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Forever the Sickest Kids and We The Kings involved in beating by Philly police
Julie Nguyen on 4/27/09 @ 12:06 AM
Clark said, "Philadelphia cops just beat us up for nothing!" He then describes that their merch guy, Chris, is "bleeding from the head." According to Twitter updates from Mercy Mercedes' crew, Chris is currently hospitalized and three others from the tour are in jail.
Story still developing. Stay tuned to AP News for updates.
FTSK and WTK are both on tour with The Cab, Never Shout Never and Mercy Mercedes on the Bamboozle Road Tour.
this was sooo messed up. i was almost crying while reading all of the updates. i hate philly police now.
jonathan also posted these but later erased them iamjonathancook:I had to helplessly watch as my friends in my band and on my crew and in the bands I am on tour with get beaten til bloody by philly police iamjonathancook:Philly police continued to beat my crew and we the kings crews faces as they were gushing blood saying I don't care about you over and over iamjonathancook:Blood gushing from myfriends faces is not enough to stop beating them with a nightstick in the face, saying u wanna die tonight?!?!!?!!??? iamjonathancook:I AM SICK MY FRIENDS ARE HELPLESS AND BLEEDING NOW GETTING TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL AND JAIL FOR LOADING OUT EQUIPMENT IN FRONT OF THE CLUB!!
Cali7, thank you for posting those updates. I will try to keep this updated.
more than just caleb and trav posted ! jonathan ziggy (ftsk merch guy) calebs best friend stellah hunter dan guys from MM did also it all happened in 30 mins and so many tweets about it
Also Travis said something about how the cops started because they were unloading in front of the club. I don't know if that's like not allowed.. but I think it something to do with the incident. Let's hope they are all okay. Apparently some of the guys were arrested as well.
george and brendan from valencia also posted: georgevalencia Just watched south street police beat on my friends while they were trying to do their jobs. Unbelievable and disgusting brendanvalencia Witnessed the worst abuse of power and police brutality of my life. cant believe what i just saw. as well as mark from ftsk.
One person's in the hospital and three others are in jail. And Alex Marshall from The Cab has twittered about it now too.
Thank you for that, BreRadosunrise. I updated what I can for right now.
Philly is known for this kind of stuff! It's so gross how people can abuse there power like this, but sadly it happens a lot. I'v seen it happen, and no one will do anything about it. Hopefully becuase it happened to bands that are well known maybe something will be done about it. maybe.
something had better be done this is ridiculous! i hope someone was smart enough to get it on a camera!
part 1 of 2, anon on lj posted this: apparently, the mercy mercedes van and trailer were parked somewhere in an alley while the bands were loading up to leave. the cops arrived and asked them to move, but they couldn't cause they were still loading, after receiving 4 tickets, they were then threatened with a 5th, that's when the cops began to get aggressive with other bands who were also loading out. apparently, all of the band members got night sticks pulled on them, along with a group of girls standing outside by the buses. ian (ftsk tech), t. fair (wtk tour manager) and chris v (wtk merch) all got involved.
part 2: i'm not sure how, but ian was repeatedly kicked in the face and hit with a night stick while being asked if he wanted to die tonight. t. fair was put into a police car, along with ian but no one was arrested. the bands were trying to get chris v to go to the hospital because his bleeding was so out of control. i'm not sure who is where, but i don't think anyone actually went to jail. as for chris v, hopefully he's on his way to the hospital. as for everyone posting about why band members weren't "helping" i believe travis said it best, how can he help his friend when five cops are standing in his way?
yeah i was there. it was FUCKED UP. those cops are insane. they were giving people shit last nite at the Maine show as well. they pulled one of the members our by his shirt because he wouldnt stop signing autographs.
wow that is so fucked up! i cant believe they have the never to do those things!
All I can say is why? None of this makes sense. Why would the cops beat down people for trying to do their jobs?
This is happening a lot more often than thought. Recently, the band Before Their Eyes was beaten by security after their show at The Chance in Poughkeepsie, NY. More information can be found on their myspace blog (blogs.myspace.com/beforetheireyes). Photographer, Adam Elmakias, was able to get some good shots of the incident as well. (http://twitpic.com/3p4r1) This sounds like a growing epidemic among security and police.
not gonna lie im alittle confused why almost all of FTSK are no longer talking about what happened, and deleted anything they did say about the incident when it is their tech who is supposedly in jail, you would think they would be more pissed off, but jonathans last few tweets have seemed really upbeat...
okay so tommymercedes posted this :Ian, tech for FTSK has been released. Pray for Chris V and T-Fair from WTK crew. Justice will be served in due time but we need your help!
http://www.valenciamusic.net/site/?p=373
@Cali7: I'm guessing it has to do w/ the record label or legal team not wanting them to say anything yet. It's a pretty crazy situation and I'm sure they plan on doing something. I hope, anyways.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AbzUspUWQg pretty sure this is the first video ! of something happening :0 but the girl recording has all her contact stuff on the detail try and contacting her ! might be more helpful
A dumb ticket would have been enough, but the beatings I'm reading about seem rediculous. These cops are going to be fired and such, if there are any more videos people please put them up so this abuse is seen, send the videos to the local news, send it to CNN, FOX, MSNBC, etc. I'm not a huge fan of any of these bands but, when they are loading a bus/van in an alley that seems to be where they do such things every other time, it makes me sick to think these guys are "protecting" me.
Artist Approach posted a video of what was going on inside the venue. http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=56483874 this is so fucked up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09Lu7Lu5Dlk live video if it going down
Check out video from inside the venue! http://blogs.myspace.com/ArtistApproach
Hey guys. Thank you for your responses and videos. I really appreciate you helping me stay updated with this. Thanks again!
i have been to 4 bamboozle shows in the last two weeks, so i have met, got to know, & consider these guys to be my friends. it is outrageous to me that this would happen to them. if you have been to a show, & don't know who these guys are, ian is the crew guy who does the sound checks for ftsk & always says "meatball marinara" & things like that. t-fair [trevor] is wtk manager, but he's still young, like 23. chris-v is the merch guy for wtk, i'm sure you've seen him. anyway, i cannot believe this happened. these guys are the sweetest ever. i don't know the details, obviously, but i think we should just send them our support & hope that the cops who did this get whats coming to them!
I went to the show last night but I left before the actual incident occured, however I do know a few things. Security was having a fit all day about people not being in the right place and being on the sidewalk when they shouldn't have been so I'm guessing it was them who notified police but I could be wrong. And the vans and buses were parked there all day, so I don't get why they only had a problem with it when they started to load. It was 1 in the morning, its not like they were in the way of anything...
this is why im disappointed to be from jersey/philly area i cant believe this guys please dont judge us by that and please come back still. people wonder why im scared of philly now they now. im so sorry my heart goes out to you.
You can file a complaint of miss-conduct to the philly department here: http://www.ppdonline.org/hq_misconduct.php Just send them the youtube vid link, or photos, if enough people respond they'll have to do something.
Travis Clark posted this about an hour ago on his twitter. WeTheTRAVIS:Everybody in our crew is ok and will be out tonight!! Finally back to normal :)
glamourgirl13 i was there! i couldn't believe that. kennedy didn't do anything wrong.
http://tinyurl.com/dndl6v
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=56483874 the video on myspace is better, you can see them beating on WTKs merch guy chris.... in the "news report" the person above me posted they said that there was footage of someone being chased into the venue... this is what went on in the venue....