sad night in utah...

I'm pretty big into the edm scene (electronic dance music) and in the next post I'll share the story from one of my friends who was dj'ing at an event on Saturday night in Utah. It's pretty in-depth; the crowd didn't resist, yet they were tear gassed, beaten and attacked by dogs, some were sexually assaulted, and there's video footage capturing most of this. I know there aren't many "ravers" (I really hate that stereotype; the media did their job well) amongst the hippies here, but the two scenes really differ in music only; so I thought some of you guys might be interested in this; it's circulating the edm boards like wildfire; the aclu is already involved and several lawsuits are being filed. If you're unfamiliar with the Rave Act that Congress passed; it essentially gives the government the right to prosecute music promoters/venues/property owners rather than the people doing or selling drugs. Imagine this happening at Bonnaroo...

 

Knick wrote:

Last night, I was booked to play an event about an hour outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. The hype behind this show was huge, they presold 700 tickets and they expected up to 3,000 people total. The promoters did an amazing job with the show.. they even made slipmats with the flyers on them to promote in local shops.

So, we got to the show around 11:15 or so and it was really cool. It was all outdoors, in a valley surrounded by huge mountains. They had an amazing light show flashing on to a mountain behind the site, the sound was booming, the crowd was about 1500 people thick and everything just seemed too good to be true really. Well...

At about 11:30 or so, I was standing behind the stage talking with someone when I noticed a helicopter pulling over one of the mountain tops. I jokingly said "Oh look, here comes big brother" to the person I was with. I wasn't far off.

The helicopter dipped lower and lower and started shining its lights on the crowd. I was kind of in awe and just sat and watched this thing circle us for a minute. As I looked back towards the crowd I saw a guy dressed in camoflauge walking by, toting an assault rifle. At this point, everyone was fully aware of what was going on . A few "troops" rushed the stage and cut the sound off and started yelling that everyone "get the fuck out of here or go to jail". This is where it got really sticky.

No one resisted. That's for sure. They had police dogs raiding the crowd of people and I saw a dog signal out a guy who obviously had some drugs on him. The soldiers attacked the guy (4 of them on 1), and kicked him a few times in the ribs and had their knees in his back and sides. As they were cuffing him, there was about 1000 kids trying to leave in the backdrop, peacefully. Next thing I know, A can of fucking TEAR GAS is launched into the crowd. People are running and screaming at this point. Girls are crying, guys are cussing... bad scene.

Now, this is all I saw with my own eyes, but I heard plenty of other accounts of the night. Now this isnt gossip I heard from some candy raver, these are instances cited straight out of the promoters mouth..

- One of the promoters friends (a very small female) was attacked by one of the police dogs. As she struggled to get away from it, the police tackled her. 3 grown men proceeded to KICK HER IN THE STOMACH.

- The police confiscated 3 video tapes in total. People were trying to document what was happening out there. The police saw one guy filming and ran after him, tackled him and his camera fell, and luckily.. his friend grabbed it and ran and got away. priceless footage. That's not all though. Out of 1,500 people, there's sure to be more footage.

- The police were rounding up the staff of the party and the main promoter went up to them with the permit for the show and said "here, I have the permit." The police then said, "no you don't" and ripped the permit out of his hand. Then, they put an assault rifle to his forehead and said "get the fuck out of here right now."

Now.. let's get the facts straight here.

This event was 100% legal. They had every permit the city told them they needed. They had a 2 MILLION DOLLAR insurance policy for the event. They had liscenced security guards at the gates confiscating any alcohol or drugs found upon entry (yes, they searched every car on the way in). Oh, I suppose I should mention that they arrested all the security guards for possession.

Oh another interesting fact.. the police did not have a warrant. The owner of the land already has a lawsuit against the city for something similar. A few months ago, she rented her land for a party and the police raided that as well. And catch this, the police forced her to LEAVE HER OWN PERSONAL PROPERTY. That's right. They didnt arrest her, but made her leave her own property!!!

Don't get it twisted, this is all going down in probably THE most conservative state in the USA. And this is scary.. a gross violation of our civil liberties. The police wanted this party shut down, so they made it happen. Even though everything about this event was legal. The promoters spent over $ 20,000 on this show and did everything they had to to make it legit, only to have it taken away from them by a group of radical neo-con's with an agenda.

This was one of the scariest things I have ever witnessed in person. I can't even begin to describe how surreal it was. Helicopters, assault rifles, tear gas, camoflauge-wearing soldiers.... why? Was that really necessary?

This needs to be big news across the USofA. At least in our music scene (edm as a whole)... this could happen to any of us at any time. When we're losing the right to gather peacefully, we're also letting the police set a standard of what we can get away with. And I think that's BULLSHIT!

The system fucked up last night... They broke up a party that was 100% legal and they physically hurt a lot of people there at the same time. The promoters already have 6 lawsuits ready to file with their lawyers and the ACLU is already involved.

I'm sure some pictures (and hopefully some video) will surface soon. I'll make sure to post them up here on 404, so you can see the Police State of America at work.

p.s. - there are more stories of police brutality that i'll post up later. gotta hit the airport soon. can't wait to get the fuck out of this shit hole state.

taken from here (the video footage is on the later pages):
http://www.404audio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14814&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

 

Holy crap. That sounds awful. Were you there?

 

Welcome to the land of the free.

 

no but I know Knick, and he was (obviously). He wasn't hurt but alot of people were. I mean, from what I've gathered they called in the national guard to bust a party because a kid sold an undercover officer some drugs. People were trying to video tape people getting beaten up; and they got shot with tasers because they were pointing a camera. The property owners got arrested (this was at Spanish Fork Canyon, btw; and they used to allow alot of different type events there; guess they won't anymore). There's plenty of testimonies from people here: http://utrave.org/showthread.php?t=20020 but be warned, their server is getting hammered right now...

