Spoiler
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Cops brawl with band members in church basement.....Ha
Cops brawl with band members
By J.J. Huggins and Marisa Donelan
LEOMINSTER -- Police arrested three band members outside a church Saturday night after a hardcore punk-rock concert featuring a band named "Cut
Throat" erupted into violence, officials said Monday. Cut Throats MySpace page
Police are also investigating threats on a Web site made by someone named "Dan," who claimed to be the brother of one of the men arrested.
The poster said he now wants to burn Leominster down, according to Police Chief Peter Roddy and Mayor Dean J. Mazzarella.
Officials are also looking into why the people who organized the concert in the basement at the Unitarian Universalist First Church on West Street did
not hire a police detail like they were supposed to, Roddy and Mazzarella said.
Mazzarella said he thinks the church had nothing to do with planning the show, and probably didn't know what type of concert featuring "Christian-rock
bands" was being held there.
"I think you'll find the church wasn't aware and maybe thought they were dealing with a different animal," said the mayor, who used to be a city
police officer.
"I don't blame the church," he said.
Mazzarella also said the police might seek a criminal complaint against the person who threatened the city and the police on the Internet, calling the
threats "troubling."
The mayor said that by Monday afternoon he had received 25 to 50 e-mails claiming the police acted brutally during the incident.
But those people are not hearing the whole story, he said.
The chaotic incident unfolded around 9 p.m. when police received a call from the fire department about a fight in the municipal parking lot outside
the church and behind the fire station, according to Roddy.
Officer Michael DeLuca wrote in his report that he saw about 50 to 60 people in the parking lot, 10 to 15 of which were in a "fight/scrum."
DeLuca called for backup and ordered the crowd to disperse, according to his report.
A teary-eyed young woman named Ashley Antonucci then approached the officer, and asked to speak to him, according to DeLuca's report.
"She stated, 'I hired a band named Cut Throat and now they won't leave, no one else will leave either, they are all getting out of control,'" DeLuca
wrote. "I asked her what had happened in the parking lot. She state, 'There was a fight in the mosh pit that spilled outside.' She then stated, 'Will
you tell them all to leave? Please.'"
At least five officers from Leominster arrived, along with three state troopers and two officers from Lunenburg for backup, according to Roddy.
Police went into the church, where the band was playing and there was a crowd on the dance floor, according to DeLuca's report.
DeLuca told the band to stop playing and ordered the crowd to leave.
The band ignored him, so he again ordered the lead singer, Andrew Bezanson, 23, of 286 Pine St., East Bridgewater, "to stop playing and leave,"
according to DeLuca's report.
Bezanson swore at the officers, even saying "What the (expletive) are you looking at?" DeLuca alleges.
Another band members, Scott Rea, 21, of 4 Linden St., Rockland, allegedly yelled, "We got paid anyway, we don't give a (expletive)," according to
DeLuca's report.
The crowd "began to advance toward" the officers when Sgt. George P. Bruwer, the street supervisor for the shift that night, tried to arrest the lead
singer, DeLuca wrote.
Bezanson fought with Bruwer and two other officers, but they managed to handcuff him, according to Bruwer's report.
Joseph Barrett, 22, of 183 Temple St., Whitman -- a member of another band -- began struggling with Bruwer, and threw an instrument to the ground,
according to DeLuca's report.
Police also arrested Rea, and used pepper spray while scuffling with the men, according to reports.
Police took Barrett into the garage on the side of the station, facing the fire department next door, to wash his face off with water to treat him for
the pepper spray, according to Officer John Monahan's report.
But Barrett fled the station on foot while wearing handcuffs, ran through an ally and across Main Street, where Monahan tackled him with the help of
other officers, according to Monahan's report.
"While on the ground Mr. Barrett resisted his arrest still," Monahan wrote. "Mr. Barrett was face down on the ground, he turned his body sideways and
kicked me in the stomach and leg area numerous times."
Police later learned that Barrett was wanted on an arrest warrant from Brockton District Court for multiple motor vehicle charges, including operating
under the influence of alcohol (second offense), according to court documents.
Police charged Barrett with trespassing, disorderly conduct, two counts of resisting arrest, assault and battery on a police officer, and assault and
battery with a dangerous weapon (shod foot).
Police charged Rea with assault and battery on a police officer, trespassing, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.
Police charged Bezanson with trespassing, resisting arrest, assault and battery on a police officer, and disorderly conduct.
District Court Judge Edward J. Reynolds set bail at $500 cash or $5,000 surety for all three men when they appeared in Leominster District Court
Monday.
Roddy said he doesn't believe any of his officers did anything wrong.
"At this point, I've got the police reports, it appears (as if the officers' actions were) appropriate," Roddy said.
But Cut Throat drummer Martin Davis, 25, said the conflict began when a couple of concertgoers started fighting in the crowd.
"We were playing, and a fight had broken out," the Abington resident said during a telephone interview Monday. "We stopped and said, 'Look, this isn't
the place for it.'"
The people who were fighting were thrown out, but then one person came back in and started fighting with another person, Davis said.
The band stopped playing for the night at that point, he said.
Davis said he then saw Bezanson get into a scuffle with police officers as he was trying to take equipment out of the church.
"He dropped the equipment, and the cop said (Bezanson) tried to hit him," Davis said. "They started hitting (Bezanson). They cuffed him, then they
maced him, which is completely beyond me."
Rea, the bass player, became agitated when he saw Bezanson being arrested, Davis said.
"He said, 'Why are you arresting my friend? We're just trying to leave,'" Davis said. "I walked up to Scott, just trying to get him to calm down and
get in the van, and the cop pulled out a can of mace."
Davis said he and his girlfriend were standing next to Rea when the officer maced him, and the mist knocked them down.
"The mist was everywhere, and we were just kind of wretching on the ground," he said. "It was an intense, burning sensation all down my chest. I was
coughing. It was in my nose, my nose was burning, my eyes were burning. I was just infuriated, I couldn't believe that would happen."
Band members said they never had problems with police in the past - although they have seen fights break out during their shows, Davis said.
"It's in the nature, with the type of music that we play, that fights happen occasionally," he said. "But it's rare. We've been together for a long
time, and nothing like this has ever happened."
Davis said band members have been in contact with the American Civil Liberties Union.
Davis said he is overwhelmed by Saturday's events.
He spoke with his friends Monday after they were released on bail, and said they are hurting from injuries they sustained in the brawl.
"We were just trying to cooperate and leave," he said, then he paused. "We've been friends a long time. It's tough to take everything."
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Voodoobillyman
The Artist Formerly Known As...
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Mood: my daughters beautiful curiousity
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I'm waving the bullshit flag now on that drummers statement. Both sides of the story are distorted to some degree I'm sure, but when he says they
began brutalizing his bandmates as they were trying to leave and being cordial...............come on.
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clevohardcore
* Kick\'n ass on the wild side *
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CUTTHROAT was a kick ass Oi Skinhead band from Clevo with Bohdon singing.
Each aspect of the soul has it's own part to play, but the ideal is harmonious agreement with reason and control.
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BDx13
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good thing the cops from Lunenburg were there for backup.
anyway... haven't people seen enough episodes of COPS to know that when the cops do show up, you do what they say in order to minimize the drama.
sorry this isn't a very punk statement, but once the police are involved in any situation - they are in charge. you no longer get to decide whether
or not to continue playing or whether or not it's time to go home. what they say is what you do, otherwise the charges start piling on.
If I fail math, there goes my chance at a good job and a happy life full of hard work.
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BDx13
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another fine example....
http://www.r5productions.com/2006/08/pointless-fest-cancelat...
If I fail math, there goes my chance at a good job and a happy life full of hard work.
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newbreedbrian
Posting Freak
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both examples sound like stupid kids acting like retards. reality check: if a cop asks you to do something, do it. if you wanna play the hard man,
accept the consequences. this isn't a black flag show in 1980 in LA where the cops show up to fuck with people. IT'S PEOPLE AT THE SHOW THAT ARE
RUINING THE SHOW FOR THE OTHER PEOPLE, NOT THE POLICE!!! Same scenario when we played with Blitz in Conneticut. Not that they got to play of course,
which is great of course since i've only been waiting to see them for 15 years.
The very existence of flamethrowers proves that sometime, somewhere, someone said to themselves, ?You know, I want to set those people over there on
fire, but I?m just not close enough to get the job done.? George Carlin
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godabandonedme
Senior Member
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Yea I already posted in other places about the pointless fest. This is fucking 2006. I'll let you in on a dirty little secret. Pssst. We have much
more important shit to worry about. Does anyone watch the news? If the cops have to show up in the first place obviously something has gone wrong
and you can't handle your own scene, so cops will have to handle it their way, which I'm sorry conflicts with your suburbanite fuck the world
attitude. The little blonde bitch who got her melon split open at the Unitarian derserved it. If you jump on a cops back and try to choke them, well
theres not much more I can say. If a cop tells you to move, move. No, most people do not know their actual rights when it comes to this type of
thing. Now, I have no problem with the people who want to talk shit, spit or fight cops, in fact I encourage it because I love a good sticking as
much as the next, but when you decide this course of action, please take note that you will loose, badly. And don't complain afterwards.
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Discipline
* DRUNKEN MONKEY *
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| Quote: | Originally posted by newbreedbrian
both examples sound like stupid kids acting like retards. reality check: if a cop asks you to do something, do it. if you wanna play the hard man,
accept the consequences. this isn't a black flag show in 1980 in LA where the cops show up to fuck with people. IT'S PEOPLE AT THE SHOW THAT ARE
RUINING THE SHOW FOR THE OTHER PEOPLE, NOT THE POLICE!!! |
‘Do you know what a love letter is? It’s a bullet from a fucking gun. Straight through your heart.’
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SAAAAARS
Posting Freak
Posts: 1061
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Location: maine
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i wasn't there, so i really don't know what happened... BUT those involved in this and those close to them say the story in the paper is nothing like
the actual occurance. of course they would say that, but hardcore kids in mass aren't unfamiliar with the police showing up to shows (especially bands
that play brockton often- like cut throat). i think that they know better than to talk back to police officers and try to fight them.... just sayin
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