, both misdemeanors.

He also has a juvenile record that includes convictions for assault on a school employee in 1996, and grand theft and battery on a law enforcement officer in 1995.

Douglas, a 14-year veteran of the police department, has no formal disciplinary actions in his personnel file.

Douglas declined comment Tuesday.

Police spokesman Bill Proffitt, who could not be reached for comment on Monday, said Tuesday that the matter now rests with the State Attorney's Office.

"We (the Police Department) were halfway expecting a complaint to be made. And there is potential a complaint may be made. But no complaint has been made."

[hillbilly]

ID_Shooting...

Are you saying that you absolutely cannot leave the cell phone in the car for the two hours or so that a movie lasts, and that you absolutely have to be constantly cell-phone tethered at all moments, including the two hours that a movie lasts?

You know, people were hiring sitters and going to the movies for a long time before cell phones ever showed up.

And most of us who were children in the pre-cell phone era seem to have survived it somehow.

I don't know anything about you or your family.

If your daughter has some sort of medical condition (which I hope she doesn't) that makes it dangerous for you to leave the house even long enough to enjoy a movie, then I'd say yes, you probably need to be with your daughter and not at a movie.

But if your daughter is otherwise healthy (which I hope she is) then I would wonder why you must be cell-phone tethered at all times, including the two hours or so it takes to watch a movie.

What if some sort of "emergency" happens at home anyway?

If it's truly serious enough to require you to actually flee from the theater, you will probably arrive at home slightly behind the ambulance and the fire truck and the SWAT team and the FBI HRT guys and the local news trucks and CNN, and everyone else. You won't be allowed on the scene by the pros until after the situation is over.

Maybe I'm just a heartless bastard, but no, I see no reason why any customer legitimately needs to take a cell phone into a movie theater.

If you can't be untethered for just two hours, your life is too busy and you have more important things to attend to than merely watching a movie.

Again, I think if you really, truly, legitimately "need" to be cell-phone tethered to someone else even for a two-hour movie, then that person is in such bad shape that you probably need to be with him or her and not at the movies.

hillbilly

[goalie]

Sounds like a good spray to me. :D

Once again, we see that the media in the orifinal story quote the one witness they could find that has a version of "did nothing wrong" that is not quite the same as what my definition would be.

[GSB]

Hillbilly, if people would just get cell phones with vibrate functions and leave the theater when they get a call, it wouldn't even be an issue if they had them in the theater.

Heck, I was on call this weekend and went to the movies. However, I am a courteous patron and kept my pager on vibrate so as not to disturb anyone else if I got paged (a shame that could not be said of the senior-citizen couple behind me who insisted on maintaining a steady conversation for the duration of the film, finally forcing me to move before I made unkind comments to my elders).

[FPrice]

"When Tolson came at Douglas with a clenched fist, the officer wrote, he used his pepper spray. "Then (Harris) said she was going to "hit this cracker upside his head', and she swung her drink at my head.""

Sounds like a "hate crime" to me.

In the immortal words of Steve McGarrett, "Spray 'em, Dano.".

[FPrice]

"So I we hire a sitter to stay home with our daughter I should not take my cell phone with me?"

You can take your cellphone anywhere you like. But you should have the decency, smarts, and common courtesy NOT to bother everyone else in the world with your personal life.

That's the editorial you, not the personal you.

That's about as calmly as I can say it.

[outfieldjack]

Now that the WHOLE story is out.... I'm with the LEO on this one....

[ojibweindian]

LEO did good on this one. The "victims" were the ones who chose to escalate to the point where OC was necessitated.

[srschick]

Hmmmm......
Who to believe.
A couple in a theater talking on a cell phone, One with priors?
Or the off duty with little or no complaints in 14 years?

