Should I Be Afraid When I Visit the Famous Mall Of America? - Feb. 2, 1999 - Newsletters - http://maxpages.com/ljwbthisweek/Violence_at_Mall_of

By Larry J. W. Brown

"The world looks slightly different when you are curled up in a fetal position on the floor trying to protect yourself from a gang of hoodlums as they kick and punch you in the face and all over your body." A quote from a story of a mugging in the inner city of Chicago? Nope.

Officers and ethnic teens clash in a racial dispute with charges of brutality that were later settled out of court---Los Angeles? Wrong again.

Erupting gunfire and ensuing drug charges for possession of cocaine--drug deal gone bad in the streets of New York? Not even close.

How about a bloody stabbing incident that occurs in the wee hours of the morning just after the bars have closed, injuring one man and leaving another laid up in the hospital in serious condition? This could have happened in any back alley or dark street of any metro area of the country---it could have, but this one didn't. As a matter of fact, all of these headlines-grabbing incidents, and more, took place right here in our own highly acclaimed tourist attraction and shopper's Mecca: "The Mall of America".

A little over four years ago, as I took our family out for dinner and a movie, we became the story at the top of the article. Victims of an unprovoked attack, badly beaten and completely demoralized, my son and I were taken to a room and cleaned up, where first-aid was administered. We were interviewed by police and released to go home. The headlines had quickly become all too real to us.

After recovering physically and a couple more of years of recovering emotionally, we have finally gone back to the mall a few times for some special and fun events---but we're much wiser and more wary than before.

Each time an incident like this happens an MOA spokesperson is quick to point out that they are taking more actions to beef up security, even though they are quick to point out that it is already safe to shop at the mall. After our family was mauled at the mall, special officers began patrolling the building during heavy traffic times such as weekends. Cameras which were not actually watching anything were supposedly turned back on. Curfews and adult accompaniment policies were established for youngsters 15-years-old and under.

More Bloomington policemen are promised to be in place, more surveillance equipment is going to be set up in various areas of the mall and left on for 24 hours, 7 days a week. One person suggested setting up a new on-site precinct for the Bloomington police inside MOA.

Whew! Now I finally feel safe to take my family to the mall and once again cast all fears and worries aside. No more concern of violence or personal harm---nasty little characters lurking in shadowy corners. Nyet (not)!

Want some sound advice to take along with you while shopping at the MOA? Don't let your guard down for a minute! According to an article by Chris Graves which appeared in the Star Tribune on Feb. 1, 1999, Maureen Cahill, the current spokesperson for the mega-mall, says the population there "can swell to the equivalent of the state's third-largest city (Bloomington) on any given day".

Don't allow yourself to be lulled into thinking nothing bad can happen to you just because it's a fun place. Remember everything you ever learned about safety in public places. Keep an eye on your children and personal possessions. Avoid empty shadowy passageways, steer around characters who seem to be irritated or looking for trouble, don't hang around after the witching hour---you know the routine.

So, should I be afraid when I visit the mall? I don't think it is healthy to go through life fearful of everything around you, but no matter where we are in public, it is always the best policy to exercise normal safety precautions and good common sense.

Even though bad things may happen there occasionally, the glittery Mall of America can still be "a fun place for life" for you and your family---but while you're there, keep your eyes open, ears perked and stay on your toes, because when you enter their gates, "you ain't in Kansas no more Toto".

From LWTW,

I sure wish you'd quit knocking my favorite place to go. You're going to keep at it until people are going to quit going to the mall. Then they'll have to tear the place down and turn it into a ball park again.

My son David and I took a tour of the skyway malls downtown Minneapolis last week. I was VERY uncomfortable in a couple of places there. I couldn't believe it when we ran into kids from Acquire The Fire walking through the skywalks. I think they'd have been much safer at the MOA.

After being traumatized by a beating, I hope you'll be able to put that terrible incident behind you and become comfortable again when you go to the mall. I just don't think the world is going to get better till Jesus comes.

By the way, I don't think Kansas is any place to want to go
to anymore either, Toto. People get robbed at the airport there. When I was en route to Dallas, I couldn't wait to get back on the plane.

LWTW

LWTW, Thanks For your response!

Picture a chicken pen full of chickens. The farmer's wife feeds them regularly, the chickens sit around on their eggs and talk of little chicks and exciting things in the barnyard, and the roosters are having fun doing their thing. Occasionally a fox gets into the pen and snatch's away a hen, squawking for all she's worth as her bloody carcass is dragged from the pen into the woods, while the rest of the feathered fools turn their heads and pretend it never happened. A rooster turns to a hen and says "I wish she would just get over it, she is going to spoil all the fun for the rest for us!"

The rooster would be better off writing an article for the Barnyard Gazette on how to minimize the risk of being grabbed by the fox, but still realizing that 'that's life in the land of OZ'. Maybe if they had all squawked a little louder together, when they first spotted the old devil, the farmer would have recognized the danger and arrived a little sooner with his shotgun.

ljwb@mail.com

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