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Credit: Inside the MagicA Six Flags theme park has once again become the site of a violent incident, continuing the bizarre and distressing spate of crime at the iconic entertainment chain.
Six Flags is the world’s biggest theme park chain, recently merging with former competitor Cedar Fair to form a vast new series of family-friendly locations. Currently, the company operates 51 individual locations, including 27 amusement parks, 15 water parks, and 9 resort properties across the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
While it might not have the vast resources and iconography of the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim or the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Six Flags increasingly makes up for it in accessibility and cheaper prices.
However, in the last year, the park chain has experienced an uptick in violent incidents and crimes, making parents and visitors of all kinds worried about their safety.
One incident last year at Six Flags Georgia theme park involved dozens of teens brawling in open sight; a visitor described it as “a group of probably 60 teenagers just started fighting in front of us. Security seemed calm for about five to six minutes; 45 minutes later, three more fights happened in front of us, and it was the same group of teenagers.”
Related: Six Flags Sets Official 2024 Closure Date Of Newly Merged Theme Parks
Later the same month, several Georgia teens were arrested and charged with fighting and armed robbery at a Wendy’s outside the theme park. Just a few weeks ago, a family was assaulted at Six Flags New England, with a victim describing it as, “A bunch of them cut the line and I looked their way.
One of them didn’t like how I looked at him and he got in my face. I didn’t back down, so he called his brother with face tatts. We went in front of them and a woman slapped my wife twice and I went to report them and got sucker punched and jumped.”
The chain officially began a new policy last week at several theme parks, including Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, Six Flags Over Georgia, and Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, requiring a chaperone to accompany minors under some circumstances. Whether this is to protect youths or to protect other people from them is up for debate.
But the violent incidences are not solely to do with teenagers. At Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Illinois, a domestic assault attack resulted in a man’s arrest, per Lake & McHenry County Scanner.
According to Gurnee police, Henry L. West of East Chicago, Indiana, arrived at Six Flags Great America with his girlfriend (whose name is withheld), his two children, and her two children.
Lake County Assistant State Attorney Mary Vukovich says that West was upset that one of the woman’s children was using a tablet while in their vehicle in the theme park parking lot. Reportedly, West asked the woman to ask the child to turn off the tablet; she said that the child did not have to.
At that point, per Vukovich, “West grabbed the woman by the chin, and the victim pushed West’s hand away. West hit the woman in the face, which caused her to hit her head on the window.”
Gurnee Police Department Public Information Officer Shawn Gaylor says that Henry West then drove away with the four children in the car. Police officers contacted West, who refused to return the woman’s two children; he then drove the children to his mother’s residence in East Chicago, Indiana.
Related: Six Flags Closes Access to Dozens of Theme Parks for Foreseeable Future
The Illinois State Police Emergency Radio Network (ISPERN) issued a well-being check for the children; the woman had minor wounds and was treated by paramedics at the scene. Henry West has since surrendered to the police and charged with two counts of domestic battery, which are Class A misdemeanors.
The Lake County State Attorney’s Office has filed a petition to detain West, calling him a “real and present threat to the victim,” while Vukovich says he has prior convictions for aggravated battery causing great bodily harm, robbery, battery, and burglary.
However, Lake County Judge Theodore Potkonjak denied the petition and allowed West to be released from custody with pre-trial conditions, having considered the victim’s wishes that West not be held in custody and the fact that West surrendered on the warrant.
Regardless of what happens in that particular Six Flags Great America incident, it is clear that the violence at the chain is continuing. A chaperone policy is clearly not enough.
Have you ever experienced violence at Six Flags or felt unsafe at one of their parks?