The one time I had to take a cell call during a movie (was on call network tech) I immediatly took it out of the theater. NOT to avoid disrupting the other viewers, but just to be able to hear the person calling.
Movies are so loud these days, no wonder these inconsiderate idiots have to yell at thier phones. (doesn't make it right, tho')

[Tall Man]

So if we hire a sitter to stay home with our daughter I should not take my cell phone with me?
Your rights and privileges end at my nose (and ears, when I pay $7.00 to listen only to the movie's soundtrack). Please use your cell phone with appropriate discretion.

Hillbilly got it exactly right.

TM

[Sportcat]

Don't show up to a pepper spray fight with a soda!

I'm with the LEO on this one.

[nero45acp]

From all accounts the sprayings/arrests was justified.

I live 10 miles away from that theater. I've went there twice since it opened, both times there were loud, obnoxious punks in the theater. I won't be back a third time.



nero

[0007]

Yep, the critical question here is how DID we all survive BCP(before cell phones)? I was told I had to have a cell phone when I took this job, so I have one and it resides in my briefcase 24/7 set on vibrate mode... Which is where yours should be set if you are sitting in a theatre; unless you are inclined to prove to the world that your parents raised a mannerless child...
:rolleyes: :D :D

And for what it is worth, the St. Pete. Times is a PC socialist rag that would be the first in line to burn the officer if there was any way possible to do so. :barf:

[Ransom]

Who to believe.
A couple in a theater talking on a cell phone, One with priors?
Or the off duty with little or no complaints in 14 years?

I'd believe the witnesses who had nothing to do with it. If this guy did something wrong I doubt he'd say so in the report.

[Gunsnrovers]

Quick question. Is it illegal to use a cell phone in a theater? I know it's not polite and I turn mine off as soon as the lights dim for the feature, but is it illegal?

[Sportcat]

Probably not illegal, but the theater is a private business that can set its own rules.

[Coronach]

The issue is not cell phones. Here is what seems to have happened:

1. Officer (employed as security by the establishment), walks into the theater and sees suspects behaving in disruptive manner. It does not matter that their activites are not illegal, because he is not arresting them...he is merely acting as security for the establishment. Private property rights, remember that? The movie theater has a right to decide if people can or cannot use cell phones on premises.

2. Cop asks them to stop.

3. They say no.

4. Cop, who is employed as security by the business, requests that they leave. Again, business invoking its right to decide who is allowed in or on their private property.

5. Suspects start to leave, then (apparently) attempt to assault officer.

6. Mace!

As always, I'm basing this on the news report, so who knows...but this seems to make sense to me.

Mike

[Gunsnrovers]

Just wondering why an off duty cop was representing the theater and if he identified himself as an officer.

When I was working retail (back in college), we used to trespass customers we didn't want to in the store. Took their photo, told them if they returned we would call the cops, and kept the pics at the front register for all employees to see.

I'm not clear from the story if he was working off duty as mall security or if he was off duty in street cloths.

If he was joe moviegoer, I don't like it. If he was mall cop man, sounds fine to me.

[Coronach]

Again, thisis one of those facts that the media has left out. Funny, imagine that...

In my experience? OVERWHELMINGLY likely that he was working as uniformed security for the theater. This means he is in a special status (laws will vary on this state by state)...likely he is both a police officer and an agent of the Theater...which means that he is empowered to tell people the theater rules and regs, request them to comply with them, then request them to leave when they break them, and arrest them for trespass if they do not do leave.

Again, the exact details will vary from state to state, but thats the general gist.


Mike

[Coronach]

Oh, yes, and now that we have a second version of the story, which both makes a whole lot more sense and makes the officer's actions seem quite reasonable, I'm sure that we will have another post from WonderNine acknowleding the fact that 1. the cop could very well be in the right and 2. that his prior bloviating was premature.

I'm sure of it. I can feel it coming.

And, God forbid, if anyone manages to dredge up this case in a few months time and finds its disposition, if it turns out that the officer was exonerated, I know we'll hear an apology from him.

Magic 8 Ball says 'it is decidedly so.'

Coronotholdingmybreathonthatonenach

[Justin Moore]

Sounds righteous to me, with the updated info.

