NewsIBy FactI06.11.16

Boiler Room Weekender shut down by police

Police reportedly made arrests during the GHE20G0TH1K party.

The Ray Ban x Boiler Room Weekender was shut down in the early hours of Sunday morning. Witnesses saw police making arrests handcuffing a woman and taking her away in a police car at around 2am.

An onlooker told Thump that a black woman in her mid-twenties was handcuffed for possession of weed outside the GHE2OGOTH1K stage and put in a police car.

“People were just like screaming, moving, pushing the officers almost,” the witness said. “And then her friend opened up the cop car door and the cop just freaked out, like ‘What the fuck, you can’t open the cop car door.'”

The police reportedly used pepper spray on the guests. The event was shut down soon after.

A spokesperson for Boiler Room told Thump: “We don’t have the exact details of what transpired, but for the safety of all our artists and guests we had to shut down.”

The 3,000-person festival was taking place in the Split Rock Resort in Lake Harmony, Pennsylvania, with Virgil Abloh, Mixpak, Discwoman among the artists on the lineup.

Shyboi, one of the artists on the lineup, tweeted that police were preventing people from filming the arrests.

Cops shut down the festival and arrested a black woman then proceeded to attack people for filming them…

— SHYBOI (@yu_whoooo) November 6, 2016

Bearcat added that police checks took place during Venus X’s GHE20G0TH1K party.

i am fucking disgusted!!! the only room to have FULL police checks was the @GHE20G0TH1K room!!!!

— ILLUMINAHTI (@BEARCAT1800) November 6, 2016

Angelina Dreem, founder of Bushwick art space Powrplnt, recorded a video of the incident and said the handcuffed woman had been having a panic attack: “She was shaking in the center lobby as everyone watched helplessly.”

Grabbed at, threatened and hit for filming these monsters handcuffing and parading a young black girl having a panic attack- playing with her life! She was shaking in the center lobby as everyone watched helplessly- this monster was only held back from attacking me by a young security guard that I had chatted up the night before FUCK THIS POLICE STATE YOU HAVE NO RIGHT @rayban #ittakescourage

A video posted by Angelina Dreem (@simulacraycray) on Nov 6, 2016 at 7:57am PST

One attendee was left with head wounds after being attacked by police outside the GHE2OGOTH1K party, according to a friend who tweeted a photo to FACT.

.@thumpthump @FACTmag please update your @boilerroomtv weekender reports, my friend was assaulted by police pic.twitter.com/SUNRo9zegm

— Nicholas James (@nickconcklin) November 6, 2016

Musician Spree Wilson said police shut down fire exits with no explanation.

Have no idea why @boilerroomtv would have their event in a town where they surround one black man minding his business with 15 police

— Spree Wilson (@SpreeWilson) November 6, 2016

Several witnesses claimed that black attendees were forced to go through more security checks than others at the GHE2OGOTH1K stage.

This @boilerroomtv @ray_ban @GHE20G0TH1K shit rn…
OVAH

— MikeQ (@TheOnlyMikeQ) November 6, 2016

@boilerroomtv @ray_ban @GHE20G0TH1K when I said Ovah I mean like LiT but I didn't know it was giving that

— MikeQ (@TheOnlyMikeQ) November 6, 2016

Yes we filmed the cops at this Boiler Room event too

— Kari Altmann (@karialtmann) November 6, 2016

You put a music fest with poc in a small conservative town with racist cops… why? @boilerroomtv #smh #rbxbr

— shawna x hello (@shawnax) November 6, 2016

https://twitter.com/djharam973/status/795150718571315205