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Police attack band, crowd at Two Gallants show in Houston

Alternative Press - Scott Heisel on 10/15/06 @ 1:59 PM - altpress.com

On Friday, Oct. 13, a police offer breaking up a show featuring Saddle Creek Records band Two Gallants in Houston, Texas, led to onstage violence, tasering of crowd members and multiple arrests. An eyewitness account of the event is partially reprinted below:

"two gallants were on their 4th song i believe and a cop shows up for a noise complaint. i think he went to the soundboard first. he then heads to the stage. he has some wrds with the singer adam and then the cop grabs his guitar. adam pulls it back and then the cop grabs him around the head and takes him down. tyson jumps up from the drums and jumps into the mix. some other dudes get on stage and a bunch of others swarm up and start taking pictures...

then the cop turns on my friend greg who is taking pics and says 'stop touching me' or something like that and knocks greg's camera out of his hand...

then the cop jumps off stage and starts pushing greg in the chest across the room while greg is just backing away. he eventually backs greg into that corner where everybody puts their instruments (to the right of the stage) and pushes him down into a pile of drums. people freak out and about 20 people rush over there including the dudes from the opening band and adam and tyson...

so the cop manages his way out of that pack and then starts chasing adam. adam runs across the stage and around the back of the bar with the cop right after him. he runs behind the bar and jumps over the front of the bar and runs out the door and down the street. the cop comes back around the door and is yelling at everyone to leave. he then walks outside and grabs tyson and cuffs him. he tells tyson something like he is being arrasted for what his buddy did. meanwhile some other people are yelling at the cop and he is walking around with his handcuffs out threatening to arrest everyone. he then grabs another dude and arrests him. then about 9 other cop cars showed up and those cops all jump out of their cars...

i see them then arrest my friend greg as well as 4 or so other people."

Video and photos of the incident can be found at a MySpace page specifically created after the incident. For those interested in filing a complaint, the police officer's name was G. Rodriguez (badge number 7854) and the phone number of the police station's public affairs division is 713-308-3200.

The band members arrested have been released from jail and are continuing on with their tour. We'll keep updating this story as it unfolds.