Stabbing inside of Six Flags America on Saturday

My friend called to tell me there was a stabbing inside of SFA on Saturday which I hadn't heard or read about. I'm sure Jeff will have the story today, which is why I haven't provided any links. Luckily, the man who was stabbed didn't sustain any life-threatening injuries. *** Edited 6/16/2008 5:36:45 AM UTC by Intamin Fan***

Ha. Sounds like Magic Mountain circa 1994.

Wonder why I can't find any news items about this, if it really happened.

I am not surprised. The last time I was at the park there was a shooting in the parking lot, about an hour after I left.

-Tina

kRaX: A google search of "six flags america stabbing" turned it up on the first page---it wasn't exactly hard to find.

http://www.nbc4.com/news/16612476/detail.html

Makes me feel even better about Indiana Beach selling knives in the park.

My son and I went there about 3-4 years ago. The worst park we have ever been too! I know the day I was there we seen 2 fights and a third about to start before we got out of this crazy terrible park. We were on a week long trip visiting a few different parks and was planning on staying there for 1.5 days. We stayed about 2 hours before got out of there!

This is one park that I really believe fits the "broken windows" theory. Every little wrong that is allowed to continue contributes to an atmosphere where more serious things seem not so out of place.

I was there on Thursday for under two hours before the place closed. LOVE the three main rides (Roar, Wild One, RoS), but the place is pretty much a pit. Employees were closing their rides while people were still being allowed in the queue by what appeared to be management staff. Then various people walked back and forth discussing "how close to seven is it?". Some guests simply left when discouraged from riding, others persisted and rode, it was basically chaos "around closing time".

It's a real shame that that park has to have such good rides. Even more to the point, it's a shame that the park is allowed to continue to operate like that.

P.S. In the interest of giving credit where it's due, their wood coaster maintenance folks get high marks too.

This never would have happened if the park had metal detectors at the front gate.

Oh, wait a minute.......

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Well, I have come ot the conclusion that the security check points at the front gates are there purely to find and discard contraband food items guests are attempting to sneak in. Who cares if a gun or knife slips through the cracks in security...as long as a sandwich and can of coke is prevented from entering the park!! My goodness, thats $15 in lost revenue.

Palwine, you raise an excellent point. The rules state that you can't bring in weapons such as knives, but how many places DO allow knives in all reality. They're checking for something else. Hehehehe...they do search bags pretty thoroughly though, or at least, they searched MY bag well at Great Adventure. Perhaps I looked hungry and poor. LOL Still, if they don't search your person or use metal detectors, how on earth are they expected to find knives and stuff. People could probably get guns in there, sad to say.

"Security theater consists of security countermeasures intended to provide the feeling of improved security while doing little or nothing to actually improve security.[1] The term was coined by Bruce Schneier for his book Beyond Fear, but has gained currency in security circles, particularly for describing airport security measures. It is also used by some experts such as Edward Felten to describe the security measures imposed after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. Security theater gains importance both by satisfying and exploiting the gap between perceived risk and actual risk."

...By comparison, I remember seeing an incident in another park. I didn't see what happened, but it was nothing newsworthy because park security had identified the problem customer, surrounded him, and when things were about to get ugly, neutralized him. I don't know whether he was removed from the park or not, but it was kind of interesting, as an uninvolved observer, to watch. The jerk was surrounded and yet if you didn't know what to look for you'd never know it. Two armed, uniformed officers dealt with the guy and the whole thing went down so discreetly that the other 30,000 people in the park had no idea that anything had happened.

That's what real park security can look like. The park in question does almost nothing in the way of security theater; they certainly don't bother with any front gate nuisances. But they have the real thing pretty well under control.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

At Coney Island, the stabbings are considered the pre-show.

Well, if you can't get a knife in, you could always spork someone. ;)

This is nothing new folks. It happened at Great America back in the 80's (Halloween party). I'm sure it happens in other public places too (happens at Chargers/Raiders games every year down here).

Anyway, Dave has a good point. And boy that sounds a lot like Disney security.

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He said two men were arguing and one was cut on his upper body.

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There is nothing in the article about a knife or that someone was actually stabbed.

A handful of great rides aren't worth the crap I have to put up with when I'm there. I'll just add this incident to the multitude of reasons I've refused to set foot in this hole in the last 5 years.

^ I've never even been to the park but have noticed it seems to be ground zero for the Six Flags hate on. There's grumblings about most other SF parks here and there but this one seems to win the prize. SFMM being a close runner up.

Yup, and I think if you went there you'd find out why. I dunno, I might be biased since I live close to the park and have been going there for years. The anti-fanboy, if you will. Then again, I live just as close (actually a little closer) to KD and I enjoy going there. I even think SFA wins in the coaster category to some degree. So, no, guess I'm not really biased. It's unfortunate, but the desire to reride a couple of my all time favorite coasters is vastly outweighed by the desire to not be irritated all day by a dump of a park and the asshats in it. *** Edited 6/20/2008 5:26:14 AM UTC by Vater***

I agree with Gator. The park has some of the most AWESOME coasters ever. I LOVE Roar, Batwing, Joker's Jinx, and Supes. As far as the staff, well some of them had the crappiest attitudes ever.

I know I have mentioned this before but one of the most DISTURBING experiences I had with the SFA gang is when a ride op was checking restraints on Roar while talking on his cell phone. He was cussing and complaining about how his job sucked. In other words he wasn't shy about it and didn't care who heard it. I mean people complain. I know I complain about my job at times but NOT in front of patrons.

He had no consideration for anyone else. Kids don't need to hear some teenager complaining/cussing about his job to his friend or girlfriend or whoever he was talking to. Actually, he shouldn't have been talking on his cell phone to begin with, at least while checking restraints.

I got a lot of "why are you bothering me?" looks from other employees as well. I have a very high tolerance for rude customers (I work in printing) but even when a customer is pissing you off you have to be professional, and cordial. I didn't see that at SFA.

-Tina

*** Edited 6/20/2008 9:50:41 AM UTC by coasterqueenTRN***

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RideMan said:
...By comparison, I remember seeing an incident in another park. I didn't see what happened, but it was nothing newsworthy because park security had identified the problem customer, surrounded him, and when things were about to get ugly, neutralized him. I don't know whether he was removed from the park or not, but it was kind of interesting, as an uninvolved observer, to watch. The jerk was surrounded and yet if you didn't know what to look for you'd never know it.

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At Disney's Animal Kingdom, I think a grandma came in with a gun.