I’m sure the rush for seats is always a dangerous game, but seriously? (via 10News.com, a local San Diego TV station):
A young man who stabbed another near the eye with a pen Saturday at the Comic-Con convention at the San Diego Convention Center was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, police said.
The stabbing occurred around 4:45 p.m. at the convention center at 111 W. Harbor Drive, a San Diego Fire-Rescue Department dispatcher said.
The men were in Hall H at Comic-Con when they argued over one sitting too close to the other in the crowded room, said San Diego police Officer David Stafford.
“Stabbed” might be a bit harsh: it turns out the injured party received only a minor cut. Still bad, though.
This I can totally believe:
Other attendees restrained the suspect until police arrived, the newspaper reported.
In fact, I can see the scene, during which — while I am witnessing it in my head — I am vacillating between approval for the civicmindedness of fans (which I noted here the other day) and derision for how they all couldn’t resist the opportunity to play John McClane.
This I’m having some more trouble with:
Stafford described the Comic-Con crowd of self-described freaks and geeks as usually tame.
“There really haven’t been any issues,” he said. “They don’t drink, so that cuts down on the fights.”
They don’t drink? Clearly, this Stafford person has not been to the kinds of conventions I’ve been to…
The drinking is saved for the hotels and nightclubs.
Speaking of, ever see a convocation of seven Jedi make their way into a strip club…?
Violence at a sports event? Oh, well.
Wait. WHUUUUUUT?
You mean there’s violence at sci-fi conventions? A bunch of narrow-minded escapism enthusiasts acting like like Neanderthals? That’s beyond pathetic and it certainly won’t help their gangrenous reputations amongst respectable society.
Dammit, Patrick! You’ve blown the circuit breakers on my sarcasm detector.
who had passed out from the stench by the time the police arrived.
I’ve suffered enough conventions; I know my statement to be truth.
Oh, be consistent in your stereotyping! If the suspect was a congoer, he, too, must have reeked to high heaven, and thus would be immune to the stench of others.
Yes, a significant percentage of congoers do need to attend to their hygiene. But not *all* of them.
In crowded situations, it only takes a couple people in a crowdedroom to make it smell like no-one has washed. I remember one con where one individual smelled like he was smuggling the decomposing corpse of “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like”. It was the place Old Spice went to die. You could see the people shift in a 10″ radius around him to keep away from the stench.
Did you mean to say a 10′ radius, Left_Wing_Fox?
Or maybe you meant the distance represented by 10″ on a tabletop gaming board? If I recall correctly, in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules for ranged weapons and “area of effect” spells, 1 inch equals 10 feet. (Yes, I’m dorky enough to say that from memory, although I did use Google to verify its accuracy.)
Anyway, in that case a 10″ radius would translate to a 100 foot radius in real life. That’s a powerful stench indeed.
I think it’s amazing that this sort of thing hasn’t happened at SDCC before.
The dispute, in case anyone’s wondering, was about whether people should “clear the room” between panels. SDCC doesn’t clear the room, so if you’re anticipating a crowded panel, you show up at a few panels before and just take a seat. Hall H – the “please fill me with your marketing wonderment, giant studios” venue – is probably the hottest venue at the con, so if there’s some panel you want to see at 5pm, you’d best line up before the con even opens. You should have a backpack full of water and protein bars so as to not pass out.