[Chat] Re: (chat) Sowebo Festival

Moscatt at aol.com Moscatt at aol.com
Sat Jun 12 00:47:48 EDT 2004


Carlene and I attended the Sowebo festival this year.  We enjoyed it. Were 
very surprised to hear that there was trouble.  Sowebo is a unique area where so 
many artists, students, new comers to the city tried to make it a viable 
area.  The closing of the Cultured Pearl  which was a popular tex-mex restaurant 
hurt the area.

The festival was lively as usual and it was an interesting mix of 
neighborhood people, very integrated with people enjoying what was probably one of the 
best festivals.  We were also told to make sure we stayed long enough to hear 
Clann an Drumma.  They were a scottish group and it was a coup for the festival 
planner to get them.  All the bands performed for free.  This group consisting 
of drums and bag pipe was really amazing to hear and watch.  Carlene bought 
their CD.  We left after staying a lot longer than we usually do. We didn't 
hear about any trouble until a couple of days later and the accounts in the city 
paper and the account below from the web site of one of my old students are 
very disturbing.  I haven't heard of the Baltimore police acting like this since 
the times in the 60's when long hair was a threat to authority.

Below is an account from ---------------.  I don't want to include his name 
without his permission even though he has a web site with this on it.  He has 
lived in Sowebo for about 20 years, is an exhibiting artist, and active in the 
cultural life of the city.

Read below.  What do you think?

Paul

> (the following from the website of ----------------}


> Hello (art) mobbers...been a long time since i posted, been busy, and would 
> have preferred my first post in such a long time would be about more 
> pleasant things. I am tried and upset so bare with me. A few of you are wondering 
> about what happened at the sowebo fest and the cops saying "i was there, had a 
> wonderful time and i didn't see anything". Well, very few did because it 
> happened in the cover of dark, late, when a number of police officers decided to 
> violently shut down the last 2 stages and have a little miniature melee. We 
> are still dumbfounded and want answers. How do i know this? I spent most of 
> today with fellow fest organizers piecing together a timeline and narrative and 
> then attending the meeting at the Broom Factory called by some people who 
> experienced this crap and wanted voice and justice to what happened to 
> themselves and friends. I started out the day very suspicious of their motives leery 
> that some had political agendas that might not serve sowebo well. So far I am 
> wrong, I walked away feeling these were decent people of different 
> backgrounds who came to enjoy the festival but had enough political savvy to know you 
> need to speak out to an injustice. I and also frustrated because i was just 
> around the corner from the Arlington Street stage moving around to much and 
> didn't witness the violence, only the repercussions, and I have to piece things 
> together events through others filters. This is not the time for a 
> definitive recap, we still have another meeting of info gathering and at this point to 
> be honest we probably possess a mix of enough true and false info that we 
> will have to retract stuff. We have plenty of witnesses. Brief. No names. 
> Southern District cops patrolled the day and we think we have a good relations 
> with them. It is after 9pm and most people have gone home, Market Stage & Outlaw 
> stage are over. Cops do their first heavy handed take down arrest of 2 
> "punkrockers" one with a dog. One, a girl is known to us. I scooted up to see her 
> and had my first experience of the night that these cops had out of 
> proportion attitude. I mistook her for a garbage bag at a cop's foot the way she was 
> handcuffed. We have been told that around this time a radio report went out "a 
> cop in distress", her arrest might have triggered that. She was that 
> threatening. 10 or so patrol cars with paddy wagon arrived setting up a command post 
> at Hollins and carrollton + carey. These we believe were Western District. 
> They should have seen this for what it was and gone back on patrol. Instead 
> they brought with them a confrontational "we don't need to talk to anyone in 
> charge" policy and proceeded to moved down Hollins turned on Arlington with 
> swat like mannerisms. The first of them went into the sound tent and on to the 
> stage and ordered a stop and everyone leave. They never asked to speak to an 
> organizer although we were there with our staff t-shirts on. I witness this 
> and when it was obvious the stage was complying i scooted down to the tribe 
> stage, for whatever reason some some angry cops were shutting us down. ALL THEY 
> HAD TO DO WAS ASK. It was during this time that that more cops entered 
> Arlington and in front of many our organizers eyes started to clear the dark street 
> clubbing people. They pulled one guy down , held him and tasered him 3 or 4 
> times. There was loud screaming and disbelief. It is the subjective opinion 
> of our witnesses that they targeted people with rastafarian hair. One of the 
> fest workers kept a digital camera on the video setting and tried to keep pace 
> with the unfolding without being seen. The imaging is bad but the audio 
> tells the story. Lots of screaming and why are you doing this. People starting 
> clearing out fast and many left up Hollins including Keisha, her husband, 
> children and Mother Saray with cops following. They were going to their car to 
> leave. They were taking down hard, dragged, put in paddy wagon, in front of 
> their children. She is pregnant and attending todays meeting. She faces court. So 
> far 5 arrest, with 2 women to go to court. We are still waiting for more 
> info on those who got hit but not arrested, they went home and maybe a little 
> frightened. The cops then moved down to the better lighted Tribe Stage and 
> Carriage House and ordered everyone off the street or be arrested. I believe the 
> quick thinking of one the fest leaders there on that stage got people in in 
> time to prevent a second waylaying. We are still learning of more events. I 
> just talked late tonight to a long time sowebo res who was walking home past 
> the patrol cars and was hit blind-sighted and thrown into one of the cars. He 
> managed to get cops name limped home. He calls the police later to complain 
> about being struck and they sent the very officer + 2 who hit him to to take 
> his statement...this officer then calls him a fucking liar. I will stop now. 
> Will I have to retract some of these statements, probably, will new ones be 
> added, count on it. All I know is when I finally felt safe enough to scoot home 
> through the gauntlet of cop still mulling around long after their party there 
> was palatable air of "we own this and you are game". I buzzed by 3 cops 
> joking, one with his baton in hand acted out kung fu moves with celebratory glee. 
> I got to tell you, I know this is small potatoes and a pretty puny in the 
> world as it is now. But this is my community and we worked hard to make a great 
> festival, this was the biggest event the young people that make up the Tribe 
> ever did and it bonded them to sowebo. And at the very last moment when it's 
> time to hug and celebrate they treated like this from public 
> servants......this aint over, we are pissed, let the internal investigations begin.





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