I have to wonder if this is a dress rehearsal for martial law. Just take a look at this video of a SWAT team shutting down an outdoor rave in Utah last night - a rave for which they had all the necessary permits. Here’s an eyewitness account:
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.”
What the fuck is going on here? Here’s the sheriff’s statement.
Susie,
It reminds me more and more of Vietnam. The early protests didn’t draw many people or strong government reaction. As the war support dropped and protests became larger the government reaction escalated peaking about 1970-1971 with events like Kent State. I hope we can bring this to a close much quicker, but I anticipate there will be government overreaction to some of the demonstrations
Jim
Jim,
This was not a demonstration. It was a peaceful music event. If there was illegal activity taking place, police could and should have used normal procedures.
If this country is going to turn into a lawless free fire zone for arbitrary police action, I don’t want to live here.
I agree with Susie that this could be a rehearsal of some kind. Regardless, we should strongly oppose such abuse of police powers, or some day we will be standing outside a prison, hoping for word of a family member who has “disappeared.”
Hi all,
I’ve re-compressed the video as a smaller mpg and hosted it on my own site, along with contact information for utah decision makers in case anyone else wants to make a stink.
My feeling is that if the Utah County Sheriff’s Office knows that the World Is Watching, they (and other rural law enforcement jurisdictions) won’t try to pull this sort of backwoods heavy-handed crap.
http://www.queviva.net/utah2005
Where do these cops think they are? Iraq???????
Wow,
If these guys want to play soldiers, somebody should tell them about the war in Iraq.
Love the black masks too. Bet they forgot to wear badges on the outside of their uniforms - wouldn’t want to be identified would they?
Welcome to the new Chisto-fascist America! All us politically correct Progressives have been so afraid to call them Nazis that we’ve allowed them to take over the country. It’s going to get worse. Wait until they control the Supreme Court, too. America is over.
Ralph,
I know it was not a demonstration. We also had events like the SLC Rave where authorities shut them down because of a fear the group would morph over to a scheduled anti-war demonstration in the same area to reduce the crowd size.
Note that the anti-war demonstration could not conveniently be raided since the SLC mayor had already stated he would be participating. Too much news coverage and possible celebrities there.
The intent was probably to intimidate people and to minimize bad press. They probably didn’t expect much news coverage at midnight. And definitely no video to show the abuse. Damn all those people for having video recorders at a concert. Just couldn’t get them all, could they.
And yes, it may have been a rehearsal. I’m not convinced about that yet. It may have just been a local idiot showing off for BushCo.
Jim
I’m just completely agape right now. To think that this was happening in freaking Utah of all places … absolutely terrifying. Thanks for the contact info, Canton, I’ll definitely be having some words with them over this.
typical behavior with the criminal party in charge of Amerika..thank the chimp..
I love the police statement:
“A 17 year old female from West Jordan, found by officers, had overdosed on ecstasy. She was treated and released to her parents. “
Overdosed on ectasy…a.k.a- got the shit beaten out of her by a bunch of rampaging steroid cop assholes.
I just watched the video. What a bizarre thing and very frightening. Who were these soldiers? Were they police or National Guardsmen? Who owns the helicopter? Why were there so many soldiers there?
I also read the sheriff’s statement. It says there was a health permit but then goes on to say there was no permit. It also says that emergency medical personnel and equipment were contracted to be present. But no permit.
This is very confusing. I think it’s clear they simply wanted to scare the hell out of the people at that party and they didn’t exercise much restraint in their efforts to achieve that end.
This is the second alarming video of police brutality I’ve watched today. The other was of the police tasering a woman demonstrator — she was already on the ground and was being restrained by several policemen but they went ahead and tasered her, just for the hell of it. It was a demonstration outside a recruitment center.
The police seem to have become very Central American — perhaps we should get Pat Buchanan on this.
What you are seeing is the conversion of public service police units to para-military enforcement teams … most of the people showing up in police forces are ex-service members … that have been trained by the service … and take their understanding of crowd control and crow suppression from the military … and we know where that has been going … the problem is that more and more police do not want to see themselves as poblic servants but as empowered protector of government … they want all the power and equipment that they had in the service … where fear is the tool of the trade … look for more and more of this over the next few years … the job distription will be “don’t talk them down … knock them down” … a lot of this is due to a lack of transistion training for the toops going from combat duty to civilian life …
That footage is distrubing. C’mon now these are not militants or terrorists, these are the youth of america. People who’s parents, if not themselves pay US taxes to pay for the bozoes who now attack there children. I saw nothing wrong prior to the SWAT team’s unprofessional approach. As a tax payer, and EDM music lover I feel disgusted.
Utah County should host a free and safe event as an apology.
WELL I THINK THERE ALL A BUNCH OF LIEING STEALING CONVING CROOKS WITH BADGES . IF WE AS CITIZENS WOULD STICK TOGETHER WE COULD STOP ALL THE SHIT THEY THINK THERE GETTING AWAY WITH P.S.(WHATS UP WITH THE UTAH COUNTY JAIL WEBSITE PUBLIC RECORDS MY ASS).