UPDATED: Riot breaks out at Lake Winnepesekauh

There was a large fight like this one at the Indoor fair in Tulsa in the expo building like the fight above. I think it had the largest open space in any building on Earth when it opened in the seventies and is next to Bell's (there's just a small road to get from one parkinglot to another between them). A couple weeks later there was a fight at Bell's. Apparantly there was no security. They had to close the fair and park those nights. They are in an area that has higher crime so they were probably gang fights.

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Visit Oklahoma! My government doesn't know how to budget money so they need yours.

That's why uniformed police officers need to be in the park. There are uses for rent-a-cops, believe it or not. When the worst thing that can happen to you (punishment-wise) is being ejected from the park only for you to come back the next day... not enough. SFA is a great example of that. They fear nothing because there IS nothing as far as real punishment that can come from jumping in line. That's just one example, but that's how easy a fight can start, trust me.

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Is it the real yellow or the yellow that they had on the coaster cars??

I don't have a problem with Lake Winnie's owners shutting the park down early. If trouble abounds, and it easily could in Lake Winnie, then that may have been the "best" decision at that time. When you close the park, the people go home. That late at night, there really aren't many families there anyway... it's virtually all teens and hooligans from around the area.

BTW Lake Winnie does not have season passes. They have a low admission price and free parking, though.

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Is that a Q-bot in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

At the MN state fair, they have officers from MANY police departments in the Twin Cities surrounding area, there is an especially high concentration of them on the midway, especially at night. It is one of the safest feeling places I've been at midnight. It is also worth noting that, pre-9/11, PKD had tighter security than most federal buildings in DC. They take pocket knives from you at PKD, and, everywhere we went in DC, PKD's security chief even was packing while we saw him checking lapbars on Rebel Yell (it was spring break, park was dead). I think off-duty police patrols are a great idea for parks, because, the only people who don't like the police, are the people who are going to do something wrong.

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Cameron Willis
Waiting for Coaster Mania!

I'm just glad people care about my small hometown park enough to have it in a discussion.