"Waves of Worship" brawl, looting.

[patric]

Well, Murphy Bros. did want Bell's action...

It seems Big Splash water park may have only had one security guard working an event sponsored by KXOJ, a Christian radio station, so they called 911 to help with the crowd.
The scene turned ugly when they arrived, and police promptly went into panic mode.

"As officers tried to break up the fights in the parking lot, the crowd dispersed. A large number of people moved to the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market across the street, where some started looting merchandise"
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20090805_11_0_Atoiis425900

When I drove by around 10:30 there were easily fifty police cars parked in the street between Yale and Harvard. with most between Sears and WalMart.

[Conan71]

Sponsored by KXOJ and gang fights were breaking out.  Wow, just wow, that's the Christian spirit!

What did they do? Offer free admission?  Didn't look like there was room left in the park when I drove by about 9'ish.  In 25 years, I've never seen it that full. 

Not to disturb anyone, but I bet the bathroom lines were too long to mess with.  I bet they've got to add a whole lot of chlorine tomorrow....

[RecycleMichael]

Waves of Worship...

Do they walk on top of the water or just part the kiddie pool for that?

[sgrizzle]

As the police and everyone is reporting now, some people were there for KXOJ but when people found out there was $5 admission, they got inundated with people who were not there for the event including some troublemakers who started the problems.

[Conan71]

"KXOJ Wilding night"

[PonderInc]

Oh good.  We can blame it all on "Those People" who came for the cheap tickets.  (Those People are so violent and uncontrollable.)  We could blame it on public transportation for bringing Those People to our quiet (white) Christian event, but, at that late hour, they must have come by car.

I wonder: what happened to the peacemakers?  Too busy calling themselves the children of God...?

</sarcasm>

[DolfanBob]

Wow. Must be tough walking around with that big chip on your shoulder.
</sarcasm>

Oh good.  We can blame it all on "Those People" who came for the cheap tickets.  (Those People are so violent and uncontrollable.)  We could blame it on public transportation for bringing Those People to our quiet (white) Christian event, but, at that late hour, they must have come by car.

I wonder: what happened to the peacemakers?  Too busy calling themselves the children of God...?

</sarcasm>

[patric]

Didn't look like there was room left in the park when I drove by about 9'ish.  In 25 years, I've never seen it that full. 
Not to disturb anyone, but I bet the bathroom lines were too long to mess with.  I bet they've got to add a whole lot of chlorine tomorrow....

Big Splash says their capacity is 6,000 and the crowd last night was half that.
Apparently there was also looting at the QuikTrip at 21st and Harvard, as well, which might be why half the police department was spread out between Harvard and Yale.

[Conan71]

Glad I got home when I did.  Ponder, actually the cheap admission certainly didn't help.  I don't know what the sudden outburst was about "those people".  I don't think anyone made a denegrating social or racial comment.  Low admission prices to Bell's was an attraction for the wrong sort of crowd, much like malingerers at shopping malls.

[Noodlez]

Clearly it was an event, the park was to stay open after hours and so forth. adequate security should have been in place but wasn't. Massive failure! Big Space needs to be slapped with some sort of fine or at the very least TPD needs to send them a bill for the time spent dealing with the mess.

[swake]

Another example of the Murphy's not being responsible in taking care of the safety of their patrons.

[PepePeru]

When 5.00 admission night to a crappy, tiny water park is apparently the highlight of the summer...
that speaks volumes to the lack of options youth have in this City for entertainment.

[DTowner]

This was the third "Wavese of Worship" held at Big Splash this summer.  Since few, if any, of us had heard of the first two, it seems safe to assume there was no wilding, rioting or looting involved.  Clearly, something change at this event.  Attributing racial or some other stereotyping to the religious groups who attended is a leap without facts and a cheap shot.

Nonetheless, one security guard for an event of this type seems severely understaffed, even if previous events were held without incident.

[Steve]

The dozen or so people I have talked to that have been to Big Splash in the past 2 years have all said the same thing:  the place is nothing but a big drop off/babysitter joint for 100's of foul-mouthed, rude, nasty, unsupervised teenagers.  The place is positively filthy, especially the bathrooms and concession areas.  (and the water features are probably full of urine and ecoli, IMO.)

The rumors I have heard is that the county fairgrounds authority intends to close it permanently within 2 years.  I say "bring on the wrecking balls."  The sooner that nuisance is gone, the better. 

[FOTD]

The dozen or so people I have talked to that have been to Big Splash in the past 2 years have all said the same thing:  the place is nothing but a big drop off/babysitter joint for 100's of foul-mouthed, rude, nasty, unsupervised teenagers.  The place is positively filthy, especially the bathrooms and concession areas.  (and the water features are probably full of urine and ecoli, IMO.)

The rumors I have heard is that the county fairgrounds authority intends to close it permanently within 2 years.  I say "bring on the wrecking balls."  The sooner that nuisance is gone, the better. 

There goes the baptismal...