Welcome Lee

[Silly Sausage]

Hiya Lee,

As I see you've already posted in the '10 Facts (http://secularcafe.org/showthread.php?t=978&page=10)...' thread, I thought it best you had your own Welcome thread too.

Welcome to the Cafe, I hope you like it here. :)

Silly S.

[Lee]

Why thank you, hi peeps :)

[neilstone40]

Hi Lee, welcome to SC.

Saw your '10 things about me' post, are you still kickboxing?

[Lee]

Occasionally for keep fit, my cousin still runs a class.

I kickboxed a lot from 10 to 17, started because i got picked on a lot in early years and it was good for discipline and confidence. Beer, women and music took over :) still enjoy watching and trying different martial arts though.

Do you do any martial arts?

[Lulu]

Hi again! Very glad you are here. I think you will make an interesting addition.

What kind of music did your band play?

[Lee]

Cheers this is a real cool place, I like alternate thinkers, free thinkers and a good ol' bit of banter!

The band of my youth was a skater punk band called Death by Decibels (lol), we had an album in shops but split up 2006 because of family issues and the San Bernardino riots.

The police went in way too heavy then played down the event, they didn't like the movement. Everyone set fires, looted shops and sued the label, was like the fricking dark ages. Rest of Cali tour was awesome though :D

Now I play in a classic rock band which is great, always loved late 60s and 70s music :)

[Lulu]

Cheers this is a real cool place, I like alternate thinkers, free thinkers and a good ol' bit of banter!

The band of my youth was a skater punk band called Death by Decibels (lol), we had an album in shops but split up 2006 because of family issues and the San Bernardino riots.

The police went in way too heavy then played down the event, they didn't like the movement. Everyone set fires, looted shops and sued the label, was like the fricking dark ages. Rest of Cali tour was awesome though :D

Now I play in a classic rock band which is great, always loved late 60s and 70s music :)

Very Cool!

[Lee]

Indeed but right now I'm sitting in yesterdays tshirt and boxer shorts, picking my nose and shooting zombies on ps3 :cool: :)

[Road Warrior]

Welcome, Lee.

I had to look up the San Bernadino punk riot. I'll bet it was quite a local sensation! It was fortunate no one was killed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Bernardino_punk_riot
This took place after there was a skinhead fight outside between non-racist skinheads and neo-Nazi skinheads. One of the neo-Nazi skinheads that went back inside that came back from the fight was still mad. As he kept raving about white power people started arguing with him and throwing things at him. When a fight was about to break out and a crowd of people were going to beat him up, security separated him from the crowd and put him behind a small fence. The name calling and racist remarks from both sides kept going behind the fence. This is were there was enough tension and people to over power security and the fence. The crowd of Punks and Skinhead rushed in and started beating him up, it was at this point were he was stabbed. The police In an apparent attempt to disperse the agitated crowd used tear gas, releasing it not only at the site of the disturbance but also inside the venue itself where no disturbance had occurred, catching many concert-goers unawares. Some attendees became angry and destroyed several police cars outside the venue. Helicopters and riot police were called in and the crowd moved out of the parking lot and into San Bernardino. There were people jumping up and down on police cars and breaking headlights with their steel toe boots, and one police car was turned upside down. Estimates put the crowd at 1,500 fans who then began vandalizing local businesses and parked cars in the downtown area. Dumpsters were set on fire and several shops were broken into while dozens more were damaged.

Did you participate in the rioting?

[Lee]

It was horrible, the worst thing was seeing the younger attendees get trampled as everyone fled, I was backstage which is fenced off with a view of front doors, they smashed open, thousands flooded out of the front doors and hundreds backstage.

When I went in the arena to see what had happened even then my eyes hurt so much. 2 gangs who caused the problem consider themselves true punks, the hardcore but they ruined it, punk was all about sticking together and doing good for each other.

Most the audience were under 18 with nothing better to do. What followed just shown how easily mislead people are, after a fight amongst a few the police should not have tear gassed the whole arena. It was just disgusting.

There were 6000 tickets sold, why the numbers were played down I can't say, maybe if 20 out of 1500 are fighting that justifies tear gas bombing?? 4 riot coaches and 40 squad cars were already parked up at the venue, the police wanted a riot as much as the attendees.

Still the violence towards local business that followed was totally uncalled for, everyone was just venting in the wrong places and we all know two wrongs don't make a right. Philistines.

[Road Warrior]

Sounds like it was bad. What do you think could have been done to prevent it?

I've been tear gassed. It's unpleasant. While I tend to agree they used too much, in the end, the point was to use it to disperse the rioting crowd.

Was it only 20 who burned cars, dumpsters and vandalized local businesses?

[Lee]

It's impossible to say what was right or wrong. I guess every individual being civilised, reasonable and thinking consequentially would have helped but look at the world we live in..

Remember the fact that the actual riot what occurred was only a result of so many being tear gassed without reason.

The instigators were few and should have been dealt with individually, it would have taken ten officers and a few arrests to disperse the initial problem but 1 tear gas bomb and a lot of angry fans later it took much more to solve the problem.

This doesn't mean I condone rioting. No riot and a few thousand complaints (or demonstration) for the chief officer would have had a better result so i guess everyone got what they deserved in the end. Other than the poor un-rioting kids and local businesses..

[Lee]

And my band who lost their record company, we were going to be huge lol.

It was a bit of a downer but rest of tour was great and happy to have experienced that part of life.

How come you were tear gassed? Pestering young women again ha :)

[Lulu]

I agree Lee. Police can be so gung ho they can make the problem worse. Don't get me wrong. I am not dissing police who risk their lives for us every day. Just saying, like there were idiots in the crowd, there can be idiots on the police force.

[Road Warrior]

I've asked SS to move the San Bernardino discussion to a separate thread since 1) I don't want to disrupt a welcome thread with what might be a contentious topic and 2) the discussion of civil dissent, local laws, the effects of vandals and criminals on innocent music lovers and store owners plus a host of other topics warrants its own thread. We can also compare the riot in San Bernardino with the 60s riots and OWC.

[Lee]

Definitely, police officers deserve all of the respect in the world for the great job they do, everyone is entitled to make a mistake especially in a situations like the one here when a crowd could be hostile (and proven themselves to be.)

New band being classic rock hopefully the closest we getting to a riot is someone being mad at the bar prices or lack of women in the audience :) 'It's not like the good ol' days!' :)

[Lee]

And good call on the move it is a heavy read, I opened a can of worms there

[neilstone40]

Occasionally for keep fit, my cousin still runs a class.

I kickboxed a lot from 10 to 17, started because i got picked on a lot in early years and it was good for discipline and confidence. Beer, women and music took over :) still enjoy watching and trying different martial arts though.

Do you do any martial arts?

Yep, my main passion is Aikido and used to teach a couple of classes a week but don't get to practice as often as I'd like and don't have the time to teach more than a few times a year.

There's a few other arts I've practised for various lengths of time including a wee bit of kickboxing years ago. I used to go to a club taught by a guy called Lex Easdon who was one hell of a fighter (just not always in the ring though).

Helluva good way to keep fit though and great fun.

[Silly Sausage]

I've asked SS to move the San Bernardino discussion to a separate thread since ...

Have just signed back on, so I'll look at doing this now. :)

E2A: I've left the posts in here and just copied the relevant posts across the new thread.

[Silly Sausage]

Posts on San Bernardino moved here: The San Bernardino Riots (http://www.secularcafe.org/showthread.php?t=16478).

[Shake]

Welcome, Lee!

[DMB]

Welcome to the café!