Cities Across U.S. Deploying Police Amid Fears Of Attacks During ‘Joker’ Debut

Police in cities across America are ramping up police presence around theaters showing ‘Joker,” which opens nationwide on Friday.

Los Angeles police have  promised a “high visibility” presence around cinemas “to ease fears that the latest big screen comic book adaptation will ignite deadly violence,” The Times of London wrote.

New York City plans to do the same.

 

“As part of the continuing hysteria surrounding Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker film, New York City police will now patrol outside theaters screening it. In an age where mass shootings have become commonplace in the U.S., it isn’t hard to understand why concerns about such violence exist,” ScreenRant.com reported.

“Moviegoers in NYC will notice a hefty police presence when they go see “Joker” on opening weekend … cause the NYPD’s not taking any chances on someone acting out,” TMZ reported.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ …  the NYPD doesn’t want a copycat crime of what went down in Aurora, Colorado 7 years ago and is taking a “precautionary measure” by dispatching uniformed police officers to every theater across NYC screening the film.

We’re told officers will be patrolling in front of theater entrances, though the public should be aware police have not received any specific “credible threats” to the Todd Phillips film starring Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker.

In New York, the NYPD plans to deploy plain-clothes officers to theaters in all five boroughs, as well as the previously announced uniformed patrols that will be stationed at every screening, Deadline writes.

Other theaters will take different actions. A theater chain in Milwaukee “posted on social media a change in its bag and package policy going into effect Tuesday. Moviegoers can bring into theaters bags or packages no bigger than 12 inches by 12 inches by 6 inches,” the Journal Sentinel reports.

Movie theaters around the country are also banning masks and costumes at showings amid concerns about the movie’s violent theme.  Landmark Theaters, for instance, which has 52 locations nationwide, is banning masks, costumes at screenings.

” ‘Joker’ centers around the iconic arch nemesis and is an original, standalone fictional story not seen before on the big screen,” Rotten Tomatoes says. “Phillips’ exploration of Arthur Fleck, who is indelibly portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, is of a man struggling to find his way in Gotham’s fracturedsociety. A clown-for-hire by day, he aspires to be a stand-up comic at night… but finds the joke always seems to be on him. Caught in a cyclical existence between apathy and cruelty, Arthur makes one bad decision that brings about a chain reaction of escalating events in this gritty character study.”