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Jonathan Castner / AFP - Getty Images file
The scene in front of the Aurora, Colo., theater on July 20 where a gunman opened fire during the opening of the Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises."
Calling it a “disgusting offer” and a “thinly veiled publicity ploy,” some victims’ families of the Aurora, Colo., theater massacre are outraged that the movie house chain's owner would invite them to a special event marking the reopening of the place where 12 movie-goers were killed and 58 wounded.
Cinemark CEO Tim Warner offered free tickets to an event Jan. 17 for the reconfigured Aurora Century Theatre, according to an invitation letter sent to Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan and obtained by NBC News. Warner also points out the community had requested the theater's restoration.
In addition, victims and their families were told special arrangements could be made for them to visit before the reopening, on Jan. 15 and 16.
According to the Denver Post, an email invitation was also sent through the Colorado Organization for Victim Assistance. It said that counselors would be available at the event.
In response, a group of families fired back a letter of their own, blasting the invitation and saying they would urge a boycott of the event on social media.
“This disgusting offer that you’d 'like to invite you and a guest to a special evening of remembrance on Thursday, January 17 at 5 PM' followed by the showing of a movie and then telling us to be sure 'to reserve our tickets' is wholly offensive to the memory of our loved ones.”
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The letter says Cinemark had not reached out to families before the invitation.
"None of us received a letter of condolence or any other communication from Cinemark, but now they want us to step foot in that theater," Sandy Phillips, mother of Jessica Ghawi, told The Denver Post. Ghawi was one of the people fatally shot during the sold-out midnight showing of the Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises" on July 20.
“We, the families, recognize your thinly veiled publicity ploy for what it is: A great opportunity for you to distance yourselves and divert public scrutiny from your culpability in this massacre,” the letter states.
Court date set for Colorado theater shooting suspect's biggest hearing yet
A survey conducted this summer by the city of Aurora found the majority of residents in favor of having the theater reopened, the Post reported. It was remade into an XD theater with wall-to-wall, ceiling-to-floor screen.
Several victims’ families have sued Cinemark USA, alleging improper security at the theater on the night of the massacre.
A spokeswoman for Cinemark told NBC News the theater would have no immediate comment on the boycott.
James Holmes, a 25-year-old former neuroscience graduate student, is charged with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder in the shootings. On Wednesday prosecutors said they would make public evidence in the case for the first time in a hearing next week.
At previous hearings, a defense lawyer has said Holmes suffered from an unspecified mental illness.
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"Several victims’ families have sued Cinemark USA, alleging improper security at the theater on the night of the massacre."
Maybe this is why the theatre company has not stepped lively to every demand from every remote corner of any family tree of those killed by this madman. Just sayin'
One wonders what they would consider 'proper security' at a movie theater.
Armed guards? Metal detectors? Body cavity searches?
However will I sneak in my candy bar?
They'll never get anywhere with that type of lawsuit.
Fire regulations require OPEN access to exits in the event of a fire. You can lock the doors from the outside (as most theaters do), but you cannot lock them from the inside...so - the only option - close all movie theaters - right!
Totally agree - even the people who lived are trying to sue - this has become a fight about the almighty buck - nobody is suing the shooter, just the big corporation with the deep enough pockets.
Hopefully we don't have any ignorant, bleeding heart Americans sitting on that jury who believe the theater is culpable in ANY WAY.
Why the hell was the theater closed this long?
JonesD
"Read about the hundreds of people who are saved every day by those who legally own or carry firearms". Can you direct me to a credible news source? This is one of the talking points (spin) for gun proliferation advocates. Can you post the stories and the news source? One hundred for today may be too much, how about posting fifty, verifiable news stories about people she were "saved" today by a gun. I look forward to seeing what you got!
It happens and is reported in small papers, but big media rarely reports self defense and if it does, seldom in a positive light. The other things is the huge number of times a gun is used in self defense without being fired and is never reported.
what possible evidence could you have that "big media" (whatever that is) chooses not to report self defense stories? newspapers and tv news departments are businesses. they will report ANY story that they believe will interest their readers/viewers, which leads to more money for their business. period.
Kamaaina you don't like guns, I get it. Maybe you don't like people who like guns, and thats fine to. Don't fool yourself into believing you will ever be in a gun free zone, and that's not a bad thing. Was this the closest theater to the shooters house? No. Largest? No. Why was it picked then? Could it be it banned concealed weapons?
How bout Fort Hood. Why was that building and department picked. Easiest access? No. The shooters office or co-workers? No. Someone he had a personal issue with? No. It was a troop processing area where workers only, not the soilders being processed, were allowed weapons.
Crazy people out to kill, still have it together enough to pick areas where they will be least likely to fail.
