Originally Posted by michelle!

brendan from valencia just wrote a blog about the incidence.


Tonight at the Bamboozle Road Show. I witnessed the worst case of police brutality I’ve ever seen. I’m not sure of the exact story of what happened, all I know is that I walked downstairs and was ready to leave the venue only to see Chris V being pushed back into the venue (from the alley) by 3 cops with billy clubs. They were screaming and pushing him to the ground, threw him down onto a glass bottle that he hit his head on, split it open. He was bleeding everywhere and they still continued to beat him with clubs. They would not stop, even when he was compliant. Everyone was screaming for them to stop, I just could not stop yelling, I was so angry. I wanted so bad to have us all go over and pull them off of him, but no one could or we’d be next. Finally they stopped and dragged him outside after a pint of blood left his head and was all over the stage of the TLA. After everything was calmed down a bit, I saw my good friend Ian Planet being shoved inside, slammed into a brick wall, his cell phone thrown across the room and his face shoved onto the concrete floor all because he wanted to go outside and finish his job. The same happened to T-Fair right out back as well.
I honestly felt like I could throw up from the utter lack of respect for humanity and compassion. I couldn’t believe what i was seeing. Ian Planet is the last person who would ever instigate or start fights, plus he weights about as much as me… why did they need 3 cops to throw him around and beat him? The answer is: they didn’t. It was all unnecessary. All of this was just examples of cops abusing their power. They wanted the bands to move their busses and vans, even though they weren’t finished loading up. They really just wanted to start fights and write tickets and make some money. The wanted to be the heroes of the police station that ticketed all these busses and made the city a few extra dollars from some “dumb punk kids” or however they get their kicks. It didn’t need to go any further than them walking away or even just giving the ticket and walking away, but they had to be on a power trip. The kept keep instigating until it escalated into them using their power to get their rage and anger out on people who didn’t deserve it.
After all of this happened and it was clear the cops weren’t going to be reasoned with and people were to “stay out of the alley for get arrested” I made my way back home. The ambulances were on their way and no one was to go near the detainees. I went to go get my bike (that was less than a block away from where this was all happening) and it was Stolen. My bike was stolen off of busy south street because the cops were too busy beating up innocent people behind the TLA to protect & serve right out front. I was even more angry and fuming on my walk home, when I heard my name being shouted. It was Ian Planet sitting in the back of a cop car. He was so upset and it was such a heartbreaking thing to see your friend, who did nothing wrong, handcuffed in a cop car. I wasn’t even allowed to talk to him. The cops were shoo-ing me away. Not allowed to talk to my friend and let him know that I gave his cell phone to his friends and they were on their way to bail him out. Not allowed. I couldn’t believe it. I got halfway home and was even more upset about it that I turned right around and went to get Ian or at least make sure he knew what was going on. By the time I got there they had taken him into the station. I really felt so awful. It was the 4th time in one night when there was nothing I could do or even say to help a friend.
What I want to know is how these cops can justify going home to their wives and telling them the story of how they beat these kids senseless for no reason. The bigger issue is that I’m sure they can spin it someway to make sense in their head that it was okay to beat up a weaponless, defenseless, kid just trying to do his job or to hospitalize someone. They can also somehow justify continuing to hit someone with nightsticks who has a serious injury and needs medical attention OVER A PARKING TICKET. The serious flaw in the system is that it’s okay for this to happen. The law works so that this can happen and that it’s illegal to “disobey an officer of the law” even if his orders are out of line you have to follow it or you will get arrested. It’s just crazy that people with such a complex (that needs to be using their power this way just to feel important) can be given so much power and that it’s almost a never ending cycle. You see this stuff all the time on tv, american cops using their power to get their jollies and channel their stress from work or their rage out onto innocent people. It’s horrible and I wish there was a way to screen these people. A way to figure out their rage issues and find out if their stress can manifest itself into an incident like this instead of just hiring anyone and giving them so much power and hoping for the best. I guess it would be extremely difficult to predict things like this but, it happens far too often and needs to stop, something should be done.
What a night. Sorry for such a long post but I couldn’t let this go. I’ve been sitting here seething and had to let everyone know. Such an awful thing to witness, I never want to see that again. Tonight I am ashamed to be a part of this city.

so now we know why his head was bleeding. so glad to hear that they didnt bludgon (SP?) his head in with the club.

didn't that dude just say he didn't know exactly what happened? and the guy hit his head on a bottle? the police didn't wack him over the head. i hope this ends up on COPS 10 years from now. then we'll really know

Originally Posted by zeropunk16

Once again, could have been avoided if they moved their van.

In all honesty... they were just trying to do their job. It legitimately takes thirty minutes to load out if they have enough help and aren't being bothered. The alleys beside and behind the TLA aren't used enough for it to have been causing THAT much of a problem.

Originally Posted by wheresfluffy?

this could also have been avoided if the police learned restraint

No, the police restraint part was after the moving the van part.

I hate those 2 bands....but i hate cops way more. I'd suggest everyone write/email media outlets with the story.

Originally Posted by jwicklun

I always thought of j.cook as a brother. like what black people call eachother which I think is much more meaningful.

hahahah

Ok I'm gonna try and fill you guys in from my point of view since it keeps playin over and over in my mind.

Our(mercymercedes) van was parked behind the tla in an alley in which we were informed to do. 3bike cops roll up and give us tickets for being parked there, the same place we were instructed to park. The only way out of the narrow alley was to back out our van and trailer. We were in the process of loading gear after the show when the cops come back a second time. I am in the driver seat backing up the rig just as the cops asked. Then I hear a loud popping noise. I ran over a water bottle in the street that I obviously didn't know was there. The water splashed over the the bike cop. At the time I had to hold the laughter in because it was priceless. these cops just gave us like 4 unecessary tickets and were very rude at doing so. The cop then approaches my window with his soaked clear-leansed bike-cop oakleys in hand and says "do you know how to f*cking drive?" I replied yessir I'm doing exactly what u asked. He then turnes to the other officer and says "write him another ticket and impound their van and trailer."

Word of this gets to Trevor aka T-fair, WTKs tour manager. Being the new "baby band" on this tour, T-fair has showed us the ropes and taught us a lot about how these bigger tours work. Already appreciative of him, he came to our aid to work things out with cops for us. He tried to work things out in a calmly manner, when the cops just start threatning him. Trevor calmly says "what are you gonna do I haven't done anything." And of coarce I saw the whole thing and never once did do anything threatning to the cops. They then throw him up against our van pretty hard. Then Chris V. WTKs merch guy walks out to see his friend and TM jacked up on our van for nothin. The cops start pushing every one to get back in the venue. And by pushing I mean really ruffing everyone. Chris V is a suuuuper nice dude just so u guys know that. By now everyone is screaming. The cops are cursing at all of us. One cop throws chris v in the venue and shuts the door. Then the doors opens back up. Still at this point and any point in the night no one has threatend a police officer. The officer that slammed the door on everyone runs in saying word for word, "come here you mother f*cker!!" He ran inside with metal baton in hand swinging. After this I heard more than I saw because of the situation. But my bandmates in mercy saw all of this and said that chris v never tried to fight the cop or resist arrest, but the cops repeatedly beat him with the metal rod.

Seriously people. I've never seen police officers so messed up in my life. All this could have been avoided, but because of these cops that provoked everything were the opitome of asshole. Its like they bored and out to find some action. Just like a buch of drunk bro dudes after a game.

As all this was happening I turn and am being escorted away by another officer. Hurds of fans from the show are watching in awe of the events taking place. I passed two girls bawling their eyes out because they were scared. And amongst the crowd I saw at least 6 kids video taping the whole thing.

Well there ya have it. That's my story. I will always remember this for the rest of my life. T-fair didn't deserve this....Chris V definatly didn't!

on that note, while we're still talking about police brutality:

My parents are both/were both cops and they even say that there is always that guy who signs up for the police academy just so that he can get out there and get "free stick time". It's just a shame that the bad things get so much more coverage than all the great things that law enforcement does.

Originally Posted by jeremyc

didn't that dude just say he didn't know exactly what happened? and the guy hit his head on a bottle? the police didn't wack him over the head. i hope this ends up on COPS 10 years from now. then we'll really know

brendan didn't know what happened a little before he showed up. but he sure as hell knows everything that happened was so not called for. brendan is a really smart guy and he knows what he's talking about. the cops were out of control.