[outfieldjack]

Wondernine said

What the hell is going on in this country????????

Whats going on in this country?!?!? People jumping to conclusions without the entire story and getting all fired up about it....

Are you ready to "jump back" Wondernine?

[Hatchett]

Reading the second story, I'd say he would have been justified even if he'd brought in some backup to give those two a sound beating.

[Bartholomew Roberts]

I'd believe the witnesses who had nothing to do with it. If this guy did something wrong I doubt he'd say so in the report.

Actually if you will note the second report, it says at least one of the witnesses supporting Tolson's (the sprayee) version of events knows Tolson personally.

If the additional witnesses were friends of Tolson who went to the movies with them, then they don't exactly qualify as uninvolved third parties.

On the other hand, the movie theater usher supports the officer's version of events.

In any case, the officer had my support at "talking on a cellphone during a movie". I'd support the general principle that such people should be pepper sprayed on sight by anyone.

[Coronach]

Sounds righteous to me, with the updated info.Well, the updated info is the officer's verison of the whole thing. The only way to get to the bottom of it is to look at everything and go through all sides...which will doubtless happen at the defendants' trials and in the inevitable Internal Affairs investigation.

The problem is that when the cops do it right, the exoneraion never makes the paper. But when they goof up it is page one news. So if we never hear of this one again, it probably went down the way the officer claims it did.

Mike

[MNCCW]

hillbilly...

Are you saying that you absolutely cannot leave the cell phone in the car for the two hours or so that a movie lasts, and that you absolutely have to be constantly cell-phone tethered at all moments, including the two hours that a movie lasts?

Yes.

If I carry a firearm, I carry a cell phone, no exceptions. If you get into a situation where you have to pull a firearm to defend yourself, the first thing you should do after it is resolved is call 911. The second is call your lawyer. That is one of the first things I learned in my CCW class.

If I'm going to a theater it's probably downtown, and i'm very likely riding the bus to the theater, so likely the gun (and consequently) the phone is going to go also.

Of couse it's really a moot point, I don't believe cell phone has been made in the last 7-8 years without a silent mode. and that should always be on in a theater/meeting/resturant.

[Edward429451]

I'm all for standing up for ones rights but inconsideration for ones fellow man is not a right in my book.

My cellphone has vibrate. I use it where appropriate.

[MJRW]

That some of you feel that your $7 entertainment is more important than someone's family being able to reach them in an emergency is absolutely vile. I'm not saying they should hold a conversation there, but if some dad takes a call from his babysitter who is telling him that his kid is on the way to the doctor and you give him grief? I'd support him shoving his phone someplace and using you as a walking speaker phone.

[Steve in PA]

Oh, gee.......you mean the off-duty LEO working security was attacked before he maced the man and woman??? Hmmmm, how convenient that was left out of the first article. :rolleyes:

[Pebcac]

That some of you feel that your $7 entertainment is more important than someone's family being able to reach them in an emergency is absolutely vile.

Damn straight. Hillbilly, you must not have kids. I have two and another on the way, and I'm here to tell you that if my cell phone quietly vibrating in my pocket ruins someone's evening, that's just too bad.

No one indicated that having a cell phone for emergencies required that someone sit and talk during the movie. That's what the lobby is for. Like most people, I'd like an opportunity to dump a Coke on the morons who talk on the phone, pop gum, throw things, and generally make an ass of themselves, but I'm not ready to ban cell phones in theaters. They can be used appropriately.

As far as the pepper spray thing was concerned, I'm sure I'm not the only one surprised by the fact that one of the two original witnesses knew the alleged "victims." Moral of the story, don't threaten to kick folks' butts and smack them with sodas. Act like an adult and get treated like one.

And don't take anything in the press too seriously, especially the first report. Nobody gets it right in the rush to "scoop."

[Correia]

My understanding is that the Catwoman movie is so bad, perhaps they just wanted to be blinded to be spared any more agony?

