Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Woman arrested for assaulting noisy 2-year old during Star Wars screening

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Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 03-04-2018, 03:38 PM:

quote: Daily Mail
Moviegoer, 25, is charged after 'dumping her popcorn on a 'noisy' two-year-old girl's head in a movie theater and then hitting her with the box' during Star Wars: The Last Jedi

A woman dumped her popcorn on a two-year-old at the movies and started hitting the tot after the child asked her mother for a treat, police say.

Keri Karman, 25, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child after she attacked a two-year-old she did not know in Long Island, New York, while watching the PG-13 blockbuster Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

She was at the AMC Dine-In in Levittown with her father, Charles Karman, 61, when a little girl next to her asked her mother for some popcorn.

'All she said was 'popcorn.' She didn't even say a full sentence,' Celia Riggs, the mom of two-year-old Harley told the New York Post because the child asked for food during the screening.

Keri allegedly dumped her $8.99 popcorn on the child's head and started hitting her with it after she told the tot to be quiet.

'I just wanted to get my daughter out to safety,' Riggs said. 'I ran out with her. She was crying a lot.'

The incident occurred on January 2, but the pair was finally charged Friday with endangering the welfare of the child.

Riggs took to Facebook on January 3 and shared a photo of her daughter saying: 'Please share!! Looking for anyone who was at Levittown Loews at the 4 pm showing of Star Wars on January 2nd. My 2 year old daughter was assaulted while sitting at my side during a movie. There is an investigation police are involved but the person who did it got away. If you have any info please contact me ASAP! Let’s get justice for Harley and use social media to find this lunatic #justiceforHarley.'

Charles Karman was charged as well because he failed to stop the incident when it happened.

Keri allegedly started cussing at the 28-year-old mother of the child after she snapped and told her to be quiet.

The 25-year-old then clamped her hand around the child's mouth, dumped her popcorn on top of the girl, and proceeded to hit her across the head with the bin.

The pair fled the movie theater once the child started crying.

Nassau County police were alerted of the incident after the two-year-old went to the doctors that same day complaining of head pain.

The police searched surveillance footage and movie theater receipts to identify the pair involved in the incident.

They arrested the Karmans, who live in Baldwin, on Friday at 3.30pm. It is unclear what sentence they might face from the incident.

Given that the incident took place in total darkness, I'd be very surprised if this case goes anywhere. Ms. Karman will (if she has any sense and whether she actually did so or not) deny hitting the toddler, there are probably no independent witnesses, and no DA with any sense would prosecute simply for pouring popcorn over her (which, even on a two-year old, will not cause any injury).

I agree with many of the commenters at the bottom of the story, though. You would have to be a total and utter moron to take your two-year old into a movie of that length, intended for adults, and not expect a boredom-induced meltdown to result. My son turned two last month, and it will probably be at least another 2-3 years before he'll have the attention span to get anything from an 80-minute kids' cartoon feature, let alone a 2.5 hour, adult film.

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 03-04-2018, 04:06 PM:

As much as I hate kids (I'm sure yours is lovely, Leo), you do not take things into your own hands in that situation, beyond politely asking the mother to take the child out.
Putting your had on the child's mouth is assault. The popcorn is stupid and harmless, but can also be construed as assault and then hitting the kid with the bin!?! If any of this is true that woman deserves to get dragged to court. She'd best get a lawyer who will cut a quick deal.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 03-04-2018, 04:07 PM:

It's cheaper to bring the kid to the show than to pay a babysitter.

At least, that's my theory as to why some people bring little kids to really inappropriate movies.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 03-04-2018, 04:25 PM:

My local Harkins has provided an innovative solution to this, in the form of a creche (staffed by state-licensed daycare childminders) in the lobby. There is a charge to use it, but it's a lot less than hiring a babysitter. Given how much actual daycare costs ($300 a week in our case), I suspect that it's heavily subsidized. In California, you have to have done quite a bit of training and certification to be licensed to look after pre-school age children professionally.

This is a particularly clever approach, because it insures the theater against accusations of not being family friendly, etc., but also enables them to decline to do what causes a lot of these problems, which is to admit babies in arms to the actual screenings for free.

Children that young simply can't pay attention to any one activity for long enough to gain any pleasure or benefit from trying to watch a feature film, even if it is on a big screen. My cats have a longer attention span than my son. That will change as he grows up, and I'm looking forward to taking him to the theater, probably when he gets to around 6 or 7 (which was when I was taken for the first time). But at two? It takes a really selfish parent to think that's a good idea.

Posted by Rick Raskin (Member # 1561) on 03-04-2018, 04:49 PM:

A theater I attended as a kid had a cry room; a small area next to and separated from the projection booth. Parents took the little ones there instead of annoying the rest of the audience. My how times have changed.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-04-2018, 07:37 PM:

Our theater was built with a cry room, which had four seats and a speaker (from the "mono" sound days).

People just didn't like going in there, so it hardly ever got used except occasional teenagers would sneak in there to make out.

Eventually we needed storage space so we converted it for that purpose.

Posted by Jonathan M. Crist (Member # 413) on 03-04-2018, 09:37 PM:

The Dover Cinema at the Blue Hen Mall in Dover Delaware which opened in 1971 had a cry room for children on the left of the projection room and a party room for adults on the right side of the booth(complete with a stocked bar).

Dover Cinema Blue Hen Mall

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 03-05-2018, 08:01 AM:

How are regulations in the US? In germany, a mother taking a 2 year old kid into a rated movie would have to face penalty as well, depending on the situation that lead to it. In a situation like that, I would be careful to bring an issue to public attention.

That said, turning against a 2 year old in this way is overly rude and completely unnecessary - IF it happened the way cited in the article.

- Carsten

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 03-05-2018, 08:06 AM:

Ratings are not law in this country. They are a suggestion from the lobbying arm of the motion picture industry (MPAA). There are some tangential laws passed in some states such as not being allowed to show an R-rated trailer before a G-rated movie, but I don't thin they've ever been enforced or tested in court.

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 03-05-2018, 09:29 AM:

The example of this idiot is a business case for the boutique age-restricted premium adult-only cinema. Even if you only use part of your building for it like Warren did with its Warren 21 concept. It's a very sellable premium ticket feature.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 03-05-2018, 11:55 PM:

I believe that there are ordinances in some cities (or counties, applying to theaters in unincorporated areas) that have the effect of giving the ratings system legal teeth. That having been said, there appears to be unofficial but widely practiced belief that for children who are too young to understand the content of the movie and who have been brought in because their parent(s) have nowhere else to take them, not specifically to see the film, the ratings system doesn't apply.

I was also a little surprised that someone would bring a two-year old in to see Star Wars, too. People are killed and blown up in that movie (though admittedly, without any significant blood or gore), and two years is certainly old enough to be able to understand stress, discomfort and those sorts of negative emotions.

Still, back in the '90s, I once saw a mother with a baby who can't have been more than a few months old, go with friends into a screening of Pulp Fiction. I joked with a co-worker that it wouldn't be long before Toys 'R Us started to sell little plastic figures of Bruce Willis in his blood-soaked T-shirt, The Gimp, etc. etc.

Posted by Bradley J Sime (Member # 9423) on 03-08-2018, 10:43 PM:

$8.99 for a popcorn is the real crime here.
I used to do a janitor shift at another theater in town after I was done working at mine, and they had a cry room that is still in operation. I think the parents that know about it keep it under their hats, though...

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 03-16-2018, 09:58 AM:

quote:
I was also a little surprised that someone would bring a two-year old in to see Star Wars, too. People are killed and blown up in that movie

As Lenny Bruce used to say (paraphrasing), you can show an buzz saw murderer slicing off a woman's arms and breasts in a movie, but show a someone licking a woman's nipple and they send in the cops to arrest everyone.

Posted by Geoff Jones (Member # 3668) on 03-16-2018, 10:32 AM:

You guys are all missing the biggest travesty here. This poor child was almost certainly exposed to the Star Wars saga completely out of sequence. Han's death. Luke's ascension from farm boy to Jedi. Leia's years of taking pixie dust so she could learn how to fly. It's all spoiled for her.