Brought my wife and 3 young children to a Halloween festival sponsored by our city's police dept. Special live performance, costume contest, haunted house, etc. Performance turned out to be an hour long, increasingly disturbing/violent morality play put on by a local church. We kept thinking it was a really bad costumed drama until it was capped off with the most violent excerpts from Passion of the Christ and a call for people to accept Christ. There were no advance notices of the violence, the church, or the proselytizing. My kids were traumatized and my wife and I are still dumbfounded. Is there a law against this?
2006-10-30 05:14:55 · 5 answers · asked by Ambushed 1 in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
Did the police have guns to your head, forcing you to stay in your seats?
Bottom line ... you were not being held at this performance against your will. As it became, in your own words "increasingly disturbing" you should have got up and left.
You brought your children to see this performance. If you were at all unsure of the content, you should have declined to let them view it.
Since you were at a Halloween Festival, I can see how you would have expected a Legend of Sleepy Hollow type play, but when it became clear that what you were watching had nothing to do with the holiday ... you should have left.
You had the ability to leave at any time, but you made the choice not to.
To be honest with you, the whole event sounds like something you will get a good laugh out of in the future. It's Halloween and the kids got the crap scared out of them, just not quite the way you intended ;)
2006-10-30 07:17:05 · answer #1 · answered by BoomChikkaBoom 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No--movie ratings are optional, most theatres go along with them so they don't get angry parents hassleing them.
They should have had some truth in advertising the event, and should have had the sense to not show violence to kids (Passion was rated R). I don't think there is too much you can do, except talking to the makers of the performance, a letter to your paper, or a lawsuit you won't win that will cost you lots of money. Since the police sponsored the event, you could talk to them, but it may discourage them from throwing family functions in the future--be careful what you say to them--let them know you appreciate what they tried to do, but that you didn't like the violent part of it.
I would advise letting the performers know that they are inappropriate. Christians call other's actions inappropriate all the time, and you may make them more sensitive/sensible about showing children violence (even if they feel their message trancends the violence, it is still inappropriate for very young kids to see this). Hopefully you can make them see that just because it is true (in their opinion) doesn't mean it is for children to see in gory detail.
2006-10-30 13:27:32 · answer #2 · answered by wayfaroutthere 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I can't tell you the penalty, but I am sure there is one. In your shoes I would skip getting opinions from folks on here and just go straight to talk to a lawyer, or at least making a complaint with the Police Dept. so it's documented before it's so far behind you no one remembers. See if you can get anyone else that was there to write a short statement so that it is not only yours and your wife's opinion that it was too violent for kids. I'm sure you aren't alone. Maybe goto a town meeting if you live in a small enough town to do so. If it's a large place then it's probably a lost cause going that route because you'll be laughed out of the room because of biggest problems on the councils agenda. But yeah, I'd talk to a lawyer. 15 mins getting a lawyers opinion on if you have a case or not shouldn't cost you much.
2006-10-30 13:22:06 · answer #3 · answered by crazylifer 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Death by hanging...
Actually, film ratings are applied by the Motion Picture Association using some super secret formula and are not based on any law.
The only case you could possibly make is that of lewdness in a public place.
2006-10-30 13:31:28 · answer #4 · answered by bikeworks 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
well, yes and no. if you went by choice to this, then there may not be much you can do. check with the local police department (since this would be a state law thing anyways) and see what they recommend you do.
2006-10-30 13:23:38 · answer #5 · answered by swatthefly 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