Brawl at the Mall
On the afternoon of Aug. 27, a brawl broke out between teenagers at the Del Amo Fashion Center. The Torrance Police Department (TPD) received a call around 4 p.m., disclosing that a large group of around 1000 juveniles were fighting among themselves near the AMC 18 theater, located on the second level of the mall. As Aug. 27 was National Cinema Day, featuring $4 discounted tickets, witnesses described a large group rushing to get into the AMC movie theater. Neighboring police departments were called on site to assist in response to the size of the crowd. According to the Daily Breeze, employees reported that the brawl began at the mall’s movie theater before spreading elsewhere in the shopping center. The group of teenagers were also seen running past restaurants and stores, with some entering the businesses and becoming violent after employees asked them to make room for customers (NBC Los Angeles). Senior Sophia Lei concludes that the event not only highlighted the concern about safety in the younger generation but also brought attention to the pressures felt as a teenager.
“These kinds of situations make me anxious,” Lei said. “I feel like there is a lot of peer pressure to fit in, and sometimes that leads to things getting out of control. When people feel like they do not belong and that they are missing out, they try to put their frustrations and anxiety into fitting in with the crowd. They also follow the trends they find on social media.”
The fighting resulted in injuries and property damage, which local law enforcement and paramedics rushed to address. Though gunfire was reported by a witness, authorities have confirmed that no one was shot (Los Angeles Times). Throughout this event, businesses were not ordered to close by law enforcement; however, some did decide to lock their doors in the heat of the moment. NBC Los Angeles reported that around 9 p.m., the TPD officers had cleared the mall of the crowds of people. Employees at the mall reported that this was the second incident at the Del Amo mall within a month (Daily Breeze). Sophomore Claire Marcus thinks that better communication between the mall’s administration and security would have stopped the brawl.
“Since the mall knew a lot more people would be going to the theater and that similar fights had happened [across] the country, they should have let security know ahead of time,” Marcus said. “It was incredibly irresponsible of Del Amo to not have planned [proactively]. The mall management certainly had the power to avoid the brawl all together if they had only alerted the security or even public law enforcement.”
This is not the only brawl that has occurred on National Cinema Day. In many malls throughout the U.S., the discounted movie theater tickets led to large crowds that began to fight. One such incident occurred at the Crossgates Mall in Albany, New York, around 7:34 p.m on the same day. Much like the Del Amo brawl, several small fights broke out throughout the mall despite starting at the movie theater (News 10). Malls from around the Bay Area have reported similar conflicts around their theaters. A brawl broke out in a mall in Emeryville, California, involving hundreds of teens on Sunday afternoon. Teens were seen engaging in fights and disturbances inside stores. In one fight, a teen was stabbed and a gunshot was fired in the middle of the dispute. This sparked community discussions about youth safety. City council members are working to find ways for teenagers to safely gather in public spaces.
Tiffany Lau, a parent of a Peninsula student, feels that a better environment needs to be created for kids so they can let out pent up energy and feel that they belong. When they do not feel a sense of belonging, they react and sometimes respond in the aggressive way seen in the recent brawls.
“As a parent, [it is] heart-wrenching to see such violence among young people,” Lau said. “We need to understand why this happened and how we can prevent it from occurring. Our kids’ safety is paramount.”
