This reminds me of a TV show I saw years ago.

A millionaire wanted to buy property so he hired a bunch of teen thugs to **** shit up at a business and drive the property value down.

It worked.

https://www.nationalcivicleague.org/.../past-winners/

Independence (1961, 1982, 2001)

The Wife and I were there back (way back!) when there was a Luby's in that place. We ate there after a day of shopping at santacaligon, back in the day. Haven't been there since. Apparently, unless you are carrying, it is probably best to stay away. :thumb:

Wouldn't be the least surprised to see the mall close down before long....what is this now? 5-10 of these asshole shootings and "brawls" now?

Yeah. The city and pd are going to have to go nuclear option on the kids. This it literally how bannister went down. Had the police in towers.

Kids and parents will need charged and independence prosecutors will need to find their sacks. Besides blaming the kids and parents, this is also on the government for being so soft on criminals. They don't fear shit there.

Yep. Apparently not. With all the media attention this has gotten, beefed up security, and stricter mall policies....and kids still went out there today and were not afraid of shooting at each other.

:facepalm:

Thugs shoot each other in the parking lot. CLOSE THE MALL!!!

Hmm....Well, when all your customers have left from fear of (a) getting the daylights beaten out of them or (b) shot at in the parking lot - well, there isn't much left rather than to close the doors.

Unless mall management and the local cops get their act together, closing is a distinct possibility, wouldn't you agree? :shrug:

Closing doesn’t solve anything. Just hurts the local economy.

Exactly, the Center has already been struggling. Sears and Applebees were two of the biggest ones that closed recently.

A friend owned the Merry-Go-Round that was on the concourse. The new owners gave them the boot after 20 years and closed the Children's playland. It was a terrible move. They brought in more video games to attract teens, which also brought problems since the City has been closed down.

That area has a large Police presence- it is a dumb idea to start trouble there unless you want to get caught.

That’s too bad. That was a nice little family area there with the merry go round.

The Police are always parked in the lot. They have been on the scene and made arrests. Not sure how it is their fault.

Mall Management- yes, they need to step it up.

Looks like the curfew has been moved up to 3pm for those under 17.

Isn't there school? So they've essentially banned kids except weekends?

Let's be honest those kids arent going to school all fingers point back to the parents but we cant do that because we are no longer a society that believes in responsibility

But they are all misunderstood teens. They have trauma and need to do whatever they want. They need more restorative justice.


/sarcasm

Thank goodness it’s not your problem anymore.

If I lived in the town, I would open a store in the mall called "Boxing Center" and let everyone who wants to fight come in and charge the other kids admission.

BOOM- problem solved! Win win

My dad used to do this...until Independence Center became a hot trash dumpster.

I am in class now. ..

I left a list of 3 things for the kids to do. They are doing them and being good and working.

This is what school should be

Most parents these days just give excuses to why their kid is a shithead. It's the schools. It's the tv. It's the video games. It's the government. On and on.

I don't have any kids because I know I'd be a shitty parent. That is the first step. Tons of people who don't want the responsibility, but they do it anyway.

When parents screw up and look in, they push all their resentment out, and blame others.

They do and in my opinion to many people become parents. How many people of the general population become parents? 95%? It should be more like 60%. Not everyone should have kids. That is the sad truth. If you value your hobbies and your freedom, don't have kids. Don't have kids just because society says you should, and be a shitty parent.

This goes a lot of different ways, schools and psychologists have gotten way over involved in parenting and coddling really. When I was a kid if I ****ed up I got the shit smacked out of me, these days they expect when your kid ****s up that you should hug them and tell them it's ok.

Society in general turned children into these little cult objects that should be worshipped and coddled and it's created a real problem.

Yeah I think that is good and bad. There isn't a one size fits all. Some kids will take advantage of that and become lazy and/or act out. Some kids need the coddling to succeed. Others need the scolding. I think the one size fits all approach is not the best method.

But this is why you see the serious issues with some kids these days, there aren't any serious punishments anymore.

