Some of you might have heard, but half of Set it Straight was arrested
today for protesting the Redding Police Department shutting down the
show in the middle of our set. We were playing a Skate demo at the
Redding Skatepark when 6 cop cars showed up and demanded everyone to
vacate, including the kids skating, who had nothing to do with anything
(they shut down the park, as well). This was a sponsored event, with
permits. The Redding Parks and Recreation committee came out and
unlocked the power box, and set up trash cans around the area we were
playing. The show was 100% legit, so we didn't stop playing, finished
our set, and took our sweet time breaking down, but when they
surrounded our friend who was riding the park and hit his bike with
their batons, things got lame. He was arrested, no explaination. Harry,
Ben, John and Tim were sitting down in the skatepark when RPD told them
to leave, they asked why, and immediately they cuffed Ben. Harry told
them he wasn't going to move so they choked him to the pavement and
cuffed him too, along with Timmy and John. Later they also arrested
Brittny and Sara for standing too close, bringing the total to seven.
Harry's dad got most of it on the video mode of his digital camera,
which is below. My favorite part is where one of the officers jokes
that Harry's taxes pay his salary. What a dick. After the arrests, and
multiple threats from the RPD cops, Harry's Dad, myself, and a few
others went to Redding's Channel 7 news. A small story aired tonight
highlighting each side of the story, but the overwhelming theme was the
Sargeant's quote:
"The didn't have a permit. Bands of this nature lead to beatings and stabbings."
At the station, one of the cops said to Harry; "You're that band that
played last week where someone got stabbed." He told them that
definitely wasn't us, and the cop replied "Yes, it was". Awesome. When
one of the sponsors, the owner of Johnny Rad's skateshop, showed up at
the news station to contribute to the story, an officer told him if he
didn't leave he would be arrested for tresspassing. Luckily, we were
already inside with the reporter. Anyway, there should be a longer
story on the news Monday, once we have the permits in line we can
hopefully have all the charges dropped and then some, and the story on
the monday evening news will show way more of our side (and if we're
lucky, show the cops for the bullying jocks they are). All seven are
being charged with loitering and unlawful assembly, and Harry and Ben
are being charged with Resisting Arrest.
If you live in redding or chico, send an email to info@krcrtv.com and
tell them they need to bump this story up. We can't let them just get
away with roughing us up and kicking us out, especially since it was
all legal. Send a letter to the editor of the Record Searchlight at
letters@redding.com, we need to flood these inboxes. This is a small
town and we need to do everything we can to keep the cops out of our
scene, and if we can use the media to achieve that, good.
Needless to say, we won't be playing the Good Clean Fun show tonight... sorry everyone.
Curt/Set it Straight
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