 

Here's another tidbit about it:

"At around 11:00 I was enjoying the good vibes and great music. Then at about 11:30 pm a helicopter began circling the party. Out of nowhere huge semis filled with national guard, swat, and the police rolled up. Soldiers came out of the bushes and rushed down to the party. Carrying M-16s, Ak-47s, nightsticks, and tazers. They proceeded to attack random people and push their might around on people who had done nothing wrong.

I saw about 7 people attacked (before being forced to leave). I saw two of them right in front of me. One was a guy who was walking around with a camcorder stunned at what was happening. A soldier told him to give him the camera now. The raver said no it is my camera. The soldier then proceeded to grab the camera, throw it to the ground and then began beating the kid. In the end they threw him to the ground violently an put their knee into his back while handcuffing him. All for wanting to keep his property. When I last saw him he was knocked out and unmoving.

Another girl next to me said to one of the soldiers that she didn't know how to get home as they had just arrested her friend. The soldier told her to walk home. My friend tried to grab her to bring her with us, but the soldier began yelling that she had touched him (which she hadn't). WIthin seconds, five soldiers had jumped on her and were literally beating the crap out of this innocent women. She was punched in the face, thrown to the ground, and kicked while down. All for worrying how to get home safely.

The soldiers proceeded to attack anyone with cameras or camcorders, obviously wanting to restrict the film that got out about it. This was not a legal attack, it was a blatant violation on our rights as American citizens. And the swat, police, politicians who authorized this, and the national guard knew this. That is why they were removing potential evidence."

 

fucking hell. shit. that sounds... how do they get away with shit like this? are people blind? i mean, the everyday US citizen wouldn't know about these happenings would they? if they do and the coppers get away with it... shiiiiit....

im reading here http://utrave.org/showthread.php?t=20020 and theres loads of fucked up stuff happenin...

sorry for the language in my post but bloody hell, this has shocked me to be honest.

 

Hopefully this, and what happened in Pittsburgh will serve to unite these movements and form some real solidarity which is desperately needed.

 

That is scary..but a rave in Utah doesn't seem like that good of an idea either...crazy, I hope some legal action happens

 

Why not? What's so different about Utah?

 

I still want to see a new reality TV show that goes around to all these protests each week. Wouldn't that be more interesting than watching Joe Schmoe take 6 weeks to decide which girlfriend he wants?

But no one in this country has the guts to air such a show.

.

 

quote: Why not? What's so different about Utah?

Its one of the most conservative and religious states, if not the most.

 

seamonster, that's true. But it's also one of the most beautiful states.

 

Either they don't have the guts, or they don't want to show the system for what it really is because then they'd lose their monopoly over us and our minds.

 

Oh I know. I've camped in southern Utah several times, defintiely like nowhere else..but they only sell low alcohol beer, I'm not surprised they overreact about a rave

 

sad, really sad. say hello to the United States of Fascism.

http://www.bushflash.com/14.html
http://www.bushflash.com/antiwar2.html
http://www.bushflash.com/nazi.html
http://www.atomfilms.com/af/content/whatbarrysays
http://www.bushflash.com/pl_lo.html

 

So, where's this video? Talk is cheap!

 

That's an excellent idea. I know someone has the guts, maybe Jon Stewart? I still think he should get as much time as the Tonight Show

 

Especially yours.

 

http://homepage.mac.com/apexgrin/FileSharing2.html

right there. it takes a good little bit to load, and it's not really long because the camera was smashed on the ground (apparently). that means it also doesn't show a whole lot but you can see some stuff going on in the background. luckily they got the tape out.

it might not've been a good idea, but they've done it many times before, and they are planning legal action. here's a statement from the promotor of the event...

I was the main event organizer for "Versus II", I have been throwing parties in Utah for over 6 years now. I have done well over 75 parties, and NEVER in my life have witnessed anything so disrupting!

To clear up any questions any of you had for the event at hand, we DID have all proper permits to host the event on the property that we did. The Utah national guard is one of the agencies that raided the show, and they were the worst ones. That girl you see getting the shit beat out happens to be one of my good friends, keep in mind this girl does not drink, do drugs, or anything of the sort. All she is is a major DNB fan. We also have hand on eyewitnesses with writen statements stating thay had witnessed 2 of the ment in camo take a young intoxicated girl into one of the porto-potties during the main coarse of the raid while one of them stood outside a watch. In the mean time we presented the "Utah County Mass Gathering Permit" to the officer in charge and he said" No you do not have a permit for this and confiscated my folder w/ insurance policy, Permits, Business Licsense, and proof of permission to use property for the event.


THIS IS THE COUNTRY WE LIVE IN TODAY!!

IT'S ALL FUCKED!!!

We are in the mistd of organizing a protest party in the capital lawn of salt lake city utah to let our voiced be heard. We will keep all of you informed on what is going on.

I and the rest of my krew appreciate all of the support from everyone across the world, and we do want to let all of you know that we WILL NOT let this matter slide.

We have met with our attorneys and are filing a multi-million dollar class action law suite to accomidate the injuries, mental distress, and everything else that happened to these innocent party goers.

These events that happened are starting to be publicly released nation wide on news stations, national radio talk shows and so on and so forth.

The support from all of you is why!

RESPEKT!!


P.S. Knick, we will have you back soon.

Respekt to all,

Jeremy
Versus II (SLC, UT.)