Lessons learned from this thread.
A. Newspapers suck.
B. We love to jump to predetermined conclusions on the internet.

[sendec]

Should cell phones be open carried or concealed? Does'nt the First Amendment translate into "Let Freedom Ring, or Play a Catchy Tune"? Vibrate does'nt appear anywhere in the Constitution. Ringing makes you uncomfortable, tough. Lets have a ring-in at Chi-Chi's!!!!!!

;)

For the extremely dense, or terminally humorless - the previous was an attempt at satire. Now back to enjoying my phone vibrating in my pocket.

[Penforhire]

Good spray!

And the correct cell phone answer is set it beep once or vibrate, when you answer it say "hold on," get the heck out of your seat, and take the freaking call in the lobby. Anything else is rude and unnecessary. A sprayable offense...

[Tamara]

I can't believe the officer OC'ed somebody just for being rude, obnoxious, and aggressive in a movie theater!

Didn't he have a gun?!?





There are countless disruptive moviegoers who are alive today simply because I was feeling entirely too munificent to pistolwhip them to death like they so richly deserved. :scrutiny:

[Wildalaska]

I'm sure that we will have another post from WonderNine acknowleding the fact that 1. the cop could very well be in the right and 2. that his prior bloviating was premature.

Nope wont happen...when someone TRULY beleives something no amount of facts will dissuade them.

Thats why we have alien abductions, "Holy Blood Holy Grail" and all the other "facts" that fit a certain weltanshauung.

With all due repsect to WonderNine, check out the web sites in his sig and then evaluate his posts.

WildandbtwpolicemisconductdoesoccurinthisworldjustnoteverytimeAlaska

[flatrock]

It seems pretty obvious that we don't have all the details on this incident.

It's possible that this was one of the rare officers that have way too much ego, and react very poorly to anyone questioning thier actions.

However, if you're phone audibly during a movie, expect to be thrown out. At the theater I go to they ask you to turn off your cell phones when they start running the previews.

If you have a phone with a vibrate mode and get an important phone call you need to take, then get it in the lobby. Examples of this might be a parent getting a call from a babysitter, or a doctor getting a call. Don't try and take the call while in your seat and talk quietly, you're disturbing those around you, and should have the common sense to realize that you don't have the right to do so.

If you break the rules and are asked to leave, don't expect a refund, don't argue that you weren't disturbing others, if you weren't the person asking you to leave wouldn't be asking.

As for the witnesses saying the couple wasn't doing anything wrong. It's possibly the truth and the cop deserves to be properly disciplined and possibly sued. However, if the reporter was looking for someone to say it was all the cops fault, they usually don't have trouble finding such "witnesses" in a croud of people.

[hillbilly]

And I knew it, I just knew it....

Somebody would start equating carrying a cell phone with carrying a gun.

Cell phones ain't guns. Guns ain't cell phones.

Just out of curiosity, how many people who are reading this thread have experienced the following?

1) You movie watching is ruined by some idiot whose cell phone rings.

2) Your movie watching is ruined by some idiot who pulls out his or her CCW gun and starts firing random shots into the ceiling.


If we started having a problem with idiots firing their CCW handguns into the movie theater ceilings, how many of the posters on this thread would complain about those idiots, and decry those idiots for making all gun owners and CCW holders look like irresponsible morons?

And to be honest, no I don't have kids.

But I used to be a kid, and my parents were able to leave me with a sitter, or even alone at home and not be tethered to me at all moments via a cell phone because cell phones didn't exist back then.

And incredibly, I seemed to have survived not being cell-phone tethered or pager-tethered at all times.

And when I do have kids, I will be able to go to the movie for two hours and leave them with a sitter and not be tethered to them via a cell phone for those two hours.

Heck, I'll probably even let my kids do what my parents let me do....go walking around in the woods for half a day or more with no cell phone or walkie-talkie, or satellite tracking chip embedded in them.

hillbilly

[MP5]

Are you saying that you absolutely cannot leave the cell phone in the car for the two hours or so that a movie lasts, and that you absolutely have to be constantly cell-phone tethered at all moments, including the two hours that a movie lasts?

