Lunatic cop storms into rock show, tazers people, throws people to the ground

[burnthebeautiful]

At a Two Gallants show in Houston, a cop responded to a noise complaint by storming the stage and throwing band members to the ground and tazering audience members and generalyl going bezerk.

Blog post from audience member, including video and pictures:
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=1810327&blogID=180431773&Mytoken=7844F441-810B-4418-84EF9B3B319128E429312047

Excerpts:
"So two gallants were on their 4th song I believe and a cop shows up for a noise complaint. He did not go to the soundboard but immediately heads to the stage. He has some words with the singer adam and then the cop grabs his guitar. Adam pulls it back and then the cop grabs him around the head and slams him down on the stage. tyson (the drummer) jumps up from the drums and moves to where the cop is holding adam down. the cop then thrown tyson down too."

"Then the cop turns on my friend greg who is taking pics and says 'stop touching me' or something like that and knocks Greg's camera out of his hand. Greg is all like what the fuck? and then the cop jumps off stage and starts pushing Greg in the chest across the room while Greg is just backing away. The cop also is waving his tazer around at this point. He eventually backs Greg into that corner where everybody puts their instruments (to the right of the stage) and pushes him down into a pile of drums and the standup bass the opening band was playing."

Longer account and Houston Chronicle article posted on blog.

[Fluff and Stuff]

Check out what happened in Cali,

Some of you might have heard, but half of Set it Straight was arrested today for protesting the Redding Police Department shutting down the show in the middle of our set. We were playing a Skate demo at the Redding Skatepark when 6 cop cars showed up and demanded everyone to vacate, including the kids skating, who had nothing to do with anything (they shut down the park, as well). This was a sponsored event, with permits. The Redding Parks and Recreation committee came out and unlocked the power box, and set up trash cans around the area we were playing. The show was 100% legit, so we didn't stop playing, finished our set, and took our sweet time breaking down, but when they surrounded our friend who was riding the park and hit his bike with their batons, things got lame. He was arrested, no explaination. Harry, Ben, John and Tim were sitting down in the skatepark when RPD told them to leave, they asked why, and immediately they cuffed Ben. Harry told them he wasn't going to move so they choked him to the pavement and cuffed him too, along with Timmy and John. Later they also arrested Brittny and Sara for standing too close, bringing the total to seven. Harry's dad got most of it on the video mode of his digital camera, which is below. My favorite part is where one of the officers jokes that Harry's taxes pay his salary. What a dick. After the arrests, and multiple threats from the RPD cops, Harry's Dad, myself, and a few others went to Redding's Channel 7 news. A small story aired tonight highlighting each side of the story, but the overwhelming theme was the Sargeant's quote:

"The didn't have a permit. Bands of this nature lead to beatings and stabbings."

At the station, one of the cops said to Harry; "You're that band that played last week where someone got stabbed." He told them that definitely wasn't us, and the cop replied "Yes, it was". Awesome. When one of the sponsors, the owner of Johnny Rad's skateshop, showed up at the news station to contribute to the story, an officer told him if he didn't leave he would be arrested for tresspassing. Luckily, we were already inside with the reporter. Anyway, there should be a longer story on the news Monday, once we have the permits in line we can hopefully have all the charges dropped and then some, and the story on the monday evening news will show way more of our side (and if we're lucky, show the cops for the bullying jocks they are). All seven are being charged with loitering and unlawful assembly, and Harry and Ben are being charged with Resisting Arrest.

If you live in redding or chico, send an email to info@krcrtv.com and tell them they need to bump this story up. We can't let them just get away with roughing us up and kicking us out, especially since it was all legal. Send a letter to the editor of the Record Searchlight at letters@redding.com, we need to flood these inboxes. This is a small town and we need to do everything we can to keep the cops out of our scene, and if we can use the media to achieve that, good.

Needless to say, we won't be playing the Good Clean Fun show tonight... sorry everyone.

Curt/Set it Straight

Video- http://youtube.com/watch?v=viHU3igaUfI

[aries]

WOW

[KBCraig]

Houston Chronicle article on the melee:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nb/heights/news/4259776.html

[Tom Sawyer]

Don't the cops know you aren't supposed to go in the mosh-pit armed.

[HippyChimp]

fucking facist JBT's like those need a good beat down.  the crowd needs to pin those assholes down and use the pigs' own tazers on their tender parts.  shit like this gets me so worked up.  I rue the day when I'm close to an event like this, I fear I won't be walking away from that.

[FTL_Ian]

It would have been sweet had someone in the crowd been armed with their own tazer.  Taze the cop then get the hell out of there. 

[mvpel]

Air Tasers have microprinted serial-numbered confetti in them, so the owner of the air cartrige can be tracked back through purchase records.

[HippyChimp]

that's why we take/use their tazers...   

[FTL_Ian]

Yeah, that's why you should use a stun-gun.  I just used the term Tazer because that's what people are familiar with.

[lildog]

Did any of you stop to wonder why the videos only start from the arrest?  What lead to the arrest???  Hmmmmm.....  I think the Chron clears up the FULL story.

[aries]

It would have been sweet had someone in the crowd been armed with their own tazer.  Taze the cop then get the hell out of there. 

And get shot in the back of the head... and the cop gets a gold medal and free healthcare, salary etc for life (and is of course discharged as a hero) while your family pretends they didnt know you and only a few attend your funeral out of respect

[KBCraig]

Having finally gotten to a computer/network were I could view the videos, I'm also puzzled by the very selective editing.

Color me neutral at this point. I've seen too many "victim" videos, where the victims did everything they could to provoke the response they got, and then cried "foul". That's mostly a tactic of leftists, such as the "social anarchists". It amounts to dishonesty, and I can't stand lies on either side.

Kevin

[aries]

Video- http://youtube.com/watch?v=viHU3igaUfI

wow those cops are sons of bitches.


poor excuses for human beings...

[Revmar]

Having finally gotten to a computer/network were I could view the videos, I'm also puzzled by the very selective editing.

Color me neutral at this point. I've seen too many "victim" videos, where the victims did everything they could to provoke the response they got, and then cried "foul". That's mostly a tactic of leftists, such as the "social anarchists". It amounts to dishonesty, and I can't stand lies on either side.

Kevin

I hear what you are saying, but we know that it does not take much to "Provoke a response".  The cop arresting the skate boarder said he was being arrested for not leaving when told.  I guess his crime was not respecting the cops ownership of him.  Cops are quick with the tazers and pepper spray.  why shouldn't a person resist arrest, especially if they are being arrested for not being good little sheep.