Riot after the RED HOT CHILI PEPER CONCERT

Last night, August 6, 2006, I was at the annual Lollapalooza held at Grant Park in downtown Chicago. After seeing the last performance of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, I began to walk out of the venue only to see a crowd of people and stopped to see what the commotion was about. It happened to be two people in the fountain playing around and this caught the eye of security. The crowd loved it! We started chanting “LET THEM GO! LET THEM GO!” We were debating whether or not we should all run in together. Well we didn’t have enough time to think before the police had arrived ON HORSES to push everyone away. I was being pushed around by a horse’s behind as the police officer on top turned the horse around and walked forward into a crowd of thousands of people. Lines leaving a jam packed venue always take a while to walk out due to small entry ways, right? Well now innocent by standers are being shoved, with no room to walk. We get out to the gates, it is about 10:15pm at this time, and we can’t stand there either. We are pushed, once again by officers are huge horses, to the sidewalk. People who were walking, just not fast enough, were getting shoved around by these arrogant police officers who just didn’t care. One man said something along the lines of “Watch it man, I’m moving.” Meaning, he was walking and the cops did not need to use a heavy horse to push him away. The cops immediately took him down, not one cop, not two cops, but four cops to this one man who did not even use any physical or verbal force to the officers. His female companion tried to help but they blocked her off and all she wanted to say was, “Wait he has a broken arm!” I watched in horror as they grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back. The grown man screamed. I have never heard a grown man scream in such pain and helplessness before. I tried to help him and they blocked me with a horse. I was crying, I could do nothing, but turn my head and walk away. I hear a police officer on his horse say to another officer, “Look! We’ve got a live one.” I wanted to say, “You asshole, we’re all alive!” And as I looked I saw a similar situation occur like the one I saw seconds earlier with the man with the broken arm. Another male who was leaving the park was pushed intentionally by an officer’s horse. He scolded to the officer not to do that and the officer began kicking him in the chest, neck, and face from on top of his horse. The man was tackled to the ground by several officers. I screamed, “STOP IT! STOP IT! YOU’RE HURTING HIM!” My legs began to go numb as the tears flowed out. We had been pushed out to the sidewalk, and then they continued to push us across the street. I did not see a single fan initiating or participating in a violent act. Crossing the street was not good enough. They brought their horses and tractors to the grass we were sitting on. And they ordered us to leave and chased us out on horseback. No one wanted to leave. We knew we had all been done an unjust. The officers were not protecting us, but by flexing their powers, we were being raped. And then I realized, we the officer said, “Look! There’s a live one.” He was right. The rest of us were dead. We were robots. Too afraid. There were hundreds of us and only about 25 of them. And we were quiet. We were taken advantage of. It is a scary thought. This was so minute compared to other events against the government but it really put a marking in my memory. What did the blacks have to go through for all these years? What are they going through now? Other minorities? Women rights? Gays today? I feel like we are being cowards now. We are not giving the respect to the warriors before us, Dr. King, Susan B. Anthony, so many people who have risked their lives for our freedom and now our generation is so quick to say, “It’s the law, it’s our government so it must be right?” These police officers taking advantage of innocent citizens. I feel so disgusted by the whole scenario, it hurts my stomach to remember it. But something must be done. I don’t want to hear that man’s scream again. I want every person to be “a live one.”

We need to broadcast events like this weekly, if not daily. We need to get more influential people involved. Singers, writers, actors, parents, teachers, anyone. We need to be a team like the America was in my text books. We need to give citizens hope that they are the ones in control. Peace needs to be at the priority of every person every where no matter color, sex, race, sexual orientation, height, weight, disability. We need to unite and be one. It’s not just for hippies or a thing in the 60s. We must constantly challenge our government officials and voting once a year is not good enough by any means. A weekly segment on a show were viewers can see. Something, somehow, some way must happen but it has got to start now. I am prepared to help. Are you? Or are you not a live one either?