Attacked on a family night out at the movies...

[SoninTexas89]

I have a question pertaining to being assaulted at the movies with my family and friends one night.

In Corpus Christi, Texas, at the Century 16 Theaters off of S.P.I.D.


I was going to Maine for college the very next morning, at a flight leaving at 5 a.m. So my friends and family decided that they wanted to spend their last day with me before I flew off, so we ate at a Pizza Hut and then decided on seeing Rob Zombie's Halloween flick, my choice of course. There are a few Cinemas in Corpus. One of the cheaper ones had just closed down due to a killing where a few people had been shot. So a lot of the city had to go to Century due to the cheaper cinema shutting down. So the theater was generally incredibly busy, and filled with several different types of families going to see movies on a regular night out. Century is the most expensive theater in town, and generally has high quality services.

To the point of the matter, my family and I were sitting in the very last row on the leveled floor in the front. We took the entire row up, as there was my mother, I, and 5 friends. About 80% of the movie had taken place, and a lady behind us had been very loud the entire time (clacking of shoes, kicking the chairs, screaming out loud to the screen, talking amongst her friends). My mother, being incredibly annoyed and wanting to enjoy the ending, firstly, politely asked the lady to please quiet down. My mother said that she was there with her son and friends trying to have a family night out and asked if she could please keep it down until it was over. The lady then got immediately defensive and began to verbally assault my mother. My mother then got very irritated and lifted her voice, again telling her that the movie was almost over, and to keep it down. Soon after, two women to our far left a row down stood up and got out of the row into the aisle. They then began to yell to the lady behind us about what was going on, and if she needed any help. The lady whom had stood up then began to verbally announce t o the audience in general trying to discover who was giving her friend problems. She began to target my mother with language, and threatened to go over and "shut her up." In a very dumb move to pull the attention away from my mother, I stood up to avert their attention. Saying nothing I stared at the lady, in a matter of 5-10 seconds the lady and her friend rushed over to me. In that instant, 3 kids from about 2-3 rows in front of us began to climb over the chairs and rush at us. The lady had made her way to me, as my friend pulled me into my seat and threw herself on top of me to guard me. The lady stood over me and yelled into my face, as I stared back at her with a very threatening amused look. The kids that jumped over the rows put their attention at my mother, and started yelling and cursing at her. My mother yelled back at them saying that they were only kids, and that they were "little ****s." When my mother had said that, the lady averted her attention from me, to my mother, and punched her, yelling at my mother "you don't threaten my child." I then tried to get my friend off of me yelling to the lady, "you don't hit my mother!" I continuously tried to shove her off as she punched my mother again. As this took place my friend ran out to get the police, whom took a very long time to get in. The lady and group of people who attacked my mother ran, and I stayed to take care of my mother. I tried to cover her and hold her as she held her face, and I kept trying to make sure she was ok. Mind you, the entire theater was jam packed, and full of people. A few asked if she was ok, while some younger kids laughed. A cop finally made it in and asked my mother if she was ok. He escorted us to a table and said he would be with us. After about 5 to 10 minutes we had to find a police officer to come speak to my mother and get our side of the story, as well as medical attention. The police were all outside with the family who jetted out of the theater after attacking my mother; while we were left entirely alone without any attention. Shortly after we got the police to speak to my mother, the manager of Century Theaters came over and asked if we would like some "tap water." They then just stood around while the cops questioned. After a while the Century Theater employees began to take down our information and then came out with "free tickets for each of us" to see a movie there. The police then began to threaten me saying that the family said I attacked their 8 year old boy, whom had gotten hit in the process. The police officer told me that his face was swelled shut and that he could not speak. I, wearing two rings at the time, one being a very big class ring, as well as a Citizen's titanium watch, had no scratches or cuts on my hands; as well as no redness of the skin. I had hit no one, even in my attempts to shove the lady off of my mother. It is upon my best bet to believe that she hurt her son in shoving him out of the way to attack my mother. The police then shifted their questioning onto me, and put me in a hot seat. I told them everything that had happened, and one of the african-american police officers tried to impose that I attacked the boy, and that I had accidently hit my friend in the process, as she had cuts and bruises from laying on top of my mother and I. I also had been smashed in the nose by the lady's elbow as she pulled back her arm to punch my mother. It is obvious to me that I was dazed by the intial blow, and sight of my mother being punched. I had not had any time to respond to punch the boy before he had been shoved away by his mother. And in all honesty, the boy was certainly not my target. I also have three years of martial arts training, and certainly have better control of my aim then to hit someone 3'10" over someone 5'10". After about an hour+ my mother had no medical attention, and we tried to get her moved to a hospital. The closest hospital, with knowledge of Corpus Chrisit for 18 years of my life, was shortly down the road to the Sphon Memorial, where I had been several times as a child when I had medical issues. The african-american police officer who was the main one to impose that I was the assaulter, told us that we should go to the hospital down S.P.I.D. at the BayFront, which is an easy 10 minute+ drive, and said it was closer. We finally were able to go, and went to our car that was parked far out in the parking lot. We were about to leave when a police officer came rushing over. To make the night even worse they said they needed me for identification as the one who assaulted the boy; saying a lady had clearly seen me do it in a theater that had NO lighting. So I agreed against the will of my mother to let them do so. I walked with TWO police officers and was well over 50 feet from the lady who was also accompanied by a police officer, as she "backed away in fear" from seeing me. Now I do not mean to profile, but I am a homosexual male, who was dressed to impress for his flight to Maine and first day at college; I certainly did not look like I was much of an assaulter. We were then finally able to go.

