Mainstream corporate press accounts tell of "violence erupting" at the long awaited "British Invasion 2k6" concert at the National Orange Show in San Bernardino. The Associate Press wrote a report on the disturbance that has been picked up and published around the world, but the AP made no mention of what apparently set the whole riot off. The AP report simply said; “The rioting started at 8 p.m. Saturday (0400 GMT Sunday) at the ‘British Invasion 2K6’ show at the National Orange Show Events Center in San Bernardino when police responded to a report of a stabbing inside the concert area, police spokesman Sgt. Rick Lindsey said.”

The Daily Bulletin, a local San Bernardino newspaper, published a report that shed some light on the matter. Staff writers Selicia Kennedy-Ross and Gina Tenorio reported that “Several people said fighting broke out after a group of skinheads began shouting ‘White Power’ during the concert.”

Punk rockers have historically opposed fascist groups and their ideology, from the 1977 UK “Rock Against Racism” concerts played by the Clash and other punks, to the present day efforts of a whole new crop of anti-racist/anti-fascist bands like Total Chaos and Naked Aggression (who appeared at the British Invasion 2k6 concert.) Back in the 1980’s the Dead Kennedys wrote “Nazi Punks F**k Off,” a song addressing the problem of fascists attempting to infiltrate the punk movement, and the problem persists today.

At the San Bernardino “British Invasion 2k6” show, concert goers had paid $35 at the door to attend the concert. What they found in the venue was a gaggle of jack-booted storm trooper provocateurs chanting “White Power.” Undoubtedly, the nazi goons felt their turf had been invaded, as they have been organizing in the San Bernardino area for some time. The Inland Empire, comprised of San Bernardino, Riverside, Ontario, Menifee, Murietta, and the High Desert, has been plagued by organized white supremacist groups - with fascist skinheads playing a key role in hate crimes. The Anti Defamation League reports that one nazi outfit headquartered in San Bernardino County, Volksfront, “distributes hate literature and organizes racist events and concerts.” A brief history of recent fascist skinhead organizing and terror in San Bernardino County is outlined in “Spreading Web of Intolerance,” an article written by Joe Nelson and published in the Daily Bulletin Feb. 10th, 2006 (you can read the informative report here: http://www.rickross.com/reference/skinheads/skinheads60.html )

Undeniably, the presence of fascist skinheads at the British Invasion show was the core reason for the violence. Their very presence was a provocation, and their chanting of racist slogans no doubt infuriated anti-racist punks who had gathered to see some terrific anti-fascist bands. Whether it was the fury of punk rockers aimed at the Hitler loving skinheads, or the hate mongering skins who unleashed the violence is beside the point - whenever you have bona fide nazis in your midst there is going to be trouble. It is unclear at this point who was stabbed and beaten at the concert, but my bet is on the nazi skins as the instigators.

Daily Bulletin article:
http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3570769

Official website for the British Invasion concert:
http://www.britishinvasion.us/

Well I believe a nazi got teh blade- I wasnt close, but these punx i saw all started blockin the cops so they couldn't get to the person that was hurt (the nazi fuck) and then finally the cops got to em' and then kids got pissed and trashed some stuff coz' the cops were instigating people by randomly shooting people that had set a trashcan on fire (big deal, its contained) anyway...nazis and cops are usually part of the same strand and they run together, its been proven...so with that said: off the pigs

this clip is quite amusing

The venue was playing host to the British Invasion 2K6, an event organized by SOS Records and Showcase Presents, according to the National Orange Show's Web site.

"Non-racist" asked... "How are a few people shouting white power different or worse that Loui?"

Because no matter how repugnant some people may find Minister Louis Farrakhan, he CAN'T be compared to the Nazis, who murdered tens of millions of people. You may violently disagree with the opinions of Farrakhan, but the Nazi pigs actually implemented their racist, anti-communist terror, putting to death the aged, the sick, socialists, anarchists, communists, union activists, Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, Slavs and countless others. That Hitler loving Nazi skinheads would invade the "British Invasion 2K6" show and provoke a fight by chanting "White Power," is bad enough... that any idiot would make excuses for those fascists is revealing.