TampaBay..
Scientists in europe found that the math didnt add up when put into a computer model dealing with global warming and sent a memo to the U.S. Despite having the memo and the science behind it the New York Times refused to publish a story because they felt it wasnt meant for public viewing. Couple months down the line they published stolen documents about what one Ambassador felt about another. You really think sealed government documents were meant for public view?
A local city in the 1970s, after getting the new 100 year flood drawings attempted to buy existing houses next to a park for public safety. A reporter blasted the city for "Throwing little old ladys out of their homes to expand the park". The plan was voted down due to public uproar. Two decades later when it all flooded the same reporter blasted the city for "Not preventing what they knew could happen"
Reporters, producers, news casters, editors all have personal opinions, and some clear agendas. Rarely do they let the truth get in the way.
Big media is, Main Stream media. So I bet you did not hear about the knife wielding man outside a grocery store in Salt Lake City Utah April 2012? Stopped by a lawfully concealed carry gun advocate. The only media coverage was the local news channel and it did not spread to main stream media.
Ok Disturbed, That is one. The comment made as "hundreds every day". Where are the other 99 for that day, or is a hundred a day just a fallacious talking point?
All adults in Switzerland are required to train with firearms and issued a gun by the govt. Roughly one of every two citizens in this country carry guns. The Swiss have the LOWEST INCIDENCE OF VIOLENT GUN CRIME OF ANY DEVELOPED NATION. This includes many countries with the tightest gun control regulations. The challenge is to set aside your emotions and use your intellect to examine the facts. Know you know about a developed nation where the govt actually requires you to be educated about firearms and issues you one to carry for protection. Which country do you think you and your children are the safest?
You should have read the whole article uncommom. Their laws for buying are even stricter than ours.
Carrying guns
To carry firearms in public or outdoors (and for an individual who is a member of the militia carrying a firearm other than his Army-issue personal weapons off-duty), a person must have a Waffentragschein (gun carrying permit), which in most cases is issued only to private citizens working in occupations such as security.
It is, however, quite common to see a person serving military service to be en route with his rifle.
I agree that the theater should re-open, otherwise you are sending a message of defeat. However, I do feel that inviting family members of the victims that were murdered there to an opening event is in bad taste.
why exactly would the theater chain be expected to offer condolences to the families? if there's a shooting on a public street, is the state department of transportation supposed to send a card?
Or tear up the street for a nice memorial?
The theater had culpability?
Are these idiots serious?
I smell attorneys seeking to sue.
Also, a guy in my town slammed into a pole and died. Should we cut down the light pole?
The classy thing to do would be to simply decline and move on. It's a building, it's a business, get on with your lives and get ready to shell out the coin to prosecute, incarcerate, and 'treat' the shooter for the next 30 years.
I'll take that TICKET!
I think inviting them to "A night of rememberance" was fine. The screwup was throwing in a few movie tickets. If they just had an event for them, that would be thoughtful. But the movie tickets make it seem cheap and disrespectful.
Even though they didn't do it quite right, I think their hearts were in the right place. Would the families rather that the theater just opened up and resumed operations, pretending it never happened?
The theater was under no obligation to do anything. They tried. Not good enough?? Tough.
Its not the movie theater or the owners fault the shooting happened! And its crazy to expect them to just close up shop and loose their business and their lifes investment because a crazy man decided to kill people in their business!
I can see why the families of victims would not want to revisit the place where they lost loved ones!
C'mon Ronald, quick being a voice of reason. Anywhere a gun crime has been commited should be shut down. The business owners should have had metal detectors and 100 armed security guards to prevent this. Of course the price of a ticket would be 200 dollars to cover the overhead hiring these people and safeguards. Quit preaching common sense and let the radicals on the right and left run our country. The more I read posts on any of these topics the more I understand that I am successful, I think for myself.
I can understand the families of the victims not wanting to go to that place. What was classless on the part of some of them was the "outrage" (perhaps at the behest of attorneys???) over a gesture that appeared to be sincere and done through very appropriate channels.
Come on families - it's not Cinemark's fault about what happened. Your anger is sorely misdirected. They are trying to turn a tragedy around - that's what life is all about, making lemonade out of lemons.
The community requested that the theater be restored and reopened. While the loss of life was a tragedy, the community at large needs to move on - you cannot be mired in sadness, regret and hatred for the rest of your life.
Your anger is justified - but at the shooter - not at Cinemark, the town, the theater or anyone else you decide to point your finger at.
Let's forgive, but not forget and move on with our lives.
This is not a story worth reporting. Protesting the theater is just a waste of time; it will change nothing. People need to get on with their lives and not TRY to get offended at every little thing they don't like.
