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There have been three spin-off crimes following the dark night at the Colorado shooting; as anxieties escalate, authorities are hypervigiliant, and provoking mass hysteria is not at all a laughing matter, as the three arrests make clear.
The most disturbing of the arrests regards Timothy Courtois of Biddeford, Maine, who claims he was carrying a weapon while watching the Batman movie on Saturday. Whether or not his report is accurate, when he was pulled over for speeding — he was pushing past 100 with his emergency lights on — what the police found in his car was enough to place an arrest. He had an AK-47 assault weapon, four handguns, ammunition, and clippings about Holmes’ mass shooting from Friday. His purported goal was not theater related, however; he claims he was on a mission to kill his ex-employer.
The other two incidents might normally be taken as relatively unimportant, if it were not for the charged atmosphere: When the 52-year-old California Clark Tabor grew impatient with the delay of his movie, and he called out “I should go off like in Colorado,” and asked the crowd “Does anybody have a gun?” it seems his fellow movie-goers didn’t appreciate his humor. Its not a matter of such a joke being “too soon,” but being in the category of “never at any time.” At least police thought so. After they searched him, finding no gun in his backpack, nor any at his home, they charged him for making terrorist threats.
Tabor’s remarks unnerved fellow movie goers, but Michael William Borboa, 26, managed to induce mass hysteria. He entered a theater in Arizona drunk, was acting “strangely” and was threatening and picking fights with patrons. When police tackled him, they found nothing more than some empty and half empty alcohol containers in his backpack — but that was after 50 people fled the theater to escape him.
“When one subject confronted Borboa, mass hysteria occurred and 50 plus patrons ran from the theater” the police reported.
Visiting an airport always has an edge of anxiety after the horrors of 911. Will going out for a movie be likewise tainted?
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