What about any person shouting white power? Suppose they were not nazi wannabes, is that worse than Loui?

what else would a person shouting "white power" be ?

a "semi"-nazi wannabe ?

Back during the Vietnam war, rock & roll festivals became resistance events. After a while bikers were organized to bust up the events. Similar tactic. They would show up and start picking fights. Pretty soon, what had been a peace concert dedicated to organizing was a minor riot that the police were all too happy to come in and break up, siding with the bikers of course. This kind of tactic has been used for at least a century and a half against union organizers, and probably predates the industrial revolution. It is a tricky tactic to fend against, but it can be done if people remain calm and are able to non-violently isolate the offending intrusion. Venue organizers need to be vigilent and catch problems before they get out of hand.

This riot was not touched off by the rascist goons there. Sure they shouted all that junk about white power, but after the fighting started, the police just fired tear gas outside and then inside where the bands were currently playing. no one inside had any idea what was going on. I thought the police were supposed to protect and serve, not instigate an already tense moment. Let me tell you, tear gas burns like there is no tomorrow. As I ran away throwing up, I was wondering why the cops would do such a thing. They should have thier tactics of that night investigated.

can be expected to provoke violence in just about any part of the world.

I'm glad all the punks and skins at the show took their boots and fists those bonehead-skins.

And to the comment about Mexicans taking pride in culture. Taking pride in ones culture is different than trying to gain supremacy. Most of my friends are white and are proud of where they come from just as I am proud of my Mexican heritage, but none out of my friends and I try to say one of us is better than another based on where we come from and our ancestry. In fact we take part in eachothers cultures and have fun while still retaining our own. Pride is different than hate.

error

tear gas was completely unecessary and it just pissed everybody off. Im standing around enjoying my beer and all of the sudden, i can't see, or breathe.
made me want to start hitting and breaking things too!!
we missed out on a great lineup and wasted a lot of money. as im walking CALMLY to my ride home 5 riot cops tell me to get away or their going to bash my head in as they swing batons at me. total B.S. all this could have been avoided had the venue been a little more adequate in securing the show. problems could have been contained by taking the toublemakers out of the show and maybe... i dunno searching people for weapons before letting them in. i could have walked in there with anything.

The only chant being chanted was "FUCK WHITE POWER" over and over. That of course was not coming from the skinheads at all. Everyone says the skinheads were chanting "white power". Yeah, all 3 of them I guess. Anyway, cops didnt rescue anyone. Security rescued 3 whom were badly beaten. I even tried to help one before being over ran by a raging crowd. Then, everyone started assaulting the cops that were doing nothing but standing there. One cop was already bleeding from his head before the first shot of tear gas was fired. Guess what folks, thats what happens. Everyone could have just cooled off and went on their way, but that wasnt good enough for them. Yeah, blame the skinheads, blame the cops, blame the Orange Show. Typical punks not taking any responsiblity. I was not an attendee of the event, I was working there....RIGHT there where it started. Saw the whole thing and have no agenda one way or the other. And yeah, tear gas burns pretty bad.

The British Invasion 2006 Punk Show on Saturday March 4 in San Bernardino, California was very fun before all the shit had happenned. My group drove out in two cars and we got there around 2:30pm. We drank in the parking lot until 5:30pm so that we wouldnt miss the bands we wanted to see.

I love gatherings like this because you get to see the hardcore punk enthusiasts from everywhere that come out to have fun. You see a lot of familiar faces and share a common passion for the many bands that played.

I got to see a few of my personal favorite bands like Red Alert, Funeral Dress, Varukers, and Broken Bones, which had very very good sets. The mosh pits were a fun work out, and it was packed full of sweaty punk rockers.

When the chaos began outside......I was in-doors as Broken Bones was playing on the inside stage. They had just finished "Decapitated" and I left the mosh pit to meet my small group outside.

As I was heading out I saw a huge cloud of smoke. I did not know what was going on, but I started choking on the fumes. My eyes and face began to burn. I saw people running outside to get away from the gas, so I ran outside too. The gas was also outside, so everyone just ran to get away from it.

I saw two jugs of water behind the Food station, so I tossed the gate barrier that was in my way and I grabbed one of the jugs and poored the water over my face because the fumes were irritating my face.

The crowd began to tear down the fences to get away from the fumes, so they knocked them down and ran into the parking lots. I held onto a jug of water and tossed it at some cops back...

I was pissed, pretty much because there were hundreds of innocent people inside the venue that did not know what was going on outside. There was a lot of tear gas that was affecting them and I know a lot of people had to have choked or fainted..... I just wanted to get the hell out of there because I was seperated from the group I came with and wanted to make sure they were ok.

Luckily we all met safely where we parked our cars. My brother told me a fight broke out and some racist got beaten up and that is how the mini riot began...

We saw cops everywhere, shots of tear gas in the air, bottles hurled, punks antagonizing the police...cops cars being stomped on....

It was an interesting event to be at, and it was fun while it lasted..... It shouldnt have ended the way it did, but shit happens... and all hell broke loose ..... PuNk FuCkin ROck!!!

Finally someone gets it!!! it was all the nazi punks who set us off. if they could've shut their mouths, nothing would have happened. the cops came in to get the guy who got stabbed, and started screwing with the rest of us. if they would have got the stupid nazi and left , the problem would've been solved. they came and tear gassed all of us, including small kids who came with their parents. we stand up for each other and won't allow anyone to hurt a friend, including (especially) cops. the tear gas filled the venue and pissed all of us off, not to mention the fact that we PAID to see bands who never played! its nice that someone is blaming the people who actually started the fights! but the cops played a major role and we didnt attack them. they provoked us calling us all "PUNK BITCHES" so as far as im concerned, i saw the whole thing and it is lunacy to blame us for all the problems caused by stupid nazi punks and the cops. we just fought back. self defense, why should we be kicked around?

I was there it in the flesh. It was outa control. I refuse to say if i was involved or not but i did see most of the Chaos. I was also tear gassed several times. Once word got out that the show was cancelled all hell broke loose. Looting and destruction. The police were to busy inside The Orange Pavilon to realize what was going on outside in the streets. Even though the start of the riots in were in The Orange Pavilon Buildings and two squad cars in the parking lot, still police were oblivious to what was happening on the streets. You think once you tear gass 4,000 punks sevral times (also having launched tear gass inside the indoor stadium where there were innocent women and children and punks enjoying the music they had payed for) and cancel the show before seeing the main bands somethings going to go down. And expecting 4,000 people to just leave right on the spot with hardly any super vission. I also say that guy who was stabbed, lying on the ground bleeding almost to death, people begging the cops to help him or call for help, but they just stood there protecting there pressious cars making sure they didnt get destroyed. And supprisingly there was hardly any arrests, i think the most arrests were from people drunk in public. i even drove around the streets early morning to see what had all happend, and it looked all the same as it did the after the riots exept a couple windows were boarded up and the fires were put out. Good Job San Bernardino Police Department. Another good night of protecting and serving your city.

Half a dozen cops, a handfull of skinheads, a few dozen rent-a-cops vs. 1500 Punk Rockers. That's one hell of a self defense story.

i've been reading different news articles, and everyones comments here, and everyone is forgetting not all skinheads are neo nazi racist assholes...

the first skinheads were black, from the slums of Jamaica. they listened to skinhead reggae, rocksteady, etc. they were working class men who worked hard, for their boots, and fred perrys.

i myself wasnt there, i knew there would be trouble, when i heard red alert, and last resort, were set to play. i myself love these two bands, but i knew some bonehead skins would show up and there would be trouble...

