Every once in a while in my job covering the news for VICE, I come across a new story about someone taking the pursuit of petty social vengeance too far, and I find myself siding with the rogue vigilante when I know I shouldn’t. You shouldn’t handle what are ultimately minor disagreements on how to conduct oneself in a shared space in a way that gets you in trouble, too.
For instance, I understand why one guy allegedly pepper-sprayed another guy for looking at his phone while watching a movie at an AMC in Burbank, and I want to root for the pepper sprayer, but maybe he should have informed one of the theater attendants instead.
According to NBC News and local affiliate reports, 34-year-old Matthew Ware was arrested for misdemeanor battery after allegedly turning a routine screening of The Uprising into an impromptu lesson in movie theater manners.
Moviegoer Arrested After Allegedly Pepper-Spraying Man Who Wouldn’t Put His Phone Away
About 40 minutes into the movie, Ware, seemingly invigorated by the film’s themes of rebellion against oppressors, allegedly walked up to the person in the theater scrolling on his phone and asked him to put it away. The guy on the phone refused. According to a different theatergoer named Joe Rodriguez, who was in the theater at the time this happened, he relayed to NBC News that Ware had allegedly complained that the guy on the phone “got smart” with him, which is honestly such a refreshing and delightful use of old-timey sayings.
Ware did not enjoy having gotten smart with, so he allegedly pulled out a canister of pepper spray and unloaded it in the guy’s face.
If you’ve never sprayed a canister of pepper spray before, you should be aware that its effects are not localized only to the target. There is always some collateral damage, and in this case, some nearby patrons got sprayed too, sending them to the hospital for eye irritation. Everyone else in the theater fled to get away from the fumes and the general aura of violence. Ware tried to make a break for it, but witnesses chased him down to the lobby and kept him pinned until Burbank police slapped some cuffs on him.
Again, I understand the desire to put these social terrorists in their place, but there is a better way to handle such stuff instead of instantly resorting to riot dispersal tactics.
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