destroying the pursuit of happiness..

this happened last night!! can it happen anywhere else, is it happening anywhere else?? why is it happening?? Is it that we now live in a fully militarized police state operating under the auspices of a christianized theocratic authority formed to counter those islamic ones in Southwest Asia??

my friend Nick was one of the musicians at the event, here is what he had to say....

"Tonight, 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."