It's Bringing music back to the grassroots

Is This Kind Of Bullying & Torture Acceptable In America??

I found this really disturbing!! It shows a 'wizard' at a Pagan Music Festival in California who is naked, as Pagan Wizards are expected to be at Festivals, and totally harmless and inoffensive. 3 cops/bullies/thugs try to get him to dress and when he good humouredly refuses amid cheers from the crowd, they then set about him with fists and knees and holding him by his hair and arms twisted up his back, then torture him with tasers! Fascist pricks! Is this torture accepted? All this time the crowd are booing and cursing the police (and filming) yet the cops just continue totally power crazy and confident that they can get away with any crime against civil rights and basic humanity. It's sickening!!

Naked Wizard Tased By Reality from Tracy Anderson on Vimeo.

Next Post >

Add a Comment

You need to be a member of AFcollective Artist Network to add comments!

Join this social network

Comment by Emberto Groucho on May 9, 2009 at 10:55pm: Pretty much my take too, it would have caused a riot here and rightly so. And yes, I don't push old ladies in front of busses because of all the cctv ;)

Comment by Michael Heath (aka Fledderjohn) on May 9, 2009 at 5:02pm: I have to say though I reckon Foucoult was a knob. The reason people don't push old ladies into oncoming traffic is not because of a fear of being observed, it's because most people know it's wrong to push old ladies into oncoming traffic.

Comment by Michael Heath (aka Fledderjohn) on May 9, 2009 at 4:54pm: Ah yes John I think in efffect what we're talking about here is Jeremy Bentham's Panoptican (look up Foucoult's Discipline and Punish - it's pretty depressing stuff though) . It boils down to the idea that there is always a possibility we are being observed by authority and that we therefore remain docile.

Comment by Maria Hall on May 9, 2009 at 2:50pm: Yeah, it's probably just as well that the people didn't start a riot, as then the cops would have had the excuse to actually kill someone, as happened last month here in Britain at the G20 protest.
Maybe if everyone there had stripped off in passive protest, it would have had some effect and shown humanity's solidarity against bullies. You're so right John, that it's all to do with conditioning and something should have been done long ago before the rot set in.. but it's never too late to start..

Comment by john starcluster on May 9, 2009 at 2:51am: about the vid up there, i just can't believe that people just didn't fucking jump in and mess up those dildo fatass cops. in california, where this is and where i grew up, cops are so feared, too feared. i mean they go out of their way to intimidate even for some minor traffic offense. the system conditions you to do nothing even when you plainly can and plainly should - as is the wizard's case.

Comment by Michael Heath (aka Fledderjohn) on April 30, 2009 at 4:47pm: All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:

All the world's a TV reality show
And all the men and women merely viewers or victims

Comment by Jo2 on April 30, 2009 at 3:09pm: I'm amazed that any group of cops would do something that stupid after that whole Rodney King fiasco.

Comment by Maria Hall on April 30, 2009 at 1:58pm: Sorry Dave, I still don't think 'naked guy' did anything wrong. However excellent point about the 'reverse of Big Brother'!! Long may it continue and I hope it has some effect :)

Comment by Maria Hall on April 29, 2009 at 1:52am: Yep Michael.. I think that's what's depressing me. That all those crowds of good ordinary people, for all their distress, disapproval and downright horror, were powerless to prevent it.. only able to record it. Very sad.

Comment by Michael Heath (aka Fledderjohn) on April 28, 2009 at 9:14pm: I think the really encouraging bit, or discouraging depending on how you want to look at it, is the intervention of citizen journalism. The incident's being discussed only came to light because of normal people filming and publicising it. The mainstream media were following what normal people were saying.

I can't help but wonder what would have happened if the means to film and disseminate this stuff had been around at the time of the 1980's miners strike. Would the mainstream media have got away with the sickening demonisation of miners. i don't think so.

On the other hand does the technology allow people to feel that filming and taking pictures is enough. Are people hiding behind cameras thinking they are doing their bit? Look at that video again. How many people are filming or taking pictures? Nearly everyone it seems. Do we really want a society of DIY photo-journalists? Are we so enraptured by media technology that we can only interact with the injustices of the world through a technological medium? Like the internet f'rinstance. Erm .......