Then there's a problem if you're a police officer and you are heated over a person talking back to you, that results with you beating them.
They talk back. You get mad. Arrest them. Done.
Everything that happened in between there was completely.
Was it wrong for them to talk back? yes.
Was it ok for the police to beat them? absolutely not.
They weren't even armed.

Originally Posted by $b-real$ mercy

Ok I'm gonna try and fill you guys in from my point of view since it keeps playin over and over in my mind.

Our(mercymercedes) van was parked behind the tla in an alley in which we were informed to do. 3bike cops roll up and give us tickets for being parked there, the same place we were instructed to park. The only way out of the narrow alley was to back out our van and trailer. We were in the process of loading gear after the show when the cops come back a second time. I am in the driver seat backing up the rig just as the cops asked. Then I hear a loud popping noise. I ran over a water bottle in the street that I obviously didn't know was there. The water splashed over the the bike cop. At the time I had to hold the laughter in because it was priceless. these cops just gave us like 4 unecessary tickets and were very rude at doing so. The cop then approaches my window with his soaked clear-leansed bike-cop oakleys in hand and says "do you know how to f*cking drive?" I replied yessir I'm doing exactly what u asked. He then turnes to the other officer and says "write him another ticket and impound their van and trailer."

Word of this gets to Trevor aka T-fair, WTKs tour manager. Being the new "baby band" on this tour, T-fair has showed us the ropes and taught us a lot about how these bigger tours work. Already appreciative of him, he came to our aid to work things out with cops for us. He tried to work things out in a calmly manner, when the cops just start threatning him. Trevor calmly says "what are you gonna do I haven't done anything." And of coarce I saw the whole thing and never once did do anything threatning to the cops. They then throw him up against our van pretty hard. Then Chris V. WTKs merch guy walks out to see his friend and TM jacked up on our van for nothin. The cops start pushing every one to get back in the venue. And by pushing I mean really ruffing everyone. Chris V is a suuuuper nice dude just so u guys know that. By now everyone is screaming. The cops are cursing at all of us. One cop throws chris v in the venue and shuts the door. Then the doors opens back up. Still at this point and any point in the night no one has threatend a police officer. The officer that slammed the door on everyone runs in saying word for word, "come here you mother f*cker!!" He ran inside with metal baton in hand swinging. After this I heard more than I saw because of the situation. But my bandmates in mercy saw all of this and said that chris v never tried to fight the cop or resist arrest, but the cops repeatedly beat him with the metal rod.

Seriously people. I've never seen police officers so messed up in my life. All this could have been avoided, but because of these cops that provoked everything were the opitome of asshole. Its like they bored and out to find some action. Just like a buch of drunk bro dudes after a game.

As all this was happening I turn and am being escorted away by another officer. Hurds of fans from the show are watching in awe of the events taking place. I passed two girls bawling their eyes out because they were scared. And amongst the crowd I saw at least 6 kids video taping the whole thing.

Well there ya have it. That's my story. I will always remember this for the rest of my life. T-fair didn't deserve this....Chris V definatly didn't!

thanks for showing us more of the entire story

Quote:

Just like a buch of drunk bro dudes after a game.

\

sorry but that made me laugh, it clicked something in my head of some friends.

Originally Posted by bigmouthmonstr

Then there's a problem if you're a police officer and you are heated over a person talking back to you, that results with you beating them.
They talk back. You get mad. Arrest them. Done.
Everything that happened in between there was completely.
Was it wrong for them to talk back? yes.
Was it ok for the police to beat them? absolutely not.
They weren't even armed.

That's why you don't talk back to police.

It's like mooning a hungry lion.

Originally Posted by bigmouthmonstr

Then there's a problem if you're a police officer and you are heated over a person talking back to you, that results with you beating them.
They talk back. You get mad. Arrest them. Done.
Everything that happened in between there was completely.
Was it wrong for them to talk back? yes.
Was it ok for the police to beat them? absolutely not.
They weren't even armed.

im talking about the arguing between the people all over Grammar.

that sucks so bad. chris if youre reading this, i miss you and youre in my thoughts. speedy recovery dude.