I really hope the victims of the shooting don't use their experience as an excuse to accomplish nothing for the rest of their lives, but I am sure some will...
I have no idea how I would feel if I lost a loved one at the theatre shooting. I hope they have changed it enough that they can start to erase bad memories. At Columbine they did take the library down and move it and I think they rebuilt an atrium or something like that in its place.
The theatre would be damned if they didn't invite families and damned if they did ,maybe just a quiet reopening would have been better...hard to say
I meant to include I cannot understand the comments about lack of security. It would never have crossed my mind that I could be shot in cold blood watching a movie...or going to highschool or grammar school. I hope it does not come to the point that we will have armed guards at evey venue. I just have to disagree with Mr. LaPierre on this.
Cinemark isn't responsible for their loved ones being murdered. The shooter is. They are no more responsible than a city is responsible in a public park. I am sorry for the families but they need to suck it up and see that life moves on, with or without their loved ones.
dv727, yes the lawsuits will come because we have too many parasite lawyers and "victims" in this country who can't wait to take advantage of any tragedy. Some creep already filed a lawsuit against the state of connecticut for 100 million for not providing proper security. It's no more possible to prevent a psycho from commiting one of these henious crimes than it is to prevent damage from catastrophic storms. I absolutely feel sympathy for any and all who have lost loved ones to these evil bastards, but to think someone other than the perpetrators is somehow responsible is unreasonable.
Oh, no argument here. My intent in that comment was to point out the futility of comparing tragedies. That poster made reference to the lawsuits coming out of this case, and my point was only to state it's too early to consider the (current) lack of litigation out of Newtown as anything significant.
should have just torched it and open another theater nearby !
Torch it and claim arson? Why should the owners take a loss of the existing building and take on the expense of building a new theatre? What about the employees? Have the file for unemployment? Do they deserve to be out of a job because of the choice of one person?
Not a very realistic suggestion.
The only reason for these people to criticize the theatre for their offer is that they have not backed down and paid them for what they think was a lack of security on their part. What a joke? If you want to sue somebody to problem off your loss, sue the gunman. He is the one and only person who made the situation what it was. Sue the parents-sue his doctors-sue the police for not randomly being on the scene before it happened-sue the state for not requiring armour plated clothing for everyone to wear-sue the President for not visiting the scene of the shooting within an hour of its occurence.
Its a tragedy. We all get that. But our lives go on. Yours will too. Stop bringing everyone else down just because you can't cope.
I don't understand the anger myself. It sounds like an entitlement mentality to me.
No they just need to blame somebody, that is natural and I'm sure the lawyers were happy to comply.
Anger is the primary human emotional response to grief and if most of you folks don't understand that then count your lucky stars. You did not have to face what these people faced and probably never will. Some of the responses here are so immature and uninformed its ridiculous. Please don't try to walk around in shoes that don't fit you. You have no idea.
NRA : they say they believe in God, but they most truly worship the Gun
They say they believe in God as a deranged way to make guns seem holy. There is a commandment that goes Thou Shalt Not Kill.
Thou shalt not kill. But does that mean I can't defend myself or my family.
Seriously??
I doubt that the theatre owner meant to offend, any more than he hoped or wished to have a massacre on his grounds. Blaming the theatre for inadequate security is wrong but I'm sure he did not know that the invitation would be a trigger to renew the trauma. I don't know which ambulance chasing attorney suggested that this was appropriate but it certainly is not. The theatre happened to be the site selected by a sick, psycho young man. He could have chosen a McDonalds, a playground......or an elementary school. I won't dare suggest that the family's of the victim's "move on" as "moving on" can take decades, if it ever happens at all. But this doesn't actually help anything or anyone and disrupts the healing process.
These are the same people who want to profit after the lose of a love one. It's all about money and the Theater has is, not the murdering bastard that did the actually killing. Yes, they all need to move on. And we don't need another monument in it's place. That's is what a cemetery is for. To honor and to lay to rest!!!!!! The Theater made an offer, but the selfishness been exposed. Just open the damn Theater, and let it be!!
You can't let a deranged gunman win and stop life from going on. The best thing to do in the victims memory would be to return to normalcy. Of course that is easy to say having not been directly affected by this. And please don't use this as a way to comment on having more guns....that is really sick.
I think it was a good gesture by the theatre people. What more can they really do? As long as we live in a free country, bad things will happen. Look at the airport security. yes, things are tighter, but things continue to get through the gates! We must try to resolve issues as well as possible, but it seems when we try to take away something to try to make things better, someone cries and complains. We'll NEVER be without evil or bad things happening and we will ALWAYS be able to look back and point fingers at who's fault it was. At some point sometimes, we have to accept the bad,greve, and move on and continue to try to improve. Like the saying goes-Crap just sometimes happens"!
