SF Cops bust party, arrest 11

A party in San Francisco, thrown to raise money for the legal defense of student protestors, turned violent Sunday morning after police arrived. The police, who arrested 11, claim the party was too loud. The partygoers, however, claim that the police started the violence, roughing up people who took photographs of them. First-hand reports.

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dculberson

Drunk college kids are allowed to be jackasses in a private residence. Cops are not. So if both groups are jackasses, it’s the cops that should be punished.
- Moriarty
  
  That’s true. If it was limited to merely being a jackass on both sides, obviously it was the cops who behaved wrongly. But there are allegations of assault, here, which is not mere jackassery, though presumably it was allowed to escalate from it, which doesn’t tend to happen when cops behave professionally. To summarize: taunting cops who show up to tell you to keep it down = jackass, but allowed; throwing glass bottles at same cops = legitmate grounds for arrest, even if the cops are jerks about it.
  - AnarchistAlice
    
    I’m sorry but your making a lot of assumptions. We all have the right to education, but it is disappearing, “drunk college jackasses” are not typically the most politically active demographic of students. So what if they were drunk and happened to be students (not that anybody knows who was drunk or not) would that really be shocking?! If noise and intoxication were the problem we’d here of frat parties getting forcibly dispersed every weekend. The fact is this hardly the only instance of police harassment of parties and concerts, underground or not. One of the first things they did to squelch parties was the rave act. As an artist I am disturbed at how casual people are with the lack of freedom we are afforded in the most ancient of human interactions MUSIC AND DANCING.
mokey

full support to the arrestees and to those who fought back! solidarity means attack!
Anonymous

It kinda undermines the “first-hand reports” when they claim to have been tased and the San Francisco police don’t carry tasers.
- Ito Kagehisa
  
  The West Virginia police use cattle prods. Tasers only work on sissyfied California types, Canadians and Britons. West Virginia men would just light a marlboro off their smoking chest hairs and laugh.
  
  I may have been awake too long.
- AnarchistAlice
  
  You should really finish reading the paragraph, Josh Wolf, (maybe you’ve heard of him, he spent the longest time in jail for any journalist for refusing to hand over videotape), wrote up that article and he doesn’t bullshit. He doesn’t just repeat what people tell him without looking into the facts:
  
  “Chan confirmed that the department doesn’t use tazers. He said he doesn’t have any information to indicate another police agency was involved in the incident, but it is still early in the investigation and that more information be available later in the week.”
  
  Don’t be so quick to believe the cops. There were numerous reports of undercover officers present at the party so when he says he doesn’t have any information to indicate whether another police agency was involved, it probably means another agency was involved.
  - Anonymous
    
    “Don’t be so quick to believe the cops.”
    
    Good Advice!
Tom Hale

Was there any video taken? I don’t want to defend/support either since it seems it’s ‘our word against theirs’ at this point.
Rob Beschizza

You’d think some would surface!
UncaScrooge

After all of the times I have had to fruitlessly call the San Francisco police to silence inconsiderate and incoherent trust-fund children who hold band practice in an apartment complex at 2:00 am, I am shocked and dismayed to see that the cops finally arrived, years too late. Also, I just wanted the cops to politely ask my neighbors to put away the drum kit and shut down the Marshall stacks by midnight — you don’t have to belabor them with crowd-control weapons.

I jest. I moved out of the Haight years ago. However, when I read in the newspaper about suspected terrorists being subjected to torture by sleep deprivation, I start weeping in uncontrollable sympathy. Scarred for life.
AnarchistAlice

Thanks for posting this. Sometimes people hold off on posting photos until charges are dismissed so there isn’t a chance of incriminating innocent people who may have had nothing to do with the “violence.” No doubt there are pictures out there though.

I encourage everyone to check out http://www.stopthewaronfun.org/ it is not just underground parties that are in danger, clubs like Slims and Bottom of the Hill are hardly underground but are facing intimidation by the ABC in an effort to bleed more money out of them. This harassment affects all of us who enjoy parties, concerts, bars, etc. as well as the owners.
Tom Hale

Yeah, w so many celphones you’d think someone would post some video.

I’ve been reading SF news sites – nothing mentioned that I’ve found so far.

As a civil servant myself, I usually want to jump to support the police, but I’ve learned that blind faith in authority is a bad idea – several posts here have proven that. If what the students say happened, did happen, then the SFPD officers involved should be punished.

Also, they mention a fire marshal made the scene and at first wasn’t allowed entrance because he didn’t have a warrant – in Memphis, the fire dept doesn’t need a warrant – not sure about SFFD rules though.
AnarchistAlice

There is actually a call out to collect any photos or video people have taken for someone’s legal defense.

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/02/01/18636757.php
Moriarty

Between cops breaking up a party, and a bunch of drunk college kids “fighting the power,” I believe… nobody. Maybe slightly more credibility to the cops. Usually when things get out of hand like this, it’s because everyone involved is a jackass.
Notorious D.A.D.

To say the guy couldn’t have been tazered because the cops “don’t carry tazers” is laughable! I wouldn’t put it past SF cops to carry them on the down low. I’ve seen firsthand what they can and will do. It wasn’t pretty.
soyonsici

‘Taser’ is a trademark of TASER International, any other shock weapon is just a ‘stun gun’. That’s standard semantic deflection.