Today in Punk Rock History: Elks Lodge Riot '79

[substitute]

http://punkturns30.blogspot.com/2008/03/on-this-day-in-1979-elks-lodge-riot-in.html

That's a good starting point. St. Patrick's Day, 1979: An all ages show at the Elks Club in Los Angeles degenerates into a police riot. The cops just invaded and beat the hell out of everyone. There are photos on a few of the linked sites of various injured punks.

As others have said, that was the end of innocence. It was war between the LAPD and punks after that.

This all happened when I was just finishing junior high school in Orange County, so I didn't have the opportunity to be attacked by the LAPD until my freshman year of college when I was in a crowd at the Street Scene and they charged us with horses, medieval style.

Comments

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

you yell out in defiance
you're backed up against the wall
they're up there clutching their guns and
it makes you feel real small
so you can cuss, spit, throw bottles
broken glass
but it all ends up with handcuffs on you hands

[firepower.livejournal.com]

I've been at three parties broken up by gas, and one by horses.

The horses were worse.

[snuh.livejournal.com]

There were many riots, but 1979 has to be pretty much the first for SoCal Punk. It might be fun to upload some songs of the bands from that night. Great stuff!