Police and fans clashed just before an Insane Clown Posse concert at the Paroquet Springs Conference Center south of Louisville, Ky. on Wednesday night resulting in the arrest of five Juggalos on various charges of disorderly conduct, inciting a riot and assaulting a police officer. The concert was interrupted shortly after 8 p.m. by a bomb threat that was called in to local police, while opening act Mars were performing. According to Shepherdsville, Ky. authorities, ICP refused to take the stage, causing the cancellation of the show, and subsequent problems.
As fans began to exit the venue, several skirmishes began between Juggalos and police, and officers began to disperse the crowd. "[The fans] were throwing bottled water and coins at security and police. We attempted to usher people out for about fifteen or twenty minutes," said Shepherdsville police Chief Ronald Morris. "It became dangerous for officers as well as civilians, and small skirmishes started breaking out, and pepper spray was used. As they were clearing the conference center, people started destroying property, kicking holes in the walls, knocking things over, breaking windows, and it continued on out to the parking lot."
According to ICP management, the police instigated the incident and used excessive force, striking fans with nightsticks, as well as using pepper spray and tear gas.
"From early this morning, the city council of Louisville, the fire marshal of Louisville, and the Louisville police department tried every legal means to shut down the show," read a post on ICP's official Web site. "Police with riot gear, who somehow seemed to be deployed BEFORE the threat was phoned in, began rushing into the venue to clear out the fans. One fourteen-year-old Juggalo who was attending the show was grabbed by five police officers, thrown to the ground, and repeatedly beaten over the head until he passed out. Fortunately most of the attrocious [sic] acts committed by the pigs were caught on video tape."
The missive also accused local authorities of staging the bomb threat in an attempt to derail the performance.
The Shepherdsville police department saw things differently. According to Chief Ronald Morris, the show was cancelled because the promoter could not get the band to return to the venue following the bomb threat. "You've got to know that if that event gets cancelled, there's gonna be problems," Morris said of the charge that local officials sabotaged the event with a staged bomb threat. "It's ludicrous to think that we want that to happen. The reason that the concert was cancelled was the promoter came to me and said that the band had either left or refused to come on stage. They finally came to me and said, 'We can't get a hold of them, we're going to have to cancel the concert.' And when they did the crowd became unruly."
Morris also dismisses the charges of excessive police force. "I never saw any of that occur," he said in response to the allegation that officers used nightsticks to assault fans. "There were no injuries to civilians. There were no injuries to police, there were very few arrests for the amount of disturbance that was going on and for the most part minimal property damage. I was pleased with the way the officers conducted themselves."
ANDREW DANSBY
(March 10, 2001)
