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The accounts of what happened after the Peter Rock and Smif-n-Wessun show in New York City early on Wednesday morning couldn't be more different. But a few things are clear: dozens of police converged on the crowd outside of the venue, at least a few patrons were beaten and five police officers were injured.
The police said a fight between 25 to 30 people had erupted outside of the venue, Tammany Hall, on the Lower East Side. People were throwing beer bottles, "a sandwich board and anything else that they could get their hands on," the police said. Police said that "violent individuals" in the crowd turned on responding officers and that the officers then used "appropriate force" in suppressing the attacks.
But several witnesses, the artists themselves and video (see video below) from the scene paint a slightly different picture.
"It was a melee, it was crazy and absolutely unnecessary," said Pete Rock, the legendary DJ and music producer, who joined Smif-n-Wessun (all pictured below) at the show to celebrate the release of "Monumental," a collaboration between the trio. "It was an attack on us" by the police.
Pete Rock said that he first noticed something had gone awry toward the end of the show. As he stood on stage and the lights slowly came up, he said that he saw a handful of officers rushing into the venue. Then he said he watched them pounce on a friend, toss him against a wall and then proceed to pummel him with their clubs.
"They beat him like he was Rodney King," he said in a phone interview on Thursday. Then someone from the front yelled out to him that his wife and daughter were outside and possibly in danger. Pete Rock said that he dashed from the stage and out to the street where he found the two of them unhurt but on the ground. His daughter, Jade, 24, was protecting her mother's body with her own, as a sea of humanity rushed and clamored around them.
Others weren't so lucky, witnesses said. Men and women were pushed and struck in equal measure, they said.
"I was just thrown back because I always see this on the news and hear it talked about but never find myself in the middle of it," Pete Rock (pictured below) said, standing outside of Manhattan Criminal Court where family and friends of those arrested had gathered for a press conference.
Other witnesses said the police, dozens of them, swooped down on the crowd like a blue wave, lashing out at party goers with profanity and in some cases batons. People capturing the scene with cell phones or cameras were targeted, witnesses said.
"It felt like an ambush," said Ness, of the hip-hop group the A-Alikes. "Everyone was feeling good, it was a good event and as soon as we stepped outside it was like whoa."
Until then, witnesses said that the night had gone off without a hitch, and that the scene inside the venue was positive, peaceful and familial.
But outside, the police said, trouble was brewing.
Paule J. Browne, the NYPD's top spokesman, said that just after midnight on Tuesday the police arrived at the scene in response to a call from private security at the club to assist with overcrowding inside.
When officers got there, he said in an email, a large fight was in progress.
"As the club security and police instructed individuals to leave the overcrowded venue, one of the patrons refused and began to resist arrest, yelling for others to help him fight with police," Browne said. "A large, unruly crowd formed, several of whom fought with police, egged on by the patron who was being placed under arrest. "
Browne said that five officers were hospitalized, suffering a range of injuries including one with a broken front tooth, another with a broken nose, a third with lacerations to the neck, cheek and elbow, a fourth with contusions to the head and face, and a fifth with multiple contusions to the head.
Five people were arrested, he said, slapped with charges that include assault, inciting to riot, disorderly conduct and obstructing governmental administration. One of those arrested received lacerations to the head, Browne said. He said the police acted well within bounds given the situation.
"Police used appropriate force in effecting arrests of violent individuals who fought with officers," he said.
Meanwhile, a lawyer, Kenneth Montgomery, has been hired to represent those claiming that the police abused them.
The police action was "unjustified, unprovoked, and simply barbaric considering there was no provocation," Montgomery said in a statement. He said that the altercation began outside of the club with someone denied access to the club and that a "minor argument ensued," that was eventually diffused by bouncers. But 20 minutes later officers from the 7th Precinct arrived and chaos ensued.
"Present at the event were artists, industry tastemakers, fans, photographers, and cameramen. Several people began filming and recording the unprovoked brutality, much to the dismay of the police," Montgomery said. "The officers then began to mace and assault anyone within arms length, including several women."
The violence left those in attendance that night rattled.
Steel, of the rap group Smif-n-Wessun, (pictured below) described the events as "insanity, pandemonium, the prequel to Armageddon."
"It happened so fast the facts are so blurry," said Steel, who walked off stage and five minute later found himself in "pure hell."
"We were having such a good time but it went from hot to cold in minutes," he said. Rumor has it that the ruckus began outside at the entrance when someone was denied access to the club. But nobody said they knew for sure, since they were inside until the very end of the show.
"Hip-Hop gets a lot of bad play, but this particular venue, it was like a family event," said Steel. "You could feel the energy in the room. And then to go out to have this event end this way... there was no warning."
Interview video credit: newsone.com