I've gotten by fine without owning a cell phone or pager. The world won't fall to pieces just because you're not carrying a phone around for a couple hours. ER doctors and the like need these tools for genuine emergencies, but most people just seem to gab on them at inopportune times.

[Warren]

What about text messaging? Would that be cool to do as long as there were no beeps coming from the phone?

Would the light of the screen be an annoyance?

[Ransom]

Nope wont happen...when someone TRULY beleives something no amount of facts will dissuade them.

from the first article:

Marcia Gray, a 49-year-old Tampa accountant, was in the lobby when the couple were pepper sprayed.

"The man turned and asked the officer why he was making them leave and the cop just maced him in the face," Gray said. "They weren't yelling or touching him. The man bent over and the girl asked why he maced her boyfriend. Then the cop maced her, and she dropped her soda."

from the second article:

A police report released Tuesday sharply contradicts the accounts of Warronnica Harris and Terrell "KC" Tolson, as well as two witnesses, who claim Officer John Douglas acted without provocation when he used pepper spray to subdue the couple in the hallway of the theater.


Why is the second article all of a sudden the gospel? Its just the police report and gets the officers side of it. Each person involved is going to make themselves look innocent but when you have witnesses that had nothing to do with the whole thing contradicting the cop it makes the cops story look really bad.

[jnojr]

Heck, I was on call this weekend and went to the movies. However, I am a courteous patron and kept my pager on vibrate so as not to disturb anyone else if I got paged (a shame that could not be said of the senior-citizen couple behind me who insisted on maintaining a steady conversation for the duration of the film, finally forcing me to move before I made unkind comments to my elders).

You don't need to "make unkind comments". Just turn around and say "Excuse me... I paid to see a movie, not hear you yack on your phone. Please turn it off or leave." Call management if they don't do one or the other immediately. You will get a resounding cheer from everyone else in the theater... or, at least, those who aren't on cell phones.

Me, I turn my cell off if I go into a movie.

[MP5]

Why is the second article all of a sudden the gospel? Its just the police report and gets the officers side of it. Each person involved is going to make themselves look innocent but when you have witnesses that had nothing to do with the whole thing contradicting the cop it makes the cops story look really bad.

Authority tends to do whatever it can to maintain its authority.

[Ransom]

Authority tends to do whatever it can to maintain its authority.

The witnesses are being rubbed out as we speak.

[sendec]

Have you ever noticed that everyone wants to carry a cell/pager/blackberry/portable smoke signal unit, until they are required to do it? As soon as the boss either demands it, or like an idiot you let slip that you have one and he/she should use it whenever, thats when it ain't so cool no more. I ditch mine every chance I get.

For the terminally dense or utterly humorless, the previous should not be construed as a "fact" but is instead a social commentary representing the author's personal opinion based on his observations of public behavior in American, Carribean, and Brazilian societies. Any relationship to persons living or dead is coinidental. George Bush did not approve, dissaprove or have any knowledge of this ad. Cut the blue wire. No animals were harmed in the making of this post.

I love the smell of OC in the movies.......it smells like, victory.

[jnojr]

That some of you feel that your $7 entertainment is more important than someone's family being able to reach them in an emergency is absolutely vile. I'm not saying they should hold a conversation there, but if some dad takes a call from his babysitter who is telling him that his kid is on the way to the doctor and you give him grief?

Put phone on vibrate mode. Phone vibrates. Get up and walk out of the theater, then talk.

Yes, the entertainment I paid for is more important to me than you yakking on your phone. If there's a terrible emergency with your kid, then the caller should be dialling 911. Where do we draw the line? You getting an "on call" call from your work? You closing a $10,000,000 deal? What does any of that have to do with me? Nothing. There is no valid justification for you ruining everyone elses movie, and suggesting that you're so important that you must be able to talk on the phone while 200 other people try to watch a movie is selfish, if not quite "vile".

Put phone on vibrate mode. Phone vibrates. Get up and walk out of the theater, then talk.

[Brad Johnson]

That some of you feel that your $7 entertainment is more important than someone's family being able to reach them in an emergency is absolutely vile.

Nope, we feel that the call taker/maker is an inconsiderate ass who finds it necessary to disrupt several hundred other paying patrons' entertainment as a result of an unwillingness to get off their damn lazy butt and step into the lobby to take a phone call.

I carry a cell phone AND pager. Both are set to silent, all the time. As a real estate agent I get calls and pages 24/7. My ability to communicate directly impacts my income, so I try and take every call no matter where I may be. However, I am also considerate enough to get up off my rather ample rear end and walk to the lobby or a private area when I receive a call during a movie or entertainment event. Any feeble explanation to the contrary would be an inconsiderate excuse for being a lackadaisical jackass who is so wrapped up in himself that he would knowingly and willingly impose upon others an unnecessary interruption of their comfort and enjoyment.

Brad

[MJRW]

"Yes, the entertainment I paid for is more important to me than you yakking on your phone. If there's a terrible emergency with your kid, then the caller should be dialling 911."

Oops, that almost looks like that is the question I asked. You're playing a worthless and transparent game here. What I said doesn't preclude or exclude anyone calling 911 prior to parental notification. I never said they should hold lengthy conversations or even suggest it. Where the line ends I don't care about because on the right side of the line is that you can miss 15 seconds of a movie for pops to answer the phone that he told the sitter to call only in case of emergency and say "I'm on my way."

Hillbilly,

They aren't equatable in any sense that you've provided.

"1) You movie watching is ruined by some idiot whose cell phone rings.

2) Your movie watching is ruined by some idiot who pulls out his or her CCW gun and starts firing random shots into the ceiling."

Hmm...one just irritates some people, another does physical damage and endangers people. I WONDER WHICH OF THESE IS DOESN'T FIT? Let me go ask Stephen Freaking Hawkings.

MJRW: Mr. Hawkings, someone has suggested that a cell phone ringing is akin to firing shots into a theater ceiling.
Stephen Freaking Hawkings: That person's comparison and analogy creation abilities are lost forever in a black hole. Further, the latter is actually illegal unless possibly there are is an Al Quaeda-Alien hybrid crawling around up there which is unlikely.
MJRW: Thank you, Stephen Freaking Hawkings.

You may have gotten along fine before there were cell phones, but people also didn't carry guns before there were guns and they seemed to get along fine. But availability of superior tools means that we can go ahead and use those superior tools. And if watching Shrek is so remarkably important to you that you simply couldn't be disturbed by mom or dad answering the phone because they want to be able to enjoy the movie, too, without worrying about being unable to be contacted for too long, you've got way too much attachment to the silver screen and overpriced popcorn.

[Bartholomew Roberts]

Each person involved is going to make themselves look innocent but when you have witnesses that had nothing to do with the whole thing contradicting the cop it makes the cops story look really bad.

You have two witnesses that contradict the cop, at least one of whom is a friend of the person being arrested (i.e. not meeting the "nothing to do with the whole thing" criteria).

You have yet another witness (usher) who supports the cop's version of events exactly.

[flatrock]

If you set your phone on vibrate, and politely take an important call in the lobby, you might find that the movie theater managment would be willing to allow you to catch the next showing of the movie or maybe even give you a pass to use to see the movie at a different time.

They are under no obligation to do so, but I've found that if you act like a polite and responsible person, managment in places like that are often willing to treat you well in response.

If you act rudely, you're likely going to be asked to leave.

I'm surprised that they were only charged with disorderly conduct, and the woman how hit the security guard with her soda wasn't charged with assault.

The fact that the security guard is an off duty officer doesn't really seem relavant in this situation. It does show that officers don't get paid a reasonable amount and often end up taking side jobs, which seems pretty sad to me.

