A Riot Of My Own
White Riot
3/7/06 update: In the comments section I posted a few first-hand accounts I found at the fine MP3 blog 7 Inch Punk. Nobody will ever forget The Great San Bernardino, CA Punk Rock Show Riot Of 2006.
posted by emerson at 7:19 AM
7 Comments:
Riot at a GBH show? I am shocked and appalled.
6:05 AM
S.M.P. opened and that might explain it. Stab, Maim and Pummel are big in Upper Slobovia.
8:32 AM
my friend has a video of the kids smashing the windows at Jack in the Box. haha! i may like the addicts, but i never want to be caught in the middle of kids stabbing and breaking glass
9:49 AM
VCR Punk was there and posted this comment at 7 Inch Punk:
I was there last night too. I was rockin to broken bones at the “UK” stage inside when they pulled the plug. I think the problems happened at the outdoor stage where the US bands were playing. There were also some dudes that didn’t have the $ to get in so I’m sure they got into the act outside the gate. Tear gas wafted into the building so everyone tore for the exits. I was looking forward to Vice Squad and GBH, sort of interested to see the Adicts - show was over before they played. (I saw GBH 20 yrs ago so thought it’d be good to see them again oh well) Not really into the whole oi! thing, more of a hardcore/thrash brother, but I was having fun. Seems like a lot more kids are into the whole brit punk/mohawk thing these days…they were swearing at the helicopter, pretty funny. I also heard that some skinheads were causing trouble too, that might have started it all. I was a radical punk back in early-mid80’s so it’s old for me now. For what it’s worth, my experience was that it was more dangerous back then. Every person in the world wanted to kill us. I loathe any infighting among punk/hardcore/thrashers, but that’s the nature of the beast I guess… anarchy in action??! Anarchy is stupid.
12:07 PM
Punkhat from 7 Inch Punk adds:
f--k all of you who started the riot, i was working at one of the local resturants and had to hide seven of my employees from you freaks, you werent thinking about anyone but your self you think everyone is out to get you, well guess what everyone is now,don’t expect any respect from anyone now,your asses are dead now, i hope you get what you deserve assholes!!!
12:09 PM
Dick has a lotto say on the matter:
What the media is calling a “punk show riot” unfolded in a series of increasingly bad ideas. I’m not assigning blame to any particular party; what I’m doing is more like a large wagging finger at everybody involved, and first off, this has nothing to do with the riots, but if you want a beer, do not say “Hey bitch, give me some fucking a beer,” instead say, “Could I have more beer please?” I said that had nothing to do with the riots, but I lied. It has everything to do with the riots. It’s impolite and inconsiderate behavior that caused this riot. Let’s look at this step by step as it escalated.
First, security didn’t recognize the potential violence that can erupt when you let in a handful of nazi skinheads to a punk rock show. I’ve never understood why nazi skinheads cling to punk rock like a gaggle of tard-barnacles, but, alas, they do. Security was uneducated in the social interactivity of punk rock’s varied sub-subcultures, and it resulted in violence. Nazi skins shouldn’t go to punk shows, but, this is a “free” country and they have the right to go if they want. These particular nazi skins wanted to provoke and aggravate the general anti-nazi and anti-racist sentiments of the punk kids. They did their “heil Hitler” salutes, and engaged in tough guy theatrics and general taunting. In ther words, they behaved like inconsiderate douche bags. No concern for any one else’s feelings. They goaded simply to goad. That completes stupidity levels one and two. Stupidity level number three went to a new height.
One of the punk kids pulled a knife on one of the nazi skins, and stabbed him. Other punks started chasing and beating the other Nazis. Incidents between the nazi skins and the punks had been escalating all evening, but when the band on stage ripped into their song called “Kill the Nazis,” well that’s when the knife came out and ratcheted up the stupidity. Once again, why do nazi skinheads want to go to a punk show? On a coincidental side note, I believe there was a song also called, “Kill the Nazis,” that topped England’s charts throughout the early forties. It was a sentiment everyone could get behind.
The big stupid move came when the cops arrived. Lat me explain the set up. There were two stages. One stage was outdoors where concessions such as pop, beer and tacos were sold. There were five to six double doors that opened into the side of what looked like a former airplane hangar. Inside this hangar was the main stage. Kids were outside and in – when the cops arrived there were around two hundred to two hundred and fifty outside, leaving 1,250 inside (although I’d say more like 2,000 inside). Bands played on the two stages simultaneously. Outside is where the nazi trouble occurred. When the cops showed up in riot gear, some kids panicked and threw bottles at the cops, or so the media reports say. I don’t know where they got any bottles since all beer and soda was from a tap and served in Styrofoam cups. The first wave of cops retreated and waited for back up, which came in large numbers. They herded the kids into the hangar by shooting into the crowd with bean bags and rubber bullets. They forced the small crowd inside, and once they had all the kids closed off; they began to launch the canisters of tear gas. Kids screamed and stampeded for the other doors. The kids inside had no idea this was coming. Suddenly, their eyes, noses and throats are burning. Kids were falling al over each other. Remember, the median age at a punk show is somewhere in the range of fifteen to eighteen. They’re high-schoolers, and they’re getting gassed without warning by cops in full riot gear. Kids were falling over, trampling each other, dropping to their knees and vomiting. They slid through the puke, running for safety, all cramming their way through two standard sized doors.
The cops then proceeded to herd kids away from the show grounds. After two hours had passed we all got of there, having secured all the t-shirts and CDs (some kids did try to run off with shit in the chaos, but they didn’t get far). We took the truck through a Del Taco drive through. From the pick-up window we could see the place was full with kids from the show. They were calmly sitting and eating. And again, the cops arrived. They shut down the restaurant, drove the kids out at gun point and ordered all cars away from the area. Pigs lined up in the street with their helmets on, shields down and shot guns held across their chests. They marched the kids away down the sidewalk, driving them on like cattle, further away into the night.
There were reports of looting from a near by home entertainment warehouse. Apparently some kids ran off with some plasma screen televisions, and smashed up some others. I don’t if a dozen kids stealing some televisions after the pigs have already opened fire qualifies as a riot, but I guess, as always, that is for the media to decide.
Oh, yes, and the show was eighteen bucks.
12:11 PM
THE SHOW WAS ONLY $18!?!
11:25 AM
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