'They had no qualms violating my rights': OH mom says gun militia demanded $10 to walk through mall

[jberryhill]

59. I do not know the "normal workings" of a particular mall in Ohio

There is no dispute that there was an event going on which required payment of an admission fee.

The "story" is not a news article by a reporter, but a letter to the editor, so I do not expect it contains all relevant facts.

So, what do we have to go on?

1. We have a letter from someone stating they would not "pay the $10 for the privilege to walk through the mall", and saying that the people running an event were upset that the family wanted to go through the event without paying admission, and acted like jerks.

2. We have an advertisement for an event, being held at that mall, for which admission was $10.

Now, whether it is strange, unusual, or whatever, for there to be an event at a mall for which admission is charged, it is not a disputable fact that is what was going on. I am aware of malls which, by virtue of lack of tenants, have a lot of empty space and the movie theater is about the only going concern.

I was "inconvenienced" by the fact that while out riding my bike through a public park and being out of water, a pavilion which happened to have running water was apparently rented out to a private party. Had I gone into the area they rented in a public park in order to refill my water bottle without their permission - even though it's a public park - and insisted that I had some kind of right to do so, would have been rude, and it would also have been trespassing.

Now, sure, normal people manage to sort these kinds of things out. But the bottom line remains that if you have rented a space for a function at which you are charging admission, then you can certainly insist that people entering that space pay the admission fee.

The author of the letter was under the apparent misimpression that they had a public right-of-way through a private shopping center of which a portion was closed to persons who had not paid admission.