This to me is where it starts, when I was in school if I didn't turn something in on time it was a zero, now they can turn shit in late as hell and get credit, it just teaches them they don't have to follow any guidelines.

I heard over the latest shooting, Chick fil a also closed early and will look into relocating.

That is a cash cow that could be leaving. Shit, I bet a small portion of mall traffic is from there. Practically an anchor tenet.

Agreed. Chick Fil A doesn’t play around. They typically only open stores in affluent and low crime areas.

Yeah. School can be remarkably effective, and is IMO critical for social development.

But it doesn’t work without support from home.

Wait, do yo mean Merry Go Round like the thing with the horses that goes around in circles? Or do you mean the clothing store that was there in the 80s?

Ha, that my first thought.

https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/client/to_...re-720x445.jpg

An old-fashioned ride with horses and other animals.

They should all be charged with murder for spreading the Coronaidz.

I never said it was "their" fault. What I said was there needs to be more cooperation between mall management and the police there. I really don't know how they are supposed to necessarily top these things from happening, but if they don't figure some out - customers WILL eventually head to other stores.

The real deal with horses going up and down in circles on a turntable.

The engineering firm I worked for laid out did design and construction staking of Independence Center. The original owners of that mall saw the end nearing. They watched Banister Mall self destruct along with the popularity of strip malls with drive up parking access to the building fronts. When That strip mall just to their east started construction they sold. The new owners out of the area with no history in this area did a remodel of the interior. They lost some tenants and gained some and promised the food court and Merry Go Round would remain. They raised the lease and lost many retailers and the bad stuff came. Cell phone centers and shitty cheap cosmetic jewelry stores. It attracted trouble just like old Bannister mall its dead they just don't know it yet.

Arrested for toy guns this time


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Three carrying toy guns arrested after disturbance at the Independence Center <a href="https://t.co/wgFZIixPwM">https://t.co/wgFZIixPwM</a></p>&mdash; KMBC (@kmbc) <a href="https://twitter.com/kmbc/status/1348377343434387458?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

^ How would shots be fired with toy guns?

You know kctv5 won’t let this die.


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Bannister, Indian Springs and the fate of Independence Center <a href="https://t.co/INglqMP9aP">https://t.co/INglqMP9aP</a></p>&mdash; KCTV5 News (@KCTV5) <a href="https://twitter.com/KCTV5/status/1348849907352952832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 12, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Bannister is gone? Holy cow.

Indian springs was crap when I lived there and taught school close to it.

Dunno if this was a sarcastic comment or not lol...but Bannister has been gone for a looooooooong time.

Not sarcastic. I did not know that. It was a huge place.
First time I saw a Walmart that big.

What else is there now?

I have not lived in KC since 1995

The mall is just gone. Empty field is all. The surrounding area where the Walmart and other strip mall stores was is now a Cerner campus.

It's now a huge office complex for Cerner Corp. The mall was razed years ago. The land was originally a horse riding ranch called Benjamin Stables. Warpaint was stabled there in the 1960 snd 1970s.

Its weird as hell, I go to Independence Center frequently, it's not in a bad area so I don't really get what's going on.

tearing down and vacating a walmart is not an easy task either

It’s probably just a phase, but they have had incidents over the years.

Your right, it’s not a bad area so that will help keep it alive.

The city has a lot invested in that area, so I would imagine they would work hard to protect it.

Wasn't that Walmart called Hypermart or something like that? I remember that place being huge, but didn't frequent that area too much.

Yeah it was, think it was one of the first ones with a grocery store and was a precursor to the Supercenters.

Topeka had a Hypermart too

It was the first.

Walmart understood their mistake and couldn't wait to unload those Hyper properties. The scaled-back supercenters soon followed eliminating appliances and other things that weren't popular but kept the grocery.

Srvy... more good info. I did not know that either.

Apologies in advance for linking to KCTV5, but it was the only place that I could find a picture of Mr. Toy Gun Music Video Man.....

https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.town...size=640%2C480


Man charged following Sunday incident at Independence Center...