Where’s your respect?

On October 3rd, Bring Me The Horizon played a show in Salt Lake City that ended in madness when the stage was stormed by people who were at the gig simply to cause trouble. After witnessing people stamp on the head of a kid in the crowd lead singer Oli Sykes stopped the show and told the kids to leave the gig before lightening the mood with a bit of banter only to be attacked on stage by one of the crowd. A person  jumped the stage and swung for Sykes before the bands crew took him down. Other members of the crowd joined in with the attack before security got things under control.

Now, if this had happened in the streets the kids who’d taken out the attack would have been arrested and even convicted for a number of offenses. Why is it then, when something like this happens at a gig, the kids are just thrown out of the venue and everything is forgotten? Why don’t security hand them over to the police? I mean physically attacking band members and other people in the crowd is GBH, right? Starting trouble and being offensive is deemed public disturbance in eyes of the law, isn’t it? The law is there for a reason, to keep people safe and stop people getting away with the crimes they commit. Why should it be any different inside a live music venue?

I understand that securities main aim is to keep things under control and getting the perpetrators out of the building is probably the quickest and easiest way to sort things out but kicking them straight out of the building means they can walk away without any consequences. Surely, they’ll just come back and do it again with the knowledge that they won’t actually get into trouble?

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened this year. Back in April, The Blackout were caught up in similar trouble when a bunch of kids snuck into one of their gigs and started to attack people in the middle of the crowd as well as throw items such as shoes at the band on stage. Much like the Bring Me The Horizon situation, as soon as the band realised what was happening, they jumped into the crowd separated the attackers from the people defending themselves and in the process lead singer Sean Smith was bitten on the arm by a lad who was causing trouble. If I were to go up to someone on the street and bite them, the police would be called on me, there’s no doubt about it. Yet, the next day the kids who were apart of this attack flooded The Blackout’s Facebook page with comments about the attack and mocked fans who stuck up for the band. They’d walked away scott free and were even boasting about the attack because nothing became of it once they’d left the venue.

Is this right? Should these people be allowed to leave the venue without even a visit from the police? The lack of respect these people show is a clear result of the lack of punishment enforced in live venues. Before these stories even spread far and wide, the bands are already blamed for the trouble. People say the bands should set a better example and not get involved or rise up to what these people are doing but surely we should be blaming the kids who go to shows just to start trouble? These kids go to gigs with clear intentions of causing trouble and attacking whoever they see fit, from band members to members of the audience yet nothing is really put in place to sort them out and get them convicted for these attacks. Something should be though. A ban from the venue? A fine? Community service? Arrest? I know it seems far-fetched for a couple of trouble makers at a gig but if you take the situation out of a venue and put it onto the streets and you instantly expect these people to get into trouble for what they did