Free day at Kansas City Zoo ends in violence
 

Free day at Kansas City Zoo ends in violence

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March 18
BY MATT CAMPBELL AND TONY RIZZO
The Kansas City Star

The Kansas City Zoo will again review its policies after a frightening spasm of violence Tuesday afternoon that included shots fired in the parking lot.

There were no reported gunshot injuries, but zoo officials want to avoid having the animal park gain a reputation for being unsafe on days when it is open for free to residents of Jackson and Clay counties.

Tuesday’s disturbances followed another incident on a free day last April when a police officer breaking up a fight in the parking lot got a bloody nose. In both cases, the free admission drew crowds that were too big for the zoo to handle.

“I’m always concerned about how people feel about the zoo,” zoo director Randy Wisthoff said shortly after Tuesday’s incident. “That’s always at the top of my plate, that people feel safe here.”

Several witnesses on Tuesday described a chaotic scene of brawls and gunshots.

Kristi Sharp Patterson, who was at the zoo Tuesday with her children, said that as they were leaving, she saw people on the ground in handcuffs, and crowds were gathering around.

“Next thing you know shots were fired in the parking lot right in front of the zoo and everyone started screaming and running in every direction,” Patterson told The Star. “By far the scariest experience ever.”

After last year’s incident, the zoo switched its four free days from weekends to weekdays to reduce crowd sizes. It also doubled its security force of four to six off-duty police officers. It now deploys 10 to 12 off-duty officers.

“We’re going to sit down and evaluate it again,” Wisthoff said, adding that he would meet in the next couple of weeks with staff from the city’s parks department as well as commissioners on the zoo’s taxing district board.

Voters in Clay and Jackson counties were promised four free days a year in return for approving a 1/8-cent zoo sales tax in 2011.

“We can’t just take that away,” Wisthoff said.

The next scheduled free days are June 24, July 15 and Aug. 5, all Tuesdays.

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Attendance was about 19,000 at the zoo Tuesday. It was more than 29,000 on a Sunday last April when fights also broke out.

“The zoo just cannot handle that many people,” Wisthoff said. “It just gets too crowded. The pathways are too small. That many people can’t see the penguins.”

Attendance was about 6,000 by midday Tuesday, but that number ballooned as the temperature warmed, to the point the zoo was trying to admit as many as 4,000 people an hour.

On top of that, it is spring break for many, and lots of young people were without adults. Wisthoff said security had to escort some of them out of the zoo when they became rowdy.

According to witnesses, trouble grew as the 4 p.m. closing time approached.

Tammy West, who had two small children with her, said that as she was leaving between 3:15 and 3:30 p.m., several hundred people appeared to be standing around just inside the zoo entrance. West said she saw people brawling with police officers who were struggling to break up fights.

Outside, West said, she heard yelling and screaming behind her and saw someone grab a police officer and throw him to the ground. She took her children and ran to her car.

“I got out of there,” she said.

West said people outside the gate were angry that they were not being allowed to enter. The park staff began to cut off admissions to the park about 3:30 p.m. But West said the employees were having a hard time keeping people out.

Gwen Jones was another zoo patron who was leaving about the same time. After she got to her vehicle in the parking lot and buckled in her children, Jones said, a fistfight broke out in front of her vehicle. She drove a short distance and then heard two shots.

“They sounded awful close,” she said. “I’m glad I got out of there when I did.”

A police spokeswoman confirmed that shots were fired in a parking lot outside the zoo. She said several people were arrested related to fights.

Police, with the help of a helicopter, searched unsuccessfully for a man thought to have fired the shots.

Wisthoff said many people enjoyed a good day at the zoo.

“We want for people to be able to see the zoo free,” he said. “We just have to figure out how to accomplish that and maintain a safe environment.”

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2014/03/18...#storylink=cpy

Oh boy. Here comes houstonwhateverthe**** and the others.

Edit: houstonwhodat

Yael T. Idiot's column says the same thing happened last year, I'd never heard of it.

