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Mall Brats

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  May 14, 2026 4:00 PM

In high school and college, I spent a lot of time at the movies. My favorite haunt was the $1 second-run theatre on the city's far west side. After leaving the big-name theatres in the area, newer releases would make their way to the discount joint. The price was right, the popcorn was tasty, and movies were my escape.

I saw probably hundreds of films as a teenager and young adult, including watching "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" in that theater 27 times in the spring of 2002. That theatre, sadly, was demolished years ago, but I still go to movies frequently, and am a member of the local chian's theater club, which gets me one free ticket a month and discounts on concessions.

In the last few years, that theater chain implemented an age-restriction policy. After 6 pm, anyone attending a movie must be 18 or older or accompanied by an adult. Why? Because "youths" had been causing trouble at the theaters: getting into fights, disrupting movies, and acting thuggish in and around the theater.

That would have put a severe dent in my world as a teenager. 

The same rules apply to the malls in my area. Mayfair Mall, for example, requires anyone age 17 and under to have an adult with them after 3 pm on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. It allows one adult to chaperone up to four kids. The same applies at Southridge Mall, but they only allow an adult to chaperone three kids.

The Wall Street Journal is lamenting these age restrictions, which are becoming more ubiquitous as certain groups' social behaviors continue to decline.

Here's more: 

Darcel Clark was at the Mall at Bay Plaza in the Bronx, N.Y., in February, waiting for her order from the Bed-Stuy Fish Fry when a rowdy group of teenagers suddenly descended on the property.

“They’re recording videos of themselves. I see them running from one place to another,” said Clark. “It was really disturbing.”

Some stores and restaurants locked their doors. By the end of the day police had arrested 18 teenagers.

Mall owners are reacting to a wave of recent disruptions to their properties by taking an extreme measure: They are banning all shoppers under 18 who aren’t accompanied by an adult. Some check IDs at the entrance, while others do spot checks inside the mall.

At the Bronx mall, the owner temporarily banned younger shoppers who weren’t with someone 21 or older. These chaperone policies—sometimes called youth-escort or parental-guidance policies—started decades ago and have increased alongside the rise in mall disruptions over the years.

In some cases, mall takeovers have devolved into physical fights, robberies and gunfire. Landlords view banning unaccompanied minors as the most direct way to address the problem. Chaperone policies are also used to respond to gang violence, food-court brawls and shoplifting.

The headline, by the way, reads: Teens Helped Bring Malls Back to Life. Now They're Getting Banned.

The blanket ban on teens is the only way the malls can avoid accusations of racism, of course. We've all seen the viral videos on social media. In Chicago, Los Angeles, and other places, there is a racial component to the mobs. Noticing this pattern, of course, is considered a thought crime of the highest order.

Yes. Because reasons.

It's not hard to do.

This is a direct outgrowth of a society that has decided to label anti-social, dangerous, and violent behavior as "culturally appropriate," as the Cherry Creek School District in Colorado does. They're the subject of a lawsuit for the district's race-based discipline system. In Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson chided those who referred to the roving mobs in his city as, well, mobs. "We have to be very careful when we use language to describe certain behavior," Johnson said at the time. "There's history in this city. I mean, to refer to children as like baby Al Capones is not appropriate."

The Wall Street Journal couldn't even accurately describe the problem, referring to it as "disruptions."

There needs to be consequences, severe legal consequences, for this behavior. For too long, however, society has largely turned a blind eye in the name of "tolerance" and "diversity." We've also allowed the Left to chip away at our cultural norms, classifying them as white supremacist behavior.

This includes things like punctuality, work ethic, and behavior. In 2021, KIPP charter schools jettisoned their longstanding slogan of "Work Hard. Be Nice." because it "passively supported ongoing efforts to pacify and control Black and Brown bodies" and "centered whiteness and meritocracy." The year prior, the Smithsonian — the Smithsonian — had infographic about "whiteness" that listed traits of the "dominant culture of whiteness." Those traits included self-reliance, the nuclear family, hard work, politeness, respect for authority, delayed gratification, and the scientific method.

Of course, the implication here is that only White people can behave in these ways, which are somehow inherently bad. They're not, and the implication that those behaviors only belong to one demographic is what's racist.

These ideals transcend race and make society function. Which is why, of course, the Left wants to paint them as racist. They'd rather see malls close than address the issues causing these "disruptions" in any meaningful way. To them, the collapse of a polite, functioning society is the goal.