Massive fight at Florida Chuck E. Cheeses caught on video
Chuck E. Cheese’s is supposed to be a place “where a kid can be a kid.”
But the family-friendly chain might want to add an important disclaimer: Kids can’t be kids when adults are racking up assault charges.
It may sound absurd, but that’s exactly what has been happening in recent years amid a wave of violent fights between adults at Chuck E. Cheese’s in cities across the country.
Many of those fights — like the latest example in Miami on Saturday — have been captured by smartphones.
Krystel Jimenez, a 16-year-old who filmed the 10-minute melee at the Kendall Village Center franchise, told the Miami Herald that the fight started “because one person was looking at them and instigating a problem then they went up to them and their families got involved.”
Her 28-second video clip shows a violent throng of screaming parents throwing punches and pulling hair as small children scramble for safety.
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Jimenez said she witnessed injuries, but no one was arrested. The franchise has a two-drink limit, but she noted that the violence may have been fueled by alcohol.
Phone calls to the Miami location were not immediately returned. Requests for comment from the company’s headquarters also were not immediately answered.
The Miami brawl was preceded by a massive fight at a Chuck E. Cheese’s just outside Pittsburgh in March that began with an argument between the parents of a 1-year-old and grew to include as many as 50 people, according to CBS affiliate KDKA.
A month earlier in Manchester, Conn., another fight broke out that spoiled five children’s birthday parties and resulted in a 1-year-old being knocked down, a 4-year-old being bruised and a senior citizen experiencing a panic attack, police told the New York Daily News.
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In December, three people were arrested and charged after starting a fight that was captured on camera at a Louisiana Chuck E. Cheese’s, according to CBS affiliate KSLA.
Nearly a year earlier, surveillance footage captured another brawl at a Cleveland-area suburb that began when customers attacked six employees, resulting in one teenage employee being knocked unconscious, according to NBC affiliate WPXI.
“I don’t want to call this a fight,” Parma Police Lt. Kevin Riley told the station. “It’s not a fight. This is an attack. This is an attack on employees who were simply doing their jobs. They weren’t doing anything else. They were there earning a living and supporting their families.”
In a statement after the attack in Ohio, Chuck E. Cheese’s said: “We take any incident in our stores very seriously and have spent more than $15 million to date on measures to help ensure the safety of our guests. With an environment dedicated to serving young children and families, we will not tolerate violence of any kind in our stores.
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“As a company, the safety of our guests and employees is always a top priority and we will continue to endeavor to protect the experience families have in our locations so parents are able to trust that their time in Chuck E. Cheese’s will be clean, safe, wholesome family fun.”
There also have been fights at franchise locations in Long Island, Florida, California, Alabama, Texas and Wisconsin, where Milwaukee police received four calls about fighting in one day, according to an investigation by NBC affiliate WTMJ.
A YouTube search of the phrase “Chuck E. Cheese’s fight” returns more than 1.1 million results.
How do authorities explain the violence?
In many cases, a 2012 ABC News investigation found, alcohol is involved when fights break out at the franchise, which has been around since 1977. But not all locations serve alcohol, and beer and wine alone don’t explain the rash of violence plaguing Chuck E. Cheese’s locations, experts said.
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Beginning in 2009, police in Susquehanna, Pa., were called to one location 17 times in 18 months, ABC reported.
“A couple of problems we were able to diagnose,” Police Chief Robert Martin told ABC News. “It got crowded, and kids would run into each other or fight over games, which would lead to parents getting involved in fights.”
Martin said another incident stemmed from divorced parents and family members attempting to pull off a child’s birthday party.
“There were uneasy feelings, a verbal altercation which transitioned into a physical altercation,” he noted.
After reviewing fight footage online, David Schwartz, a psychologist and professor at the University of Southern California, told ABC News he wasn’t surprised by the altercations.
“Birthday parties are really emotional situations,” he said. “There’s frustration and provocation. A parent will never be more ready to defend somebody than when they’re with their child.”
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Several years ago, the Wall Street Journal published a story about violence at the restaurants, and also found that the nature of the gatherings was at the heart of the violence plaguing the franchise.
“Fights among guests are an issue for all restaurants, but security experts say they pose a particular problem for Chuck E. Cheese’s, since it is designed to be a haven for children,” the newspaper reported. “Law-enforcement officials say alcohol, loud noise, thick crowds and the high emotions of children’s birthday parties make the restaurants more prone to disputes than other family entertainment venues.”
According to the company, there are more than 580 Chuck E. Cheese’s restaurants around the world.
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