It sucks that they at least offer a few free days and people have to mess it up. Can you imagine being a family just wanting to have a nice free day at the zoo and having it turn in to...well...A ZOO??

This kind of stuff happens in KC?

Mind blown!

Unfortunately It did happen last year too. Bunch of idiots.

Every now and then, you want to see a penguin.

That made me LOL for some reason.

Well, at least they didn't shoot any of the zoo animals. That would be bad.

Yep...."free day" is NEVER the day to take your kids to the zoo.

Bannister Mall------>>>>Parks and Light District------>>>>>Zoo

must

resist

urge

to

make

gorilla

jokes

Slaughter the offenders and feed them to the animals.

When I first read your topic title I thought it was a bump of last years topic.

WHAT A SURPRISE THIS IS!

Some people are less civilized than the animals IN that zoo. Troof.

I kept reading hoping that I would find out that the fights spilled into the lion pen and then the lions joined in, but sadly disappointed. This story wouldn't even make the daily Florida news thread.

The hood nests all around the zoo add the word 'Free' and watch the trouble begin. Last year there were problems on free day also.

Have a battalion of officers next year with tear gas, paddy wagons and billy clubs at the ready.

This should be a fun thread.

Think I'll go next year and people watch.

Except for a giraffe, maybe. I hear those are expendable these days.

Larry Johnson and Bam Morris were there.

Don't have to wait til next year...there is another one scheduled in June.

Da zoo. seein some animals n shit.

I think the KC Zoo is pretty crappy.

Can we somehow get all the violence to happen by the polar bear so we can watch?

http://www.wave3.com/category/244581...polar-bear-cam

And they're wrong. That many people can see the penguins at the same time - http://www.kansascityzoo.org/penguincam

That would have been cool. Or maybe if it got too out of control, the police would have just released the lions. That would clear the place out quick.

Now that I think about it, it would be cool if the police had lion units like they have canine units. When some policeman comes in with a lion, ain't no one going to cause trouble.

This is why we can't have nice things.

I bet a spinning hippo tail could put an end to all this.

Instead of zoos, it would be nice if we could just let the animals run free, and make sure they have dens and stuff for times when the weather is bad. How cool would it be to look out your front window and see kudu grazing, or a giraffe trimming your tree? Yeah, we'd lose a few people to predators, but they'd probably only take the sick and weak, so from a societal perspective it would be a good thing.

If that were to happen, I would make a moat filled with Antifreeze around my house.

I think it would be cool if they brought in some African megafauna (elephants, rhinos, giraffes, no predators though) and let them roam the American southwest in all that open space and populate. It would also help out the endangered species problem due to the poaching that goes on over there.

Keep the animals back in their cages instead of turning them loose in the parking lot. Ban more guns!

Honestly, shouldn't you be doing that anyway?

Only allow a free day for JOCO residents. Problem solved.

Or the adult male chimpanzee area. They get pissed off quickly if their territory is invaded. It would be a frantic dismemberment which would be a fitting conclusion.

We should propose that.

Stupid people love to see anything "Free". It's only $7 entry for all Jackson Co. residents anyway....

I do have a moat, but I cannot fill it with antifreeze because its full of Alligators. Though I am working on immunizing the Alligators to antifreeze, then I can have one of the best moats in the history of moats. At least in current times.

Yeah, but if you invest that $7 in a moderately aggressive stock, you can retire about 30 minutes earlier when you get old.

"I got 9 in the clip and 1 in the hole,
I'm up at the zoo gonna make some penguins turned cold.
Zoo said it's free, I said it's a date
Time for my useless to regulate."


I heard he was humming this as he was ****ing it up for everyone else.

Would probably do more to **** up our ecosystems than anything. You can't just introduce foreign species like that and expect things to run smoothly.

New Mexico granted your wish in the 60s....

