So there we were in Delhi, LA. Just me and the gang, hanging out and having a good time….imagine if Woodstock would’ve had only 100 people attend. That’s really the synopsis of the ATV rally that we played….we’re making the best of a strange situation….A lot of our friends were there so it wasn’t too bad….Tyler Read, Squint, the Vettes, Riverside Railway, Sugarfoot, Science and the Sea, and others…..
The guy who owned this joint also had a safari that you could drive through….so Trey, Jackie, Jason, and myself loaded ourselves into the truck and went for a ride…
We drove around aimlessly for about 20 minutes until we ended up on this long, scary road. That’s when something ran across the road….after much speculation of what it mite be (I thought Bigfoot) we got close enough to see what it was…..It was a damn bear….A Louisiana Black Bear….kinda small….probably not too old….Not so young that he couldn’t whoop my ass….I want no part of that bear….
 that’s when we concluded we must be on this nature trail thing that they were talking about. But when we drove another few minutes we actually found the entrance to the trail. The bear was just in the neighborhood, looking for some action…..kinda gave me the creeps…I can’t imagine looking out my window and a bear helping himself to my garbage…I’d drop a load rite there.
So we get into the safari part and the first thing we encounter is this weird looking half jackrabbit, half donkey looking animal that bounces when it walks…Its almost like the island of Dr. Mereau in there.
We came upon some reindeer that we were trying to sneak past so they wouldn’t run away but instead…they all came up to the window looking for handouts… “GET A JOB YOU HIPPIE”. I felt bad cause we didn’t have anything to offer…you could see the hurt in their eyes…..and flies…they had flies on their eyes to….ewww gross.
There was a camel that tried to get in….Llamas who couldn’t care less….Buffalo that I preferred to stay at a safe distance…..a pig for no apparent reason….a bull……and some angry Zebras that snapped at Jason…tired of people coming through and looking and not bringing grub.
We made if out of the safari alive and headed back to the stage.
We were told to play till 2am. But we told the venue that as a courtesy to the city and since it was all ages we wanted to stop at midnight due to the curfew. We wanted to go onstage @ 10 pm but the schedule got screwed up and we went on at 11.…so we are taking stage and launching into the first song…..all is well…..second song…no prob….third song….theres some commotion…..fourth song…..a guy runs up on the stage to tell me “the cops shut you guys down”…..well that was a great show…..
 I reach for the microphone to address the people who paid their money to be there and there was no power….so I leaned into the crowd and said the words that set forth the most action that these inbred officers had seen since Lincoln was in office. You would’ve thought I was a crazed college student in the bell tower picking off folks one by one judging by their reaction. All I said was “the fucking police shut it down”….wow……those words shook the earth….
It really boils down to this…Police officers are trained to detain a situation and keep it from spreading like fire…..they’re not trained to answer YOUR questions….so when you get the law brought down on you for no reason other than the fact that the “enforcers of the law” didn’t like it then there’s no logic that can sway their actions…..so now the people who are trained to control and detain a situation are the very people blowing it out of proportion and therefore being a threat to themselves and the community.
I almost went to jail on the 4th of July (independence day) for saying words. I can say whatever the hell I want to say.
They claimed that I addressed an officer in a disrespectful fashion, but I didn’t address anyone. They came to me. They sought me out. They had such classic redneck cop lines like;
 “we got a room for boys like you”
“you wanna come with us tonite? Cause we can arrange that”
“Boy. You got the diahrear of the mouf son”
 “we gonna letchu go this time”
 “you don’t fuck with the cops from Richland parish”….that’s a personal fave…..I’ve live into my 20s in the state of Louisiana and have never even heard of Delhi or the notorious boys in blue of Richland parish. They made claims that “you may be able to get away with talking to dem boys over in Bossier parish like that but not here…no sirrie.”
 Smart and powerful just what it takes to be a part of the elite team in Delhi.
They had to be right. They had to have the last word…they antagonized me, threatened me, and harassed me. All in the name to serve and protect. There was no way I could’ve gone to jail for that. But they kept acting like I could…just because I wasn’t afraid…that says to me that there was a control issue involved….they only kept pushing me until they felt that they were in control….not until the situation was under control but me……the situation never got out of hand until they showed up with their big ass flashlights and I was escorted away by 2 police officers and brought over to 3 others….they threatened Jackie when he attempted to follow us (God forbid you have a witness on your side) and made it known that they were trying to publicly embarrass me with comments like “Come around front cause we want everybody to see this.”
 I would like to reiterate that this isn’t mexico that we’re talking about….this was America where the police felt that they had the right to arrest me on the 4th of july for saying WORDS…..The irony is so thick on this one and I don’t think that it even crossed their minds…..they need to get back to Serving and Protecting and quit trying to play hard-ass big town cop to any outsiders that pose a threat to the hierarchal superiority that they feel that they have.
I want to apologize for being so wordy and ranting like this but it just really hit home with how many rights they say you have…but when you go to exercise them its YOUR word against THEIRS….all they had to do was knock me out with a nite stick and say that I made threatening gesture and I would’ve been in jail.
The officers in question confronted me when I got off stage…..after we agreed to disagree and they used many of their dumbass colloquialisms as threats and left, they came back a second time and escorted me away to the other officers, and then let me off again and came back for a third time and let the club know that they were here to “arrest that mouthy boy from that last band”. Luckily we weren’t in sight. Its almost as if they were trying to get me to do something else that they could really pull me in for….but I’d like to think that I’m pretty levelheaded….more so than the cops that are trying to instigate criminal behavior from a guy whose only crime is a severe potty mouth.
I can see it now…they were probably all sitting at a table at the waffle hut or whatever they would have in delhi, and reminiscing over all the life threatening action they’d seen that day….passing off stories to one another about how they told one guy this and another guy that…..stroking each others egos and then they had the bright idea to come back and get them so more…..lol….so stupid. Take people like that….give them weapons and insurmountable power….couple that with a superiority complex and Bingo….you got an officer in Richman….or Richland parish….something like that…..not really all that important…..
I guess if you’re to take anything away from this rant its this.
You do not have rights…..You’ve just been allowed to go about your business undetected….it’s a police state now. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been pulled over after a show while I’m driving 4 or 5 hrs back to my home just to spend some time with the people I love. It always ends with my stuff out on the side of the road cause I’m being searched and interrogated….but I never get a ticket….so why was I pulled over.?
We just learn to be invisible….because its easier….
When I ‘m in a parked car and a scary shady person is lurking in the parking lot…I’m not afraid of what he’s going to do….but when I’m at a red light and a police officer pulls up behind me ….I tense up….even though I know I haven’t done anything wrong. Its not all police…and I know that…Its just enough of the bad ones got to me to make me not trust.
A girl gets raped and murdered and the police didn’t stop it…..You go over the speed limit or say Fuck on the microphone….then they’re there…tickets in hand..they can make money on something like that….citations and court fees. It really just makes you wonder.
This rant has been brought to you buy me and doesn’t neccessarily represent anyone elses views or opinions. Normally I’m cheerier than this….lol.
Be safe.