Jill Porter: All hail the gunfiring hero!
"AND WHO could blame him?" That was Wednesday's headline in an Irish newspaper about our new local hero, James Cialella, who last week courageously defended the rights of movie-goers everywhere by shushing a noisy patron with a .380-caliber handgun.
"AND WHO could blame him?"
That was Wednesday's headline in an Irish newspaper about our new local hero, James Cialella, who last week courageously defended the rights of movie-goers everywhere by shushing a noisy patron with a .380-caliber handgun.
"A heartfelt congratulations to James Cialella, who has finally stood up to those rude, ignorant pigs who seem oblivious to the enjoyment of others," the column in the publication from Ireland said about Cialella, 29, of South Philadelphia.
"Our hero was watching the latest Brad Pitt vehicle, 'The Strange Case of Benjamin Button' . . . when a family sitting in front of him started chattering," the writer said of the Christmas Day incident at the United Artist Riverview Plaza Stadium 17 theaters, on Columbus Boulevard.
"James asked them to pipe down and allow the rest of the theater to enjoy the movie in peace, but the noisy bunch persisted. So he did what any right- thinking person would do - he shot the father."
The victim, Wofford Lomax Jr., who was at the movies with his girlfriend and her three children, was shot in the arm.
An Australian columnist also acknowledged a "twinge of sympathy" for Cialella, whose "movie rage . . . is something many moviegoers have felt at some time."
Yes, Ireland, Australia, Britain, New Zealand and every state in the USA carried a story about the incident, which also made national broadcast news on CNN.
And a "twinge of sympathy"? How about an avalanche of accolades?
Even a relative of mine – a gentle, decent man who's never said a vulgar, impolitic or unkind word in my presence - gave the mandatory disclaimer about guns and violence and then said, "I understand why he shot the guy. I really do."
Cialella may be facing charges of aggravated assault and reckless endangerment - a judge dropped charges of attempted murder this week - but he's a modern-day avenger who has clearly captured the public's imagination.
He's the moviegoer's version of Bernard Goetz, New York's subway vigilante who shot would-be robbers and came to symbolize the public's frustration with the crime wave then under way in Manhattan.
All of us are beleaguered by the rampant incivility of the cell-phone-shouting, cellophane-wrapper-unraveling, cursing and crude-mouthed creeps we encounter every day in the movies, at the market, on the subway, bus or train.
They violate our space, sully our solitude, penetrate our peace and quiet and are utterly immune to social cues like dirty looks or polite entreaties. Authorities - movie management or transit operators, for instance - usually fail to enforce codes of public conduct.
So we're left to seethe in futile silence, frustrated by our own impotence and fearful of a personal confrontation because of the possibility of violence.
That's because the other aspect of this volatile cultural phenomenon is the fact that anyone anywhere can get a gun at any time.
So people get shot over things like parking spaces, snowballs, highway mishaps and, now, rudeness in the movies.
Except this time it was the good guy who did the shooting! What vicarious satisfaction to the put-upon among us.
It's only those humorless police officials who seem to object to Cialella's methods.
"It's truly frightening when you see something like this evolve into such violence," police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore said after the incident.
But then police officials can be so touchy about cops' and citizens' being shot and/or killed by armed thugs.
Anyway, the legend of Cialella surely was enhanced this week when new details about him emerged during his preliminary hearing.
His lawyer told reporters that he's an Army veteran who was honorably discharged earlier this year after serving five months in Iraq. Attorney Greg Pagano also described Cialella in a newspaper report as a newlywed, a homeowner, a churchgoer and a college student.
He said that Cialella shot in self-defense while being choked and punched during the melee at the movies.
Oh, and he also said that Cialella was, um, a crackerjack shot.
"He's a marksman," Pagano said.
"If he wanted to shoot to kill, he would have."
Yes, every marksman knows how easy it is to control a gun during the chaos of a brawl, not to mention how readily he can avoid accidentally shooting a
bystander.
But why ruin the mood by pondering the possibility that Cialella might have killed, say, a child?
At this rate, Cialella might even replace Rocky as our local hero.
Instead of running up and down the Art Museum steps, tourists could come here to go to the movies and shoot the first person who opened his mouth.
Who could blame them? *
E-mail porterj@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5850. For recent columns: