Mall Brawl

Surely most Delawareans know about the Christiana Mall brawl last Friday night. I certainly wouldn't have wanted my kids involved in a food fight involving a thousand teenagers, and I wouldn't have wanted to be a patron of the mall at that time, either. Police closed the mall 45 minutes early, judging the situation to be a threat to public safety.

Personally, I would have preferred keeping all the kids involved there until they cleaned up every last morsel of food and drop of drink, but that probably would have been too difficult to enforce. A second choice would be to have them all perform community service.

On the bright side, there are no reports of injuries, though I suppose some kids might have had some bruises if they were fist fighting. There were no reports of brass knuckles, knives, or guns, either. Things could have been a lot worse.

Many propose curfews on teenagers at the mall as an appropriate response. Some suggest that teenagers be accompanied by parents, which will undoubtedly make the mall less attractive to many of them who just want to hang out with their friends. The mall will have to weigh economic and public safety issues carefully. But I think it's a shame that once again good kids will be penalized for the antics of the unruly.

Links: Action News, Delaware online