Witness speaks about concert arrest, riot

By Jeremy Pawloski | The Olympian • Published February 19, 2008

Hauser said the security volunteer took a swing at another of her friends — a white male who was not arrested and left the concert before Dead Prez took the stage — and he responded in kind with his fists. Then, a larger melee ensued between two groups of people in the front rows of the concert, she said. Hauser emphasized that she did not see her black friend — the one whom an Evergreen officer later tried to arrest — do anything during the fight.

Hauser said that even though she heard the Dead Prez members ask the crowd if they were going to do anything about the arrest, she does not think the band was responsible for inciting the crowd to riot.

"They weren't trying to incite the crowd at all," Hauser said, though she doesn't remember the exact words. "They said you know 'this is Evergreen, this type of stuff doesn't happen here.'"

Dead Prez reaction

Dead Prez's management on Monday denied that either member of the hip-hop duo — Stic.Man and M1 — exhorted the crowd to riot.

Scott Beibin, of Dead Prez's management group, Evil Twin Booking Agency in Philadelphia, said the only thing that Dead Prez members said to the crowd was, "Get his badge number." The members did not know that a female officer was making the arrest, he said.

"They did not ask for this," Beibin said of Friday morning's riot at Evergreen. "This is not a gift to the band. This is not what they wanted. This is the opposite of what we wanted. We try to create good, socially conscious, memorable events at which people feel included. We do not encourage this type of thing."

Beibin said he worries that Evergreen will not have Dead Prez or any other hip-hop act back to play again at the school because of Friday's riot. Beibin also faulted the Evergreen officer for targeting a black man.

"The inappropriate response by the campus security to randomly arrest a black kid, just because there were some people causing trouble, sends a very bad message," Beibin said.

Beibin said that in the past his management group has booked at Evergreen socially conscious hip-hop acts and other types of events, such as the Lost Film Festival and speaking engagements by the journalist Greg Palast, and the former Weather Underground member Bernardine Dohrn.