[This is cross-posted from Red County/OC Blog]:
I spoke today with Anaheim Councilwoman Lorri Galloway about a truly astounding example of the ineptly heavy-hand Disney has been wielding in Anaheim of late.
The Los Angeles Times approached Anaheim Councilwoman Lorri Galloway about doing a profile of her, to which Councilwoman Galloway agreed provided the focus was on Anaheim Resort workers and not her per se. Last Wednesday, the LAT called Galloway and asked if she’d be available for a photographer to shoot to get some shots of her with some Anaheim Resort workers. Ultimately, it was arranged for Galloway and Ada Briceno (head of the hotel workers union UNITE HERE, OC/Long Beach chapter) to meet at the Disneyland Hotel.
According to Lorri Galloway, Briceno and she went into a back area of the hotel to meet with some hospitality workers, while the Times photographer got some shots for the article. Galloway told me Briceno signed them into the back area, and presumed she could go along as Briceno’s guest since Briceno was the workers union president.
Galloway spent several minutes talking to the workers, whom she characterized as proud to be Disney employees and said the majority of them were Anaheim residents.
Then four to five Disney security guards burst upon the scene and ordered Galloway, Briceno and the LAT photographer they had no right to be there. Briceno insisted she did as the UNITE HERE chapter president, and Lorri Galloway identified herself to the guards, one of whom replied "We know who you are."
The security guards threatened to confiscate the LAT photographers films and said they could have all three arrested. The guards then led Galloway, Briceno and the photographer into the Disneyland Hotel lobby and detained them there for about 45 minutes.
I asked Lorri Galloway why she didn’t just leave. She said the security guards explicitly accused them of trespassing and forbade them to leave, telling them they could be arrested. Galloway didn’t want to make this incident an even more public scene than it was already.
"I called the chief of police and left a voice mail saying I was being held hostage at the Disneyland Hotel and asked him to come and get me," Galloway said. "When he got the message he thought I was at some event where you put certain guests "in jail" as a fund-raising gimmick."
Disney did call the police, because Galloway saw squad cars roll up and four Anaheim police officers station themselves outside the lobby. Galloway found out later the officers had no idea she was one of the people being detained and didn’t enter the lobby because Disney told them not to; the officers were told only that some trespassers were being detained.
After about half-an-hour of languishing in the hotel lobby under the watch of the security guards, Galloway said some bigger wigs entered the fray, including Rob Doughty, Disneyland Resort’s VP for Communications.
"You know better than this," Doughty told Galloway.
Before they were finally allowed to leave, the Disneyland Hotel security chief (as Councilwoman Galloway identified him) told the Galloway, Briceno and the LAT photographer they "were not welcome here, and if you come back on the property, you’ll be arrested. The LAT photographer asked for that warning in writing, but I don’t think he got it.
I’m a member of the consultant team for SunCal’s Platinum Pointe project (the one Disney is trying to kill), and so I am not kindly disposed toward Disney at this present time. That said, I don’t think I’m the only one who finds Disney’s behavior disturbing.
Disneyland Hotel security knew who Galloway, Briceno and the LAT photographer were, and I think that is precisely why they were detained and treated as they were — and the word quickly spread of the Disney chain-of-command. If that had been some random guests in the back area, does anyone think the hotel staff would have reacted that way? Or, for that matter, if it were Anaheim Councilman Harry Sidhu or Mayor Curt Pringle? Worst case, they would have been informed they weren’t authorized to be there and would have been politely escorted out — not threatened with arrest.
When I worked at Disneyland many moons ago, guests used to wander backstage all the time. We simply informed them they weren’t allowed backstage, and they complied without having a squad of security guys sicked on them. Are things so different that the treatment accorded Councilwoman Galloway is standard-operating-procedure?
It’s especially disturbing given Disney’s blatant suggestion of possible conflict-of-interest prosecution in its successful last-minute attempt to spook Councilwoman Lucille Kring into recusing herself from a February vote on moving the SunCal project forward.
Since there’s no reason the incident at the Disneyland Hotel could not have been handled in a much more low-key, courteous way, it’s pretty obvious Disney was sending a very heavy-handed message to Councilwoman Galloway. Perhaps they can save that particular approach for the opening of the Newark, NJ Disneyland.