[Gunsnrovers]

If my entire movie watching experience is destroyed by a 30 second phone call from some yahoo 5 seats down, I'm sprung WAY too tight. It's obnoxious. It's annoying. It's rude. If it really wound me up, I could demand a refund. Life will, thankfully, continue. Far more annoying and rude things (and more then likely unsafe things) will happen to me over the course of the day.

[nero45acp]

I'm all for seeing rogue cops/feds being sanctioned when they step over the line, but this is a case where you have different witnesses giving very different versions of what happened. Given the maced male's history of assault convictions on a school employee and a law enforcement officer while the cop has a clean 14 year work record, I tend to believe the cop's version.



nero

[jpIII]

My wife works as a nurse in the emergency room at one of the local hospitals.

When she is on call, she carries her phone with her 24/7.
She keeps it on silent when at church or the movies etc.
She must answer it regardless of where she is, as it is a matter of life or death, and it also means her job! LITERALLY!

There are some circumstances in which it is acceptable to answer a phone in a movie, but just take the conversation outside.

'nuff said.:)

[WonderNine]

No wonder Drudge posted this story, he knew something that wasn't in the link to the original article.

In the past, I have fought urges to snatch the cell phone away from an idiot and beat him to death with it.


Good Lord, I would personally love to pepper spray some moron who had a phone ring in a movie that I shelled out $7 to see.

Only, I would first gag them so their screams of pain wouldn't further annoy me as I tried to watch the movie.

If you have a personal situation so serious that you need to always carry a phone with you, then you have a personal situation you should be somewhere attending to, not at a movie. - hillbilly

Last time I was in the theater my phone accidently rang while I was trying to figure out how to shut it off. Nobody pepper sprayed me or wanted to kill me. Seek therapy dude.

[Matt G]

Wondernine is absolutely right, friends-- making rash decisions and acts for minor annoyances is wrong.

Yep.


Just like, um.... just like. . . just like--- Say, Entitling a thread "Two Pepper Sprayed Over Phone Call At Fla. Movie", when in fact, they were sprayed because they were physically threatening (and even assaulting) a man acting on behalf of the theatre to have them leave.

Note: the "Witnesses" (unnamed, and with no reference to how to find them) from the first story said that the couple 'weren't doing anything wrong.' I gather that they're talking about the couple's actions in the movie theatre viewing area its self. Whether they were or were not doing anything worth being ejected from the theatre (with a refund, no less!) is a civil issue not worth addressing here. We can all agree that a property has the rights to ask someone to leave. As Coronach said, private property rights, remember? We believe in a property owner's right to run their place as they see fit?

So the security agent, who is in fact a cop, takes them outside, and they get beligerent, loud, disruptive, and resist going outside. Threats are made, and he sprays them. The ONLY issue here is whether the spray was an appropriate reaction to their physical resistance and threats.

The cell phone is NOT THE ISSUE!!! I don't care if they were being ejected for wearing purple neckties. Or for putting too much butter on their popcorn. The theatre was putting them out lawfully, and they attacked the theatre's agent. THAT's why they got sprayed.



[B.T.W., I have no idea why I'm spelling it "theatre" rather than "theater." But I started writing it that way, so I guess I'll be consistant. Looks pretentious though, doesn't it?] :D

[Coronach]

Why is the second article all of a sudden the gospel?Actually, its not. If you read further back in the thread I said:Well, the updated info is the officer's verison of the whole thing. The only way to get to the bottom of it is to look at everything and go through all sides...which will doubtless happen at the defendants' trials and in the inevitable Internal Affairs investigation.
And, keeping a running tally on the supposed witnesses (an accurate list of which, btw, the newspaper does not have)...we have the co-defendants, the co-defendant's friend, and one seemingly uninvolved person, all saying X. We then have the usher and the cop saying Y. So...it looks like they split the difference witht the 'uninvolved' parties.

This is why we have trials. What did each see? How close were they? What biases do they bring to the table? Clearly the witnesses disagree, even the uninvolved ones, but we can't cross-examine them on the internet.

And this:I'm all for seeing rogue cops/feds being sanctioned when they step over the line, but this is a case where you have different witnesses giving very different versions of what happened. Given the maced male's history of assault convictions on a school employee and a law enforcement officer while the cop has a clean 14 year work record, I tend to believe the cop's version. pretty much sums up my POV.

The race might not always be to the swift, nor the fight to the strong, but thats the way to bet. The cop might not always be correct, but, given this scenario, its where I'd place my money.

Mike

[0007]

One inconsiderate ??????? taking a 30 second call in a theatre might not be a problem, but 20 or 30 or 50 doing so sure as hell is. Go back to the original point about cell-phones. They are an unnecessary techno-toy for 99% of the people who have/use them and the other 1% somehow managed for the hundred years of regular phones before cell phones came along. :rolleyes:

It is just me or does this thread appear to have been high-jacked from pepper-spraying to cell-phone bashing??? :D :D :

[Sportcat]

Here are our dynamic duo...

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0728041cell1.html

[Don Gwinn]

So, if I may be allowed to attempt to sum up, we don't know who to believe here, but we know this:

1. If the OC'ed parties are telling the truth, they were abused by the police officer. No question.

2. If the officer is telling the truth, he was absolutely in the right. No question.


So the deciding factor will be who's telling the truth--which we can't determine here. So why are we still arguing about it?


By the way, those of you getting all worked up about being told not to talk on a cell phone at the movies are cracking me up. It's got nothing to do with being forced to leave your phone home. I carry my cell on vibrate almost all the time as a simple matter of courtesy. It is the very smallest type of "no big deal" known to man.

[Mikul]

Sounds like a good spraying to me.

So many people have no consideration for their fellow man. It's sickening. When we make a mistake and are asked to correct it, we should. Instead, people like this are willing to get violent over it. This happens far too frequently: people who are willing to hurt other people so that they can talk with their friend on a phone in the middle of a public theater or so they can go 10mph faster on the highway, etc. These people need a good spraying and more of it. If you can't be act properly in public and you refuse to shape up when politely corrected, you deserve a good face full of condiment.

I have been to the movie theaters one in the last three years, not because I don't want to go, but because whenever I do go there are people having conversations (cell phone and otherwise) using laser-pointers, or otherwise showing off how they can do whatever they want because if somebody does something, the law will protect the cretin.

"I asked him to shut off his cell phone and he wouldn't," should be a valid defense in court.

[Web]

hillbilly: "Your movie watching is ruined by some idiot who pulls out his or her CCW gun and starts firing random shots into the ceiling."

Ruined? That would probably be the best part of the movie experience, esp during a bad movie.

*you've given me an idea*

[Orthonym]

and I fear, distrust, and generally despise most LEOs. Hey, I HAVE a cell phone! (my [now ex] sweety made me buy one) I've been very embarrassed at having someone else cause me to make a loud noise in a public place where all should be quiet. When I take the dang' thing to the public library, it's set to OFF, not just vibrate.Not even the few friends I have may interrupt me when I'm curled up with a book!

[Shanghai McCoy]

Don't have a cell phone or pager and,from reading all this,won't be going to any movies soon cause the theater is full of tense people who payed too much for their tickets...

[Nightfa11]

If you have a personal situation so serious that you need to always carry a phone with you, then you have a personal situation you should be somewhere attending to, not at a movie. - hillbilly


THIS is what he said. He said nothing about the phone ringing. He doesn't want the phones in the theater (sort of like the gun grabbers not wanting guns in certain places ;) :D [joke, people, joke, breathe easy] )

Parents provided phone numbers of places they would be at. Cell phones have replaced that, in most cases.

Obviously a phone on vibrate and a quick exit from the theater with callback is the only appropriate thing to do, but to tell me you don't want me to take my phone in a theater because it doesn't suit your sense of...whatever?

Shrug....try and stop me.