Anarcho-Punk Imbeciles Riot At British Invasion 2K6

Rioting-The Unbeatable High

-Jello Biafra

It appears that the British Invasion 2K6 concert recently held in California tuned into a fun night for everyone involved. The Nazi skinheads got to do what they do best (start trouble and then run away), the anarchist punks got to do what they live for (throw bottles at the cops and vandalize local businesses), and the cops got to use all of that cool riot control training they’ve received by terrorizing said punks.

For those of you not familiar with what happened, the concert was a huge show featuring a bunch of second wave British punk acts like Vice Squad and the Adicts. Apparently, there were a handful of Nazi skinheads among the crowd of 1,500. The Nazis started giving white power salutes and yelling at the bands, bringing the wrath of the crowd upon them. At this point, someone got stabbed, and the cops responded by setting off tear gas both inside and outside the venue. The punks then proceeded to use the events as a pretext to generally act like a bunch of fools (check out some interesting videos and photos of the riot here, here, and here). The cops quickly got the situation under control, but not before some major property destruction went down, leaving local civic leader to fret that the whole thing will discourage businesses from coming to the area.

As a wayward youth, I was a pretty heavily involved in the punk scene myself. It was just this kind of blatant, pervading idiocy that made me stop going to shows. In this case, I would have to say that the cops, the Nazis, and the punks were three groups of people who absolutely deserved each other.