From the San Jose Mercury News, June 4th:
In e-mails and phone calls to the Mercury News this week, more than 20 people who said they attended the KISS-FM Old School Fiesta Concert on Saturday criticized Shoreline security for not more closely examining their bags or not patting them down in a search for weapons.
Six people were stabbed and there were numerous fights during the concert, which ended 15 minutes early. [...]
Aaron Siuda, a Live Nation spokesman, reissued the same one-paragraph statement released Monday, assuring people that the company takes security very seriously and blamed a few "irresponsible patrons" for "isolated fights" Saturday night.
But that kind of response doesn't satisfy Ric Mora, 54, of San Jose. He said he left the concert two hours early when some people started throwing chairs.
"I thought they would hit my wife," said Mora, who added he would prefer Shoreline use wands to check everyone who enters like at events at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton. [...]
According to Mountain View police spokeswoman Liz Wylie, [...] "But these were not your average people. We believe this was between gangs and they were looking to fight, no matter what."
So, let's see: A bunch of folks complain that security didn't strip search everyone, yet most of the violence was from fist fights and throwing chairs. The strip searches wouldn't have prevented any of the violence, but it sure would have been another erosion of everyone's liberty. Ben Franklin ("They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.") is right once again.
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