Most everyone has or has known someone that has died and if you don't then you more then likely will, it's a part of life. Granted what happened to those people has not happened to me but they could have just not gone and told the theatre why and I'm pretty sure they would have understood and probably tried to come up with something more appropriate according to the families wishes. You have to get on at some point and not make it any worse.
Again, an emotional based response. Not denying these families of their feeling and loss of loved ones but you can see that for the most part we make decisions based upon emotions. Immediately our government jumped all over gun control. 911 was a tragedy to all Americans. Should we boycott the airports too?
Emotion. Human emotion. Far too many people live by emotions rather than intelligent thinking.
This is a sad story sure, we've had a few in recent years and every time this happens an emotional response is played and manipulated by some government intervention. Nothing seems to work because no one seems to be thinking outside of the emotional realm. These incidents have been carried out by some emotional unstable being who for the most part obtain his weapon illegally. Behavior is the key here. Understanding and identifying behavior which is counter to a somewhat normal society consensus.
Identify those who are having difficulty in society and manage or limit their ability to obtain items which could harm themselves and others. Apparently our medical community has some fiduciary responsibility to our government to report these individuals. I guess it's a start. Approaching these folks and enlightening them with this new found knowledge is another matter all together. Rights. Our Civil Rights come into play. Complicated at best.
Entertainment. We love watching TV going to movies or reading books. I tend to scrutinize the visual attributes of TV and movies. The more extreme the better. Shoot them up, Bang, Bang. We love watching the visual effects of someone get shot or blown to pieces. Take the hundreds of hours spent by some disturbed individual who lives in some fantasy world and see what happens. Scary. When my kids were small and I had no control over where they were playing. I gathered up kids in my neighborhood and took them to a two day hunter safety course to help them understand the dynamics and ownership of firearms. They developed a healthy respect and their parents thanked me for considering the importance. We really don’t have control of what’s going on at other families homes.
We are continuously inundated by Public announcements. Example: Did you use this has a loved one done that, let the law offices of BLA and BLA help you with your case. BS but effective. If the FDA was doing it’s job we would not see all this.
How about a public announcement about Gun Ownership? How about Gun safety courses for you and your families. How about a twenty second bite about how to lock and store your guns. How about using some real informative, educational and common sense approach to a problem? My heuristic opinion is that if we publicized Gun Safety courses that a majority if not all legal gun owners would participate in these classes. It would also stimulate the economy with residual dollars going to the tax coffers. No we can't do that. Americans are looked upon as stupid and complacent for the most part and they need real leadership and government to keep them in line. Unemployment line, SSI line, Hospital lines ect.. Today Biden is tasked with this matter. California Dems. have gotten off their easy chairs to tell Teachers to stop investing their retirement in Gun manufacturers. City of LA also banned the sale of reloading supplies. Are they saying the Gang Bangers are sitting around reloading? Give me a break. Again the Gov. using it’s manipulative might to rally change. Looking back in time it all seemed to become more of a faltering society when the Government endorsed women's rights and working. They could suck in more revenue. The trade off was no moms at home to maintain a stable home environment. Remember the “Latch key kids”. Their older now and many are out of control. Thanks to, yep, American politics. Seems like all this Constitutional dabbling is a precursor for trouble much bigger than school shootings. Take God out of the equation, moms out of the homes. It’s gone to far.
God bless us all. We’re down to divine intervention. So if you want real answers and solutions I suggest finding and dusting of those old Bibles. If for nothing else you might find some thought provoking stories which could help you cope with today's top news stories.
People are now buying armored backpacks for their children and again record sales of guns and ammo with folks legally applying with the DOJ. Legal citizens. Think about that? Law abiding citizens for the most part registering and buying guns. Another emotional response but still a response. The same people who are voting in local and national elections. The politicians, All should really take a look at what their considering here. Imagine what will take place if they pass some intrusive bill which allows authority to start searching homes and residencies? It will get ugly then FEMA will have to pull out it’s 98 Apache helicopter gun ships. Yep, FEMA
Punishing all for the ill behavior of a few is a slap in the face to the integrity and responsible of the patriotic civilian. You will not gain support with this counter Constitutional Act. What this conveys is that no one can be trusted. Think about what you are doing. Adding cops to our educational system is a thought but will add additional expense to the equation. Giving teachers guns for class is another consideration. Then think about contract negotiations and bargaining agreements. Next there will be added expense for hazardous work environments. We have an abundance of recently and well trained military personnel who are looking for work. An alternative to adding police services to schools look at tapping into this existing resource for help. Train, train and retrain those who want to be part of the solution. Create the environment that supports our Constituently history and maintains sensible approach to a changing society. Think out of the box for real change.