Almost being 10 months later, my mother has received no notification of what happened, and was never even contacted by Century Theaters to apologise. We also felt very insulted after being given "free tickets" and "tap water." As well as the cheap brown paper bathroom tissue to have my mother's blood be whiped off with. We have photographs of her injuries, and over 4 witnesses to the incident. However we have thought best to leave it alone, due to the way the police acted towards me with the boy's injury. However I still feel very abused by the fact that no one had been punished, or that we were treated the way we were. It seems almost like it was ok for us to be assaulted... We have never gone to the theater since, and will never do so again. I have heard that they now have police units guarding the building on the busy nights, and NOW have adequate protection and security. By other people in the theater, we were told that the family who attacked us was an african-american family that was displaced by the Katrina disaster, and was originally from Louisiana.

I do have to note, that I am not racist and I do not discriminate. Being gay myself, having grown up in a Bible state such as Texas, I know very well what it feels like to be hated upon for something so stupid.

What my question is now, is do you think that I should take legal action in some shape or form? It just doesn't seem right to not even bother with it... I feel that the Theater did not do a good job in making a safe environment. I feel the police did very little to comfort us as a family, and did certainly not put much effort into making sure my mother was ok. And I feel like this group of people got away with beating up on a 47 year old women in a theater for originally just asking for people to keep it down... We since then have never gone to see a movie again, as the quality of theaters have really been horrible...



Also, thank you for taking the time to respond, and read my message if you did... I do appreciate any information that anyone can suggest...

[ecmst12]

Oh lordy....condense to 10 sentences or less please! It's way too late to try to sort through all that.

[taro]

Everything is too convenient and one sided, I in no way believe your story, but I do congratulate on not getting into the race issue. Now that doesn't mean I think you're guilty of something or that you weren't wronged.

Black people talk at movies, it's just how it is, comedians have whole routines devoted to it. They enjoy their movies in a different way then your mom does. I think they have every right to do so.

When I go to the movies the last thing I would do is smart off to a noisy obnoxious person white or black. You can't insult a noisy obnoxious person without expecting that type of person to respond. - that's common sense.

[JETX]

WOW!!
All it took was a look at the length of your rambling post.... and I decided to move on to respond to others. Attorneys on this forum don't have the time to read LONG non-relevant dissertations.

[justalayman]

well, since I am not an attorney I guess I have time to respond.

the theatre did nothing wrong. You feeling insulted by the free tickets and tap water is unjustified as they did not have to offer anything or any med support.

Not sure what you are expecting from them.

The only folks you may have a claim against are the folks in the other party, which you stated you do not wish to engage again so I would suggest dropping it and get on with life.

and as to not tossing in the race card, you mentioned it enough times to show that you do believe it to be relevent. That IS racist. You also mentioned they were from Louisianna. I guess that makes them bad people too.

Neither of those attibutes makes a lick of difference to the sitatuation but you felt you needed to tell us anyway. That does show you to be prejudiced.

[SoninTexas89]

The only time I mentioned anyone was African-American was when it was a particular cop that was the only one that tried to pin something on me. He was very rude and gave me no benefit of the doubt. And in regards to not believing the story, that's exactly how it went, and whether or not you may believe it, there are some good people left in this world. But those people obviously don't seem to last long. That is the reason I am so ticked, is because we did nothing to warrent being treated in that manner.

I mentioned they were from Louisiana because I wanted to point out the fact of how stressed they were. Being thrown from your state due to a government responding as if they were worth nothing would really upset me too... And the reason I mentioned they were African-American was because of how the media seemed to report that they were the only ones that were affected by the tragedy. You would be really unknowing to who I am if you believed me to be racist. It does not matter to me that someone is Chinese, White, Black, or the sorts. What matters is the fact that they punched my mother in the face twice and got away with it. It is crap like this that makes the American law system such a piece of ****. I have spent 70% of my life in South Texas, and as a minority being a white male in Texas, I took part in a lot of NHS activities and raised several thousands of dollars to help people in the local community, and have never had a scruff on my record what so ever. Growing up in high school I had 2 white friends, while all of my other friends were Hispanic or Black. At this current time I am also a German-American Athiest dating an Israeli Orthodox Jew from NJ. If you want to talk to me about how using the wonderful label system you as a society have given me as being racist, then you sir are just failing to see how I am trying to signify what happened. I in now way said anything to the manner of how their race played an issue to them attacking my mother. Do not call me something I am not.

And on that note, obviously wasting everyone elses time was enough to waste my time by posting things like that. This website was obviously just wasting time in the first place and I apologise for wasting anyone elses time. I knew after reading a lot of the other posts on this forum that the community who answered everything didn't really seem to care about their problems; just how much it could get into their tidy bank accounts.

And the only thing I would have liked from the theater was that they would have apologised to my mother for what happened in their business. If I was seeking money, I would have said so. And the police officers really should have done something about responding sooner than they did to our family. They almost immediately had an ambulance outside that took over 10 minutes for them to give any attention to my family.

And the movie was at full capacity, you don't need to believe my story when you have 90 other people who saw the same thing.


Closing the thread, not bothering people who could care less anyway.