crazy fight in Disneyland (Updated, 7/23/19)

We just watched the video. We were in DCA that day. My husband is a Marine and said he wouldn't ever get involved in trying to break up a fight like that unless me or my kids were being directly threatened. He said "I would get the -- outta there."

Towards the end, it becomes pretty clear that this guy is a gang member. There was a female security guard who didn't intervene, but instead called for backup, rightly so. This guy isn't someone one person should try and go up against.

Maybe it's time to arm the security guards with tasers, though...
What makes you think that?
 
I think security does have access to tasers. There’s a YouTube video from years back of a drunk guy being tasered by security ( I’m assuming it’s security; he doesn’t look like police) in front of the Tower of Terror at DCA.
 


I’m actually surprised at how long it took for security to get involved. The 2 or 3 times I’ve seen anything similar in the parks ( and I’ve never seen a brawl like this) security was there almost immediately.


I was really surprised at the amount of time too. My husband and I both were shocked it was 4 minutes in before anything happened.

I wonder what Disneyland’s expected response time is. I also wonder if someone will be reprimanded for taking so long to deal with it.
 


Yes, it is distressing that it seemed to take such a long time for Security to arrive, but I'm sure that when it was happening, events probably seemed to unfold faster than they appear to in the calm of watching it unfold on video.

This whole topic reminds me of an event that happened in Kissimmee when we were there last month, an event that illustrates why it can be problematic for bystanders to intervene. Didn't happen on Disney property, it was a domestic altercation in front of a restaurant, and a bystander intervened to defend the woman being verbally abused. The bystander was apparently stronger than he realized: he knocked the husband out with a single punch. The husband fell flat backward onto the sidewalk, fracturing his skull on the concrete. The wife (the victim of the assault by her husband) immediately blamed the good Samaritan for butting into something that was "none of his business". The Good Samaritan is currently awaiting trial for manslaughter. https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2019/06/29/manslaughter-charged-against-fatal-punch-suspect
 
I was stunned that it took 3 1/2 minutes for ANY security to sow up. And when they did, they did almost nothing to defuse the situation. As said above, I too have seen security come out of nowhere. almost instantly and effectively when the need has arisen. That response was wholly inadequate. :sad2:
I've always heard that Disney has security everywhere, you just aren't aware of it, and now I don't believe that at all. That went on waaaaaay too long without security presence and could have been so much worse than it was.

The incident itself is awful but the slow response time (and lack of response once they arrived!) left me disappointed and concerned for park safety, to be honest. I hope they take the opportunity to revisit some of their security measures.

I agree with you that the response time for the security CMs did seemed delayed and a fixed post security presence inside Toon Town should probably be consider by Disney going foward.

Having said that, i will say this in the security CMs' defense as they seem to be catching a lot of heat for this incident. California being California, and Disney being Disney, I'm willing to guess that security CMs have a very strict hands off policy: deescalation over intervention, observe and report, do things discreetly etc etc. Taking on Mr Red Shirt pretty much flies in the face of all those policies and i can understand why a lot of those security CMs didn't want to do that. Don't think a lot of them want to be the one filmed fighting with a guest in Toon Town. If one of them did that and something goes bad now all the liability is shifted onto Disney, who in turn would shift the blame onto that individual CM, likely at the advise of their lawyers.

All that is on top of the assumption that the security CMs aren't worried about the notion of getting body slammed into one of those buttons around the fountains that make the funny instrument noises. Having watched the video, that's a far fetched assumption to make. Security CMs aren't cops and it would be unfair for us to expect them to react to a situation like that like cops.

As hard to watch as that whole incident was, the way the Security CMs handled it is in fact the lesser of two evils from Disney's standpoint. If you think Mr Red Shirt fighting with his family is a big spectacle imagine the spectacle of trying to put cuffs on him and the sure-to-follow PR debacle.

Just my $0.02
 
That fight did lead me to question: so what is Disney security, exactly? Are they police officers? Rent a cops? Lower level, like mall security? It didn't seem to me like they were very effective in managing that situation.

Disney security CMs are security staff hired and trained by Disney. As far as I know i don't believe Disney outsources any of their security to third parties. Police officers are hired to patrol and provide a uniform presence in public areas outside the two parks, mainly the gates, the plaza between the two parks and downtown Disney. These are just observations i'm making from the outside looking in; i don't have any inside information on this. I know Disney does run a very reputable security operation but all that stuff is kept very secret.

We just watched the video. We were in DCA that day. My husband is a Marine and said he wouldn't ever get involved in trying to break up a fight like that unless me or my kids were being directly threatened. He said "I would get the -- outta there."

Truly spoken like a man who's dealt with danger first hand. I agree with him 100%.


Shout out to all the mods for working so hard to keep these threads going!
 
This was absolutely disgusting. Why did it take security so long and why didn’t they do anything? I don’t blame any bystander for not getting involved in something like this. He was literally beating his sister in the face, imagine what he would’ve done to a stranger?

The pink shirt loser is the big girl’s brother. The girl in the brown shirt is his girlfriend and the man in the white shirt is his brother in law. The girl with the backpack is their sister or his daughter and the lady on the scooter is their mother.
 
I have lost count of Disneyland trips and have never seem CMs or Security so slow to respond. Usually they seem to pop up out of nowhere.

What really bothers me is that only one guy tried to stop it. This guy was punching women in the face. There’s not a man I know personally who would stand there and watch that. It seems like it goes on forever before someone else jumps in and security finally shows.

And that poor baby following them around in the middle of it. 😢
My thoughts were...
Why didn’t anyone pick the baby up and get him out of that mess until the end?
Why didn’t anyone knock the dude in the pink shirt out?
Why would you stand there and allow your children to witness that?
 
I don’t necessarily WANT my husband involved in something like that, but I’d feel a lot worse for dude in the pink than my husband :rolleyes1
 
I’m pretty sure Toontown and Guardians of the Galaxy are in 2 different parks unless I’m misunderstanding something.

Oh... just realized you may mean Galaxy’s Edge, which IS in Disneyland Park. My bad! 🤗
I did. Sorry, not a Star Wars fan. But we were there in September and it is right next to Toon town with off stage castmember paths between the two. Here's the map. https://disneyland.disney.go.com/maps/
 
This makes me concerned how poorly set up DL is for that. If they can’t break up a basic family fight what about gang activity or terrorist attacks. With the light crowds and high traffic area, there should have been security cameras easily capturing it, and alerting security on the ground. Would it take them 4 minutes to respond to a shooting? And then with CMs mostly armed with brooms?
I am also disappointed we aren’t being allowed to discuss it on the main board. Safety IS a big concern when traveling!
 
Probably the community board. I know as a WDW regular I really only visit the DL boards when I’m heading out there. I would imagine most DL regulars do likewise with the WDW boards. I’m constantly on the community board. But I’m sure those who visit every board every day will set me straight and inform me there in no “main” board. 😘 After all, this IS the Dis!
 

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