Dead Prez Show Turns Normally Apathetic College Students Into Cop-Flipping Maniacs

Jess Harvell | February 15, 2008 12:00 pm
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Students at Olympia, Wash.’s hippie-tastic Evergreen State College–famed in song and zine lore as the crucible for Pacific Northwest indie-pop/rock–would usually rather hug out their differences than start lobbing bricks and breaking windows. But earlier today a scuffle took place at a Dead Prez show being held on campus, and when one concertgoer was arrested for misdemeanor assault, the audience decided to take it upon themselves to liberate him from the pigs’ clutches. Thus finally answering the question “how many scrawny indie kids does it take to overturn a cop car?”

Thurston County deputies responded and removed the campus officer and her car and released the suspect, since they already had his identification.

A concert at The Evergreen State College ended in a riot where a Thurston County sheriff’s patrol car was overturned and looted.

When a deputy’s car wouldn’t start, the crowd overturned it, broke out the windows and sprayed some graffiti. Kessler says the deputy’s laptop computer and a radar gun were stolen. No weapons were lost. Another patrol car had graffiti but no other damage.

Ah, mob rule…a healthy expression of that renowned Evergreen iconoclasm. The local news report claims that the audience was prompted into rushing the police vehicle when “the band onstage reportedly encouraged the crowd to do something about the situation,” worded in such a way that the “band on stage” could have been either Dead Prez or an opening act. But having spent two years in Olympia, I can attest that there’s so little to do there that people don’t require much “encouragement” to be pushed over the edge.

RiotBreaks Out On Evergreen College Campus [King 5; HT: righteousmaelstrom]

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