Santiago Ramos July 28th, 2011 - 5:15 PM
What started out as a Twitter organized block party in support of a release for a documentary ended with a violent revolt against Los Angeles police.
Early Wednesday afternoon DJ Kaskade released this tweet to his 93,000 + plus followers announcing that he was hosting a block party to follow the premier of the Electric Daisy Carnival documentary at the Grauman’s Chinese Theater in LA. What Kaskade likely didn’t expect was literally thousands of people to flood the streets surrounding the theater resulting a phenomenal cluster of what many were calling a ‘driver’s nightmare.’ Even as Kaskade got word that police were on their way to the theater he continued t encourage the crowd with tweets like “The man trying to shut us down. Hang on I am coming!!! This is crazy.” But soon the artist got word that the crowd was out of control and his tweets seemed to take a dismal turn. Enthused blurts turned to “EVERYONE CHILL NOW!!! The block party has officially been shut down!” and “EVERYONE NEEDS TO GO HOME NOW! I DON’T WANT THIS TO REFLECT BADLY ON EDM OR WHAT WE ARE ABOUT. BE RESPECTFUL AND CHILL OUT!!!” That was the last bit posted to Kaskade’s Twitter account.
With the premier being cancelled fights broke out and false reports of fires being set were all over Hollywood Boulevard were reported. As police moved in to break up the crowd that was seemingly peaceful, some of the attendees decided to hurl their beverages, even rocks at police and chaos ensued. Soon the the LAPD organized a skirmish of officers in riot gear clad to which much of the crowd responded to and began to move out. Although those who remained chose to cause an uproar which resulted in two arrests for felony vandalism and several dozens of people being detained within a police barricade that lasted well into the evening. The riot comes as another blip in Insomnia’s, the company behind Electric Daisy Carnival, track record as the festival’s previosu events have been partnered with large numbers of drug arrests, hospitalizations and even death. Below you will find a few of the dozens of videos that leaked on the internet almost immediately after the riot began.
