The San Bernardino punk riot occurred on March 4, 2006, after a punk rock festival titled “The

British Invasion The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of British culture became popular in the United States and significant to the rising "counterculture" on ...

2k6” in

San Bernardino, California San Bernardino (; Spanish for "Saint Bernardino") is a city and county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 ce ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

was shut down early due to the stabbing of a concert-goer. The disturbance that led to the stabbing was reportedly caused by a group of

skinheads A skinhead is a member of a subculture which originated among working class youths in London, England, in the 1960s and soon spread to other parts of the United Kingdom, with a second working class skinhead movement emerging worldwide in th ...

shouting racist remarks at concert-goers.

Rioting

This took place after there was a

skinhead A skinhead is a member of a subculture which originated among working class youths in London, England, in the 1960s and soon spread to other parts of the United Kingdom, with a second working class skinhead movement emerging worldwide in th ...

fight outside between antiracist skinheads and neo-Nazi skinheads. One of the neo-Nazis who went back inside after 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 where there was enough tension and people to overpower security and the fence. The crowd of punks and skinheads rushed in and started beating him up; it was at that point when he was stabbed. The police, in an apparent attempt to disperse the agitated crowd, used

tear gas Tear gas, also known as a lachrymator agent or lachrymator (), sometimes colloquially known as "mace" after the early commercial aerosol, is a chemical weapon that stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the eye to produce tears. In ...

, 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. Many attendees who were driven to the event by parents were unable to disperse as demanded by the police and were subsequently forced into the surrounding neighborhoods.

Response

Nearly 200 police were called in to quell the riot, which lasted several hours. At least four officers were injured and two concert-goers were hospitalized, one of them being the stabbing victim. The police made over a dozen arrests. The riot caused an estimated $500,000 in damages.

References

Sisario, Ben
Arts, Briefly
New York Times, March 6, 2006

In this video at 2:20 you can see a punk getting hit with a baton in the head
Riot Strikes at San Bernardino Punk Concert
{{Riots in the United States (1980–present) 2006 in music 2006 crimes in the United States 2006 riots Punk History of San Bernardino, California March 2006 events in the United States