WSJ.com: Local Chuck E. Cheese's gone wild
One of the most read stories on WSJ.com today features the Chuck E. Cheese's in the town of Brookfield.
The story, by Anna Prior, leads off saying in Brookfield, "no restaurant has triggered more calls to the police department since last year than Chuck E. Cheese."
It chronicles fights, melees and general disorderly conduct. The police captain comments, "The biggest problem is you have a bunch of adults acting like juveniles," says Town of Brookfield Police Capt. Timothy Imler. "There's a biker bar down the street, and we rarely get calls there."
The story also mentions the Milwaukee Chuck E. Cheese's location that Ald. Tony Zielinksi led the charge for removal of its liquor license in 2006.
Zielinski told The Wall Street Journal, "It was like something out of a Quentin Tarantino film. What parent is going to take their kids to a place where there is alcohol and pistols (are) being brandished?"
It's been years since I've stepped foot in a Chuck E. Cheese's location. Tell me, are they really this bad?
Talkbacks
BzMommyOfTwinz | Feb. 17, 2009 at 4:39 p.m. (report)
I frequently visit the CEC on Chase Ave & it is WONDERFUL! The staff and managers are SO friendly there and are constantly keeping a clean and happy environment for the kids! The salad bar is always fresh looking/tasting and the kids love the pizza too! :0) I have not gone to any other location - but Chase Ave. CEC takes the cake in my book!
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flatlander | Dec. 10, 2008 at 10:32 a.m. (report)
High Life Man, you are spot-on. I take my son to the Brookfield location rarely, but when I do, we go mid-afternoons when things are a little more low key. I would never go there at night.
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High_Life_Man | Dec. 10, 2008 at 9:27 a.m. (report)
It all comes down to a couple of things:
1) People go there and let their kids go wild. There's no discipline. It's not uncommon for people to drop off their kids and drive away - or sit in the back and not watch what their kids are doing.
2) CeC attracts a lot of ghetto-folk. It's a fact. And there is clearly a behavioral difference between a family that is from the rough streets (and probably on welfare) vs. a family from Brookfield (where dad makes $250,000/yr with his bigshot lawyer job). I'll probably be called a racist, but it's true (if you don't believe me, go sit at a CeC and observe). Certain people don't know how to behave. I think this is true for all aspects of life, but especially so when kids, alcohol and money is involved. These problems are a reflection of society as a whole.
Oh yeah, this isn't a new problem. I spent a couple of my formative-teenage-years working at the CeC on 124th and North. It was the same then as it is now, but probably not as bad (or reported about).
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GOONKA | Dec. 10, 2008 at 7:51 a.m. (report)
OMG! are they really THIS bad?! yes. sadly. They are. I got into a fight with some .. er, mother .. because she refused to corral in her children (this was at the one on Chase) and the manager did NOTHING to stop the situation. The next time we stepped foot in the place was a friends child bday party: my son was BIT! that mother wasn't even IN THE PLACE! cops were called and the manager said that even with the ID bands, people still dropped off their kids 'for free day care' and these kids were stuck there. Once the money ran out - assuming they were given money - they started hounding the other kids for their game tokens, or grabbing food from tables.
We never went back and this was in 1993. 2000 we thought: okay, lets take the nephews - it MUST be cleaned up. We went to Brookfield vs Chase. Nope. No better. Worse in some ways. There was nothing but young adults in there drinking. Some kids running around, but if the parents were on the premises, no one was watching them, as they were quite rude and hounding the kids for their tokens as well. Never gone back.
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DowntownRed | Dec. 9, 2008 at 7:26 p.m. (report)
Isn't this really old news?
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