I was out this evening with a few people connected to those involved in the incident.
I got the impression that the management involved may view the situation as a mistake; I have been told that they may have quietly contacted the group offering them free carousel tickets… not exactly, in my view, a sufficient response, but certainly a suggestion that this wasn’t a decision that they thought was the right one, regardless of whether they’ll publicly back their employees. It has apparently made the local papers, and is likely an embarrassment at this point. There’s some suggestion that the mall cops may have acted the way they did here because of a group apparently dressed in “vampire”-like costumes who had caused problems some time before.
The mall is fortunate that those involved are not particularly aggressive about these matters; one couple this evening has apparently strongly suggested that people in the group consider legal action against the mall, and is continuing to do so, while a few people in communities in the area who didn’t attend but could have would have had their lawyers on the phone before the police arrived.
