Friday, October 27, 2006

Cops crash a country show at Walter's

My buddy Adam over at Shattered Soapbox, a musician now studying music at the University of New Orleans, who has gigged around H-Town with his punk band, and knows Walter's well, weighs in on the infamous cop raid there a couple of weeks ago:

Here's how it plays out in my head: you're up on the stage playing your guitar, the bright stage lights make it difficult to see anyone in the crowd, you seem to be ignoring the cop because you CAN'T FUCKING SEE HIM, so he gets up on the stage and approaches you; if you're facing away from the crowd (to the side in this case), you probably can't see him even after he comes up onto the stage so you accidentally run into him as you turn back to face the crowd.

Basically, if Stephens really did run into that cop first, it was quite likely just an accident, and this cop flipped out.


Click here for the rest.

That's pretty much my opinon, too, but it's good to get the perspective of a guy who's in a position to better know the overall context. Indeed, the overall context actually makes the cop look worse. I had forgotten the kind of sensory mayhem that takes place onstage during a live music show, but that fact alone makes it clear that these musicians were probably more confused by what was going on than anything else. They certainly weren't the aggressors here. Which makes Officer Rodriguez a big fat liar.

And an asshole, to boot.

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