Brawl closes SFMM on Saturday night

VALENCIA-- Ten people were arrested -- many of them minors -- after two brawls broke out at Magic Mountain about 8 p.m. Saturday and the park closed early, according to a sheriff's official.

http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~2882682,00.html

The last time I was there on a Saturday night I got to see numerous cops in riot gear infiltrate the Goliath line to catch a thug. When the authorities have to wear riot gear in the park, what does this tell you about what the experts think of the safety there? All this why the line was closed (at least 30 minutes) and guests could neither enter OR LEAVE. Needless to say, in my opinion, anybody going there on a Saturday night (at the least) is taking quite a risk. Stick to Tuesday mornings and leave before 4:00 pm and you should be ok.

I honestly have no clue what this park could ever do to clean up the mess. They've let it go for so long now that it is nothing more than a "riot waiting to happen." Fights and near-fights are the norm. Just be glad no weapons have been used yet...

^Ummmmm you might as well be part of the media because your over hyping things here. SFMM is minutes away from downtown LA, and these so called riots happen once every blue moon. Any park located so close to a large city like LA, NY,Chi etc, etc, is going to have problems from the inner city trash. Heck the city itself has a problem with these people, so isn't it stupid think that an amuesment park located in or close by wouldn't also. Heck the local high school has more of these so called riots then SFMM so your blowing things way outta porportion here. Any place on earth where you have large sums of people together there is the possiblity for maddness to break out, so don't act like SFMM is the only place capable of something this because it can happen anywhere. *** Edited 5/22/2005 11:14:30 PM UTC by westcoaster man*** *** Edited 5/22/2005 11:15:16 PM UTC by westcoaster man***

With that said, I've never been to MM, but it is one of the places I would love to go to in the near future. Just out of curiosity, how is security there? I've heard everything from excellent to poor, so I'm assuming it would be reasonably average, if not more so for a major SF. How does it rate for overall security and customer service compared to other SF parks?

I'm not trying to hype anything. I'm just telling you the last time I was at SFMM on a Saturday night the police were there in RIOT GEAR. This is fact, not hype. Maybe all these other big city parks do indeed have the same problems. I do not know for sure. I have not ever seen the RIOT GEAR at KBF or Disney or ANY other park for that matter. I’ve been to many a park in many an urban area at late night and have NEVER felt unsafe like I did at SFMM. It is rather rare for me to feel uncomfortable anywhere. I’ve walked the streets of Tijuana at night (not just the tourist areas) and attended the “Up in Smoke” concert (I’m a white guy) without any fear whatsoever. I consider myself a rather “shady” character that actually enjoys the darker side of life and/or “the other side of the tracks.” I live in Vegas and much prefer Downtown to The Strip. That is just me…

You call it hype if you want, but I will not be surprised when this “hype” ends up with somebody dead at that park. People that were in line for Goliath the night I was there were certainly ranging from uncomfortable to scared. Fights were breaking out everywhere. It took police quite a while to get control of the situation.

By the way...isn't SFMM quite a bit north of LA? It seems like it is anyhow. I guess what I’m asking…is SFMM in a bad area? Always seemed like a pretty nice area to live to me. I’ve jogged all around that area and never felt uncomfortable. I would argue that Knott’s is in a much “shadier” area, but once you get inside the gates, these two parks have a totally different atmosphere in terms of “anger” and “rage” level of the guests.

You may disagree with my opinions about going on Saturday nights, but I find it very hard to believe that my experience AND this incident are just random coincidences. If you are a fanboy defending your park, then I can understand taking offense to my comments. However, to think that SFMM does not have problems worse than most other parks is just not possible based upon my rather numerous experiences at many a park.

P.S. Many of the schools here in Vegas refuse to go to SFMM for their outings anymore based upon administration perceptions of the “safety” problem at SFMM. I’ll be at KBF as a chaperone in two weeks with my wife’s school. She refuses to consider SFMM anymore because of stuff like this. People can pretend that these are isolated incidents all they want, but families do not go to AMUSEMENT PARKS to have them close prior to stated closing times due to unruly crowds. Also, RIOT GEAR, whether justified or not, usually does not bode to well in the PR department….

I remember SFGADV had a brawl on closing day last year and the media was all over it. I find SFGADV the only park out the 22 I've been too the one I feel the least safest it out. I'm planning a trip to Cali late in the summer for the first time. Do you guys think I should have anything to worry about? I would think that security would be stepped up more now that this has happened.

This kinda dosn't surprise me one bit. Now no offense to those on the site here are between the age of 13-18. But you have to agree there are some really stupid kids out there now days, Much like Freddy Kruger says...

