M-I-C ... See You in Jail!

As Tommy Roe might have sung, I'm so Disney, my head is spinning. Who would have thought that there was so much repressed frustration among the teeming tens of Almanac readers about the Mouse House? Tuesday's mention of a story from Jim Hill Media about an incident at Disneyland in Anaheim brought a few vociferous responses.

Alert Reader Officer Jim writes:

Regarding the "Almanac" entry, I seem to recall a story from a few years back; not sure where I read it, I think a police-oriented publication ... Anyway, Dizzy World built a sort of "company town" outside of Orlando for seasonal, temporary and transient employees to stay in (named "Disney Village" or some such thing).

They started having crime problems, including some pretty serious assaults and such. I seem to remember that the Orange County Sheriff's Office got a 911 call concerning an assault (it may have even been a rape call) and when the ambulance and deputies arrived at the gates, the Mickey Mouse PD refused to let them in.

I think it was resolved when the sheriff's supervisor on scene threatened to arrest the entire security shift for obstruction. I also recall that the deputies union was p----d because it wasn't the first time and the incidents were being hushed up.

Of course, it may be an "urban legend" but I knew a guy in college who had interned with Disney for a semester (he was a film major) and from what he said about Disney security, I'd be inclined to believe it. (He may in fact have been the one who told me the story, now that I think about it.)

It may be an urban legend, or it may not be, so we set the head of the Tube City Online Laboratory, Dr. Pica Pole, to work on this problem. Dr. Pole searched newspaper databases going back to 1991. While he couldn't find any reports of this particular incident, he did find several newspaper reports where assaults, rapes and even deaths on Disney property went unreported to authorities for up to three days. (The situation has apparently improved since the late 1990s; Orange County sheriff's deputies now patrol the Disney grounds to supplement company security, and are paid for by the Disney company.)

A Sept. 29, 1996 story in the Tampa Tribune reports that Disney generally "provides its own fire, rescue and security, but the park relies on the Orange County Sheriff's Office and judicial system for arrests and prosecutions." Professor Richard Foglesong, who later wrote a book called Married to the Mouse, contended that Disney World's more than 40,000 "low-wage and part-time employees" were straining the local governments.

"Mental health, spouse abuse, soft stuff, juvenile courts --- the kind of social services that exist to support families and children," he told the Tribune. "That stuff is costly, and low-wage workers tend to make more demands on those kinds of services than do higher-wage workers." Foglesong's book is highly critical of the Faustian bargain that Florida has made with Disney. (And I again recommend Carl Hiaasen's book Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World. Hiaasen is a writer for the Miami Herald who has been keeping tabs on Disney for years.)

One of the problems with Disney World, of course, is that Florida officials in the 1960s were so desperate to attract development to what was then swampland that they created a special 38.6 square mile "improvement district" owned, operated and governed by the Disney company, and which is exempt from local taxation and zoning laws. It's created what some people refer to as Florida's "68th county" and a sort of feudal government. (Wouldn't it be a "Magic Kingdom"? Ha! Ha! Ahem.)

According to a Feb. 23, 2004 story in the Orlando Business Journal, the district has the power "to do everything from policing to regulating alcoholic beverages to collecting taxes to building its own nuclear power plant." There are 50 permanent households that elect the governing bodies --- and nearly all have at least one person working for Disney.

This sounds like the "deal" that the Mon-Yough area cities and boroughs made years ago with U.S. Steel and Jones & Laughlin, where they basically allowed the steel companies to write their own laws (and even employ their own police). If the lessons of the 1970s and '80s taught us anything, it's that such relationships rarely have long-term benefits for the communities.

Another Alert Reader, who asked to remain anonymous, comments:

Sweet Jesus, that Disney post hit too close to home. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I was escorted off the premises of a certain public venue because someone complained about me. I'm still not sure exactly what the complaint was, except that I have a bad habit of conversing with strangers, and one of them probably didn't like my attention. ...

A friend of mine worked for Disney, and I can confirm that (Jim Hill) is not alone in his experience. Step out of line once, or show the slightest inclination of making any trouble, and by gum, they'll collar you, detain you, collect your vital information, and throw you out. It's a sea of smiles, patrolled by the Gestapo; an artificial happiness, like the Twilight Zone episode where everyone was forced to "think happy thoughts."

Why, oh why, does Florida enjoy so many bizarre news stories that once seemed to be the exclusive province of California? Not far from the Happiest Place on Earth, after all, the Terri Schiavo case continues to bring unhappiness to the family and friends of those involved.

Alert Reader Arden sends along a audio link to a National Public Radio commentary by the great Daniel Schorr (Schorr calls the Schiavo tragedy "a triumph of symbolism over substance") and adds:

(E)verytime something f----d up (happens) that involves Florida I keep thinking of the Bugs Bunny cartoon when he sawed off Florida from a life-size map of the U.S.A. and yelled "South America, take her away!"

Arden notes that the cartoon is called "Rebel Rabbit." A Wikipedia entry reports that it's rarely seen these days, while a reviewer for the West Coast alternative newspaper Metroactive calls it "the most anarchistic of Bugs' adventures. It's probably a censored picture today, since the rabbit's misdeeds verge on terrorism."

I remember it. The "plot," such as it is, involves Bugs Bunny finding out that the government only pays two cents for a rabbit pelt and declaring war on the United States. Besides setting Florida adrift, Bugs also paints the Washington Monument like a barber pole; "ties up the railroads" (in a big bow); sells Manhattan back to the Indians; and steals the "locks" (they're giant hanging padlocks, natch) off of the Panama Canal.

I'm glad it was a Warner Brothers cartoon and not a Disney one. If it had been Donald Duck sawing Florida loose, I'm sure Disney lawyers would already be "imagineering" a way to make that happen in real life.