200 Kids Get In Fights After Denied Entry at Meadows Mall in Las Vegas

Pictured: A screenshot from the news broadcast of the event at Meadows Mall

In January 2021, during the middle of a pandemic where social distancing is required and crowds are discouraged, 150-200 juveniles were seen fighting outside of a business at Meadows Mall in Las Vegas. It appeared that they were waiting to go bowling when they were denied entry.

Now, it isn’t clear why they were denied entry. It could have been because of temporary occupancy laws or because of business hours. Either way the teens didn’t like being told no and became mad enough to start throwing punches. Fights broke out among the large groups and it is unclear if the fights included employees of the business.

Police were called to break up the fights and escort the teens off the property. They ended up citing or arresting several people for fighting or obstructing. Due to the disruption several businesses at the mall had to close early. 

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Questions:

1. What are some other reasons these teens were denied entry?

2. Why were some kids arrested but not all 200?

3. Besides fighting, what are some other laws that could have been broken? Why?

4. How is this event happening at a mall in Las Vegas affect the outcome and the consequences?

Be sure to provide full explanations for your answers.  For more details, you can read the article this piece was sourced from here:

https://news3lv.com/news/local/several-fights-break-out-among-150-200-kids-at-las-vegas-mall

Contributed by Saralynn Lindsay

A YouTube Video That Ended in an Arrest

Pictured: Aldo Gonzalez, the man who filmed the hazmat suit prank

We live in a world where kids spend more time on the internet than they do outdoors. With YouTube and Tik Tok there is an endless supply of prank ideas for kids to use on their parents or even strangers. Sometimes these pranks seem harmless  yet there are victims. When the only one left laughing will be the prankster, the wannabe comedian may want to rethink their plans. This is especially true if the law can become involved. 

Take this incident for example from March of 2020. At the time, Aldo Gonzalez was a 23 year old resident of Las Vegas, Nevada who had a “hilarious” idea.  He and an unidentified juvenile friend of his would dress up in painter suits and go around a local Walmart spraying people with water for a YouTube video.  The two young men hoped the video would go viral.  

Seems funny right? There were two problems with the prank though – it was taking place when the world was just beginning to come to grips with the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic was happening, and no one at the store knew it was water (except – of course – for the pranksters).

Since the victims of the prank did not know what was being sprayed, the Walmart was evacuated and the police were called.  The shoppers (understandably) thought they were being sprayed with a much more harmful substance than water.

The police showed up to Gonzalez’s house and arrested him for spraying a hoax substance in a public place….and burglary!  He was the one behind the camera and his friend was the one running around spraying people.  While juvenile records aren’t public, we can reasonably assume the young man that did the spraying faced serious legal consequences as well. 

We see pranks like this on social media all the time thinking it’s harmless and funny. Somethings we might even want to try for ourselves. Next time you see a prank online think about the consequences and if others would find it funny.

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Questions:

1. What charges might the juvenile suspect face for the crime, and what long-term consequences might they face as adults for this incident?

2. Why was Gonzalez charged with burglary?

3. What other state charges could Gonzalez face besides burglary and ‘spraying a hoax substance’?

4. What federal charges – if any – could Gonzalez and the juvenile have faced, or why would they have not faced state charges?

5. What are some other “pranks” that might result in a young person being criminally charged, and what might those charges be?

Be sure to provide full explanations for your answers.  For more details, you can read the article this piece was sourced from here:

https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-news/report-suspect-wore-hazmat-suit-sprayed-liquid-in-walmart-to-make-funny-video-to-post-online/ 

Contributed by Saralynn. Lindsay

Volunteers Feed The Homeless,
Get Arrested By Police

On January 14th of 2018, 12 people from a volunteer group were arrested for handing out food to the homeless.

To provide some backstory to this situation, a community group called “Break The Ban” were distributing food and other items to the homeless population at a park in California. According to the police officers that arrived, they were violating a ban on sharing food in city-owned public areas, which was recently passed by the City of El Cajon in 2017. The reason for this ban was to stop the spread of Hepatitis A. the police cited some of the volunteers to jail but did not take them. But, for the two volunteers they arrested are scheduled to appear in court. The group was outraged by the act and is planning to fight the citations and the food-sharing ban.

There was another case in which this incident has occurred. According to Forbes, in Fort Lauderdale, police arrested a 90-year old man and two ministers in 2014 for trying to share their food with the homeless. In October of 2014, the city enacted an ordinance that bans sharing food in public parks, unless they have a permit from the city. As a result of this situation, the organization arrested (Food Not Bombs) sued the city of Fort Lauderdale on the basis of the ordinance violated their right to free speech and free association, and the ordinance was “unconstitutionally vague.” At first, a federal district court dismissed the case since food sharing events were outside the scope of the First Amendment since it did not convey a “particularized message.”

But, under that line of reasoning, that sounds like the First Amendment is confined to expressions conveying a particularized message. So, as a result, the case was ruled that Food Not Bombs does have a First Amendment right to share food. The case was sent back down to the lower courts to determine if the city’s ordinance was in violation of those rights. The city of Lauderdale has not responded to the request yet.

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Questions:

1) How does the First Amendment apply to these news stories?

2) Why do you feel the ordinance being issued to prevent the spread of Hepatitis A was or was not justified? 

3) Are there laws in your community restricting feeding the homeless, if so what are they, how do you feel about there being or not being laws about this activity in your community, and what can you do to support/change those local laws/policies?

4) (High School Students only) Even if you disagree with the policy in this case, imagine that there are some activities that people volunteer for or donate to that are meant to ‘make the world a better place’, but which should be managed or limited by local laws. How should local governments and law makers decide if an activity requires them to get involved in those activities (ex: Should sheltering homeless animals and feeding the homeless face the same kinds of restriction)?

Be sure to provide full explanations for each of your answers. For more details, you can read the article this piece was sourced from here:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/homeless-el-cajon-california-arrests_us_5a5de4f4e4b0fcbc3a1355f4?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

And / or

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicksibilla/2018/08/27/federal-court-first-amendment-protects-sharing-food-with-homeless-people/#fe8283b4884