"What is it with kids today huh"

When you lower admission costs so much that your park becomes a glorified babysitting service sometimes the babies get rowdy. Another reason why I visit SFMM once a year: to renew my pass so I can visit better SF parks on vacation.

These people Kids aren't attacking random families. They are fighting with one another. Maybe I was 'spoiled' by going to an inner city high school, but I have never, myself, felt threatened by other people fighting around me. If you don't aggree, just take the advice of Jeffrey and limit your visits to safer times.

glad to say the only riot geat ive ever seen has been on tv..... sfmm might not be in the best area but the park should have security to comp.

You should have seen the amount of bike police at Dorney Park riding around the park yesterday. They are also fully stocked with handcuffs, and other police gear. I know the clientele is a little bit rough, but that indicated to me that they must have had some incidents in the past to warrant such action.

I don't buy the "babysitter" theory. These are teenagers and above causing these problems. These kids have cars and their own money. Unfortunately, westcoaster man is right. This has become an LA problem, not just SFMM. These kids are attracted to SFMM because of all the big coasters, and it being the "cool" place to hang out. Knott's and Disneyland aren't "cool" to these types of deliquients.

Raising prices isn't going to help. Raising your kids will.

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Intamin Fan said:
You should have seen the amount of bike police at Dorney Park riding around the park yesterday. They are also fully stocked with handcuffs, and other police gear. I know the clientele is a little bit rough, but that indicated to me that they must have had some incidents in the past to warrant such action.

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You see the bike patrol's now...you won't see them when the main season starts and the park gets filled with people from Philly and NYC, Because they're ALWAYS dealing with something. [However it does seem to be a larger amount of security officials then normal.]

Security at DP tends to be excellent, and oftentimes when incidents happen, they are able to keep them centralized and resolve them quickly. It also helps to discourage guests when the number of security officials responding starts to outnumber the people within their party. [I've seen around 8 security officials respond to deal with 4 teens who weren't listening to the ride operators.]

I also know that in the state of PA, laws give parks have the ability to press charges againist anyone who does not follow **any** written instruction, I do not know about CA laws.

Moosh, that was exactly what I was going to say to respond to Jeffry. If you up the price of admission and stop giving away free season passes, not only will you keep out the unsupervised kiddies (to an extent), you could also afford to paint everything, add some major flats, fix Psucklone, Colossus, and Revolution, and take back your popular status...

YMMV.

westcoaster man and DWeaver are right. Now I never been to this park, but these teenagers are causing these problems. Everyone is searching for a thrill, so teenagers will flock to SFMM. If you see plenty of them at the park, then its a hotspot (as we like to say it).

Any park that is nearby a major city will have these problem. As westcoaster man said, it only happens once every blue moon. I live in the Wash. DC area and I known for SFA and PKD to have fights once in a while. SFA might be bout mins from the city, but PKD is 2 hours from the city.

Jeffrey if these kids want to go to SFMM than KBF then let them go. Crime is EVERYWHERE staight up. Even though you see Knotts being safe it only takes one teen to say something, and all the teens will flock out there. How would I know, I'm a teenager. To some extent the park has security and metal detectors so you are safe within the park, due to the outside world. Well I'm going to stop taking but I wouldn't blame SFMM, blame the teenagers and others that dont have common sense.

P.S. Raising the prices won't help at all. And most teens have cars these days. But as DWeaver said, Raising your kids will.

You don't find people rioting at parks that you can actually enjoy!

People need to start sending SFMM a message by "voting" with your dollars, so to speak. Do not go to the park anymore. Also, I think that if people from this site that go to the park regularly, would write them and complain, they would do something about it. If inner city problems were the culprit, then nearly every park in the country would have this problem, b/c most are just as close to the inner city as SFMM. That's no excuse.

I think most of us go to parks to escape the outside world. Seems the outside world has found a way in.

It usually does at theme parks like SFMM!

Buy your SF season passes at a BETTER park within the chain! Buying them at "that park" just makes SF think the park is doing OK. A flock of SoCal'ers buying their SPs at SFMW might begin to send the right message...just a thought.

I do think SFMM is *partly* to blame, having the place dirty and smelly, with closed rides everywhere, slow moving lines on the open ones, etc.,etc. simply makes SFMM a less-than-pleasant place to be.

Would fixing the park completely eliminate these kinds of problems? Not by a long shot. Would it REDUCE them? Probably!

bill, still the strongest advocate for Lake Winnie's "No one under 18 admitted without parental supervision" rule...

*** Edited 5/23/2005 3:25:23 PM UTC by rollergator***