Buy bullets, go hunt.:thumb:

http://compasswestoutfitters.com/wp-...co-603x333.jpg
^not me

The Ibex in the Florida Mountains. :thumb:

http://b.vimeocdn.com/ts/395/127/395127896_295.jpg

:popcorn:

This. Plus, and I can't speak for New Mexico or Texas, but those big animals wouldn't survive very long in this part of the Sonoran. It's not like the Sahara with watering holes. The lakes here are surrounded by steep cliffs. A rhino or elephant would be ****ed trying to get to water.

Ohh shit. Free day, plus heat??? Has no one seen predator 2...

Well, this is easy to fix. Next year offer the 4 mandatory free days in the middle of January. Hell, throw in a 5th day and call it a frozen free week.

Maybe they should just turn the hippos loose?

I heard they made a lot of improvements in recent years, but I haven't been there since 2007 or 2008

I haven't been since maybe 2010. I enjoyed going to the Topeka zoo more, really. They have fewer animals, but it seemed to be a more enjoyable experience to me.

What happens in KC, stays in KC.

Omaha and St. Louis are good, and not too far away... probably doesn't help the KC zoo any

I can't figure out why people would go to any sort of "free day" anywhere. Insane crowds outweigh any potential benefit.

If you ain't there on free day you ain't chimp shitEA.

What could go wrong?

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I have lived in Boston, Tampa , Syracuse, and now Providence. Is there a reason every city's zoo seems to be in the shittiest neighborhood?

Would you want giant piles of wild animal feces in your hood?

Which is more likely:

a) You get killed at the zoo when a lion escapes.
b) You get killed at the zoo during free day.
c) The Chiefs sign someone you've heard of in free agency.

there's gotta be a Mississippi Blacksnake joke in here somewhere.

d) the polar bear web cam breaks down.

You and I wouldnt go. But think about the types of people who the word "free" might attract.

Usually lower income families.

Free day at the K for Jackson/Clay County would result in AT LEAST 4 deaths.

yep.
I remember years ago (and it still may apply) Chipotle was doing some thing where if you brought in 2 canned goods, you'd get a free burrito. JFC, i swear there was a line that had probably 300 people in it. I wouldn't wait in a line like that for free blowjobs and cash.

I mean, good on them for the food drive, but still.
same thing goes on Halloween.

I remember that. People waiting hours for a $7 burrito.

I remember it well; not only for the line but because of what my friend said.

She and I worked together for 4 years, then later by coincidence we ended up working at 2 other places together, so we were good friends.

she was a very funny, but polite woman. I don't think i ever heard her cuss, and if I did, it was like 'hell', or 'crap'.

We decided to go out for our weekly burrito at lunch, and as we drove past the Chipotle and saw the line (this Chipotle was in a corporate office park), she drives by and sees the line and says "**** that. where should we go now?".
LMAO

Its not rocket science........

I remember thinking I'd consider quitting if I worked there.

Why don't they just distribute vouchers for a free entry on any day?

I was considering taking my kids to the KC zoo this year, but screw that....we'll just go to Omaha.

Yep. In most every large city across America. Its happened several times in Houston. After the last one, they stopped the free day bull shit. Quanel "X", a local activist, actually called a press conference and blamed City officials, rather than the thugs, for the problem saying that if you're gonna have a "free day" its the city's responsibility to pay additional police officers and pay out overtime hours to officers to protect those who go. Deal is, the city had done just that...

Would definitely alleviate some of the pressure of such massive crowds.

Dwayne Bowe.

This is what happens when you invite animals to view the animals

I really liked the Zoo when I visited KC last year

Yep. Ain't no watering holes or grazing plains up in here...Would be interesting to see if they could somehow evolve though.

LET'S GET THIS ZOO CRUNNNKkk!

Quanel X. That's all I need to know...

I read a cop got a bloody nose, a Cop got thrown to the ground... And people really cry when a cop uses a firearm or tazes people?? OH THEY TAZED HIM TOO MUCH.. NO Sht he was just being beaten up.

So sick of people throwing cops around and the minute a cop says F that like hes SUPPOSED to do... the entire community throws him/her under the bus

A press conference? :hmmm:

There's what roughly 900k residents in Jackson and Clay counties? What's the cost to print and distribute all those?