Parks Mall puts teen curfew in place after fight video goes viral
By Alexis Wainwright
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ARLINGTON, Texas (KTVT) — One North Texas mall is making big changes after video of a large fight went viral last week.
Starting Friday, April 22, anyone under the age of 18 will need to be with an adult to shop at Parks Mall at Arlington after 2 p.m.
Last Saturday, a viral cell phone video captured a large fight that broke out at the mall. Several teens were charged with fighting in public.
“I was appalled,” one shopper, Opal Roland Lee, said.
A mall official said that the violence convinced them to implement a 2 p.m. curfew on Fridays and Saturdays.
Now, anyone who looks to be under the age of 18 will be asked to show I.D. proving they’re an adult. If they can’t, they must be with someone who can prove they are at least 21.
Shoppers have mixed feelings about this plan.
“I think it’s good, but instead of it being just on the weekends it needs to be every day because the kids are not going to stop,” another shopper, Christie Jenkins said.
Others, like Lee, disagree. “I feel like the mall is not meant to be babysitters for the children.”
“Violence is a common thing nowadays and it shouldn’t be. I think it’s a good thing that the mall is putting restrictions there,” 13-year-old Abigail Peterson said. “I just don’t know if they need to be quite that strict.”
Peterson said these new rules are unfair for teens like her who want to hang out at the mall.
“It’s asking a lot of people who just want to have fun at the mall,” Peterson said.
“It’s unfortunate for the kids who honestly come to the mall, purchase their things, or maybe just hang out, skate or whatever, but the customers and consumers need to be protected,” Jenkins said.
Arlington Police said they support the changes and that they’ve responded to 50 calls at Parks Mall at Arlington so far this year. The majority of those were related to shoplifting, but police said there were nine assault reports, most of them involving teens between 15 and 16 years old.
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