The person who got stabbed happens to be a good friend of mine who i've known since i was a kid, and it pisses me off that you mother fuckers act like you know the fuck he is. you dont know shit.This guy was just trying to have good time at the show. He got singled out because of the way he looks, because he didn't dress like the rest of the punks. Not because he was chanting "white power" or whatever. they try and kill someperson they dont a fucking thing about~ then bitch because nazis judge people. what a bunch of crap. fuck all you little hippocritical shits. you'll get yours oneday.

>i myself wasnt there, i knew there would be trouble, when i heard red alert, and last resort, were set to play. i myself love these two bands, but i knew some bonehead skins would show up and there would be trouble...

why do racists show up when those bands play in particular?

before they take root.

I was inside the main auditorium of the Orange pavillion when the chaos started. All of a sudden the power was cut and someone shouted fire!! I looked out at the doors to see smoke pouring in. When the smell of the tear gas hit me, I thought, oh shit, that's no fire. I covered my nose and my mouth and blindly made my way out of the venue. I had no idea where my friends were or if they were all right. There were people all around me coughing and puking. There were bodies of people just lying on the ground that had passed out from the gas being thrown right next to them. I was told by many that the original violence started out side between maybe 20 people. There will always be fights. The Orange Pavillion security and the SB police just completely over reacted. They were the cause of the riot. The whole situation was blown completely out of proportion by the authorities. There was no reason that the whole building had to go up in smoke because of a handful of people.
Once everyone was teargased people were pissed, and that is when the real chaos broke loose. I saw kids on top of cop cars smashing in the windows and trying to flip over the cars. There were crowds that vandillized random businesses. People got wild and stupid. I understand that once the cops are attacked they have the right to defend themselves but there was also unneccisary police brutality as well. I saw with my own eyes police beating the crap out of kids with their metal clubs. My friend said he was near some guy that went up to a cop and was yelling, "what is going on, why are you doing this?" The cop responded by telling him to get out of here and pepper spraying the guy in the face from only a few feet away. It was just madness and it REALLY upsets me that it all could have been avoided if it had been handled more efficiently.

Hey your friend got stabbed behind the stage, right, we saw that. Damn hope hes ok, he didnt look like a nazi, he was the long hair dude right?

Yeah, The longhair. I think he's getting out of the hospital today or tommorow. He'll be fine. They got him in the gut 4 times,once in the neck and once in the chest area.

the fucking cops started it all, nazi's are at every show, and this shit doesnt happen, it happened because the pigs responded to the nazi fight because someone got stabbed, all that wass out in front of the building, then after that, for no reason the police shot tear gas into the venue filled with about 4000 innocent people not involved with the other fight, the people inside included,children as young as 9 and 10, and i even saw a toddler age child there with it's parents. we were all gassed for no reason, with out warning in a closed space.

well its true there is no real explanation of how it all started but i wish it was avoided .... i went to san bernardino to see my favorite bands but went home with scars and a traumatic experience from all the tear gas and shi*

i was at the show and i was on footage getting hit by a cop with my hands up and i was not oppoising any harm to the pig who hit me and the news cast that i seen my self on had the whole story backward they show me reacting to the cop after i was hit then they show a cop who was hit by a bottle(niceaim)then they said they had to use force they already abused there athuiorty by sufficating us with tear gas without warning i had no idea that there was a fight outside until the band inside was over so if you read this and you have the footage hit me up my e-mailing me

millions of dead cops
bitches!!!!!!!!

first of all, i dont dont know how you all got here, talking about old punks in the pit but whatever...

the whole show was messed up, the venue didnt handle there responsiblities and the cops acted and didnt think for a second, if they gased and shut down the show that everyone paid for that the "punks" wernt going to get a little out of hand. when it all went down the majority of the people werent even aware of what was going on, then out of no where cops in full on roit gear running with rubber bullet guns. it was the reaction i expected, i am acually a little happy that we didnt walk out like sheep and we let them know we were pissed and this shouldnt of happend. the only thing i can justify was what happend out the show, the punks did not need to mess up the shops around the venue, they had nothing to do with what was going on. my 2 cents