5 arrested as Leftover Crack concert ends in riot
Five people were arrested after a November 6th Leftover Crack show in New York City's East Village.
A New York Times article described the situation as "a noisy confrontation with the police that witnesses described as a throwback to the larger and more violent clashes that rocked the same East Village park more than a decade ago."
Accounts of the cause for the clash vary at this point. Some witnesses reported to the Times that a beer bottle was thrown into the air from the crowd, landing atop a nearby parked police van. It was also reported that two officers entered the crowd to arrest a man who was apparently drunk during Leftover Crack's final song. The article states that after the concertgoers turned on the officers:
Moments later, more than 30 officers surrounded the crowd, and a police helicopter appeared overhead. When the officers brought the concert to an abrupt end and ordered everyone out of the park, several people objected, and more beer bottles were thrown in the direction of the police, witnesses said. It ended quickly, with a crowd of concertgoers lumbering noisily west on St. Marks Place, which the police closed briefly to traffic between Avenue A and Second Avenue.
The article reports the size of the crowd at 400, but Bankshot Records is reporting that it was closer to in size to between 800 and 1000. There were no reported injuries from the conflict, with four men and one woman charged with disorderly conduct.