**contact babz or the vagabond collective at www.oocities.org/vagabondcollective/
On August 31st, a band from Pittsburgh’s past (like 1984-90) called Half Life played a reunion-type show at a P-burgh community center/show space called Project 1877. At the show, it was made known to the crowd that the singer of this “punk” band has been a police officer in Ohio for at least a year (maybe more). Some anarcho kids at the show, mainly kids in a freight-travelling old-time band called the Blinking Freddies, had an immediate problem with this, and began to heckle the band. They continued to do so throughout Half Life’s set, not only for being affiliated with cops and playing in a punk band, but also for playing in a community-run space that’s frequented by many who are of the anti-cop persuasion….
Some other kids at the space, also of the “anarcho-punk” type, gave the hecklers, not the cop, a hard time for confronting this issue. They told the hecklers to shut up quite a few times, and when confronted directly by the kids doing the heckling on why in the world they would support a cop playing in their show space, the kids would often look down, look away, or quietly say, ‘it just doesn’t matter’ or 'just don't ruin everyone's fun.'
Before going into the main argument that I’d like to focus on, I’ll quickly run thru the rest of story which becomes even more sketchy… the day after the show, the same kids from the Blinking Freddies crew who confronted this “punk” cop were playing acoustic music in Oakland, P-burgh’s big gentrified college neighborhood. They were stopped by University of Pitt. police and harassed at first for not being students but being on “campus property”… then, one of the cops stated that he remembered the kids as being the hecklers at the Half Life show. Without reason, the nine cops ran all of the kids’ IDs…. then, as IDs were being handed back, one kid demonstrated free speech by saying “thanks a lot asshole” (not an illegal statement) and then was arrested. Another kid asked why his friend was being arrested, and was then arrested himself. Each was charged with disorderly conduct, and one received an additional charge of blockage of public passage. They were held in city jail overnight, and after arraignment were held until the bonds for their $1000 bails could be posted.
This means there were cops present not only in the band playing, but fellow friend cops in the audience watching.
Sure, the kids at the show who argued with the hecklers and who “didn’t want anyone to ruin their fun” probably had no idea those kids would actually get arrested the next day, likely as a direct response to their _expression of ideas at the show. That's far from the point, however. The points I want to bring up are more about why the punk scene is so often full of 'revolutionary' slogans and yet, when it comes to direct confrontation on a controversial subject, the punks run into their comfortable corners, behind t-shirts, band fronts, or zines, etc.
There have been arguments in defence of Half Life and their 'right' to play punk reunion shows. I've heard '...but they started the hardcore scene in Pittsburgh' and '...but he's actually a really nice guy'.... To both those statements I say this: fuck punk hero-worship, and, cops are cops.... this dude could be the nicest guy in the world but his job supports the fascist state so don't be surprised that people have a problem with it, especially anarchists in a community-run space.
So an example of superficial revolutionary slogans that appear in punk comes directly from a conversation with someone who gave the hecklers at the show a hard time. This person is in a band from Pittsburgh that has a burning cop on one of their t-shirts. Yet he was one of the ones who said 'kids paid good money to see that show and wanted to have a good time and not have anyone ruin it.' Since when does capital override speech in the anarcho scene? And why have a burning cop on your band's t-shirt if you wouldn't throw a molotov in a cop's face, even if that cop is wearing a punk outfit? At the very least, if you're not confronting the guy yourself, support those who have the courage to do so.
After all, it's easy to say 'don't ruin my fun' when you have more power (in this case, the majority who 'paid good money' and were defending the holiest of punk rock objects, a band that started your scene) than those who are not having fun (in this case, the anarchists who felt uncomfortable with a cop being in their space). For instance, it's easy for an SUV driver to say 'don't ruin my fun' to anyone that feels SUVs are direct links to dropping bombs on Iraq for oil. Likewise, it's easy to brush off criticism when it comes from labelled 'PC fascists', when in reality, anti-PC sentiments are just as political as PC ones. Silence is just as political as confrontation. Whether or not it's 'correct' is to the discretion of whoever is judging.
Some have said that 'yeah, it's good those kids said something to the cop, but why did they have to keep going throughout the show? They should have said their piece and let it go. It got annoying.' To me that just shows how conditioned some are by society to believe in our country's 'free speech' myth.... just like they want us to do everywhere: in demos for example – yeah, you can say your piece but then get back to the sidewalk and go home cuz we don't want anything you say to actually change anything. Say what you want but then shut up because we don't want to rock the boat too much. When did anarcho punk get so afraid of real-life controversy, and when did it get so caught up in punk rock heroes or trying to become the gods or goddesses of punk that it forgot what all of this shit is really about? What is this hierarchical bullshit? Or was I just naïve to ever think that the revolutionary slogans actually meant something, and weren't just a way to get kids to buy your records and t-shirts and like your band.
I'm not saying there isn't value in the anarcho punk scene's heavy reliance on music or zines as revolutionary activity. I find tons of value in both, as communication within and reaching out of the anarcho punk scene. But I also don't think they should be the only methods of revolutionary activity, especially if their slogans become contradictory to real-life possibilities for change.
I guess what I am saying is the idea of pigs in punks' clothing sucks, not just those punks like Half Life who are literal pigs in the job market, but also the ones who act like pigs trying to fascistly pull other punks away from freedom of confrontation, and who hide their own fears of confrontation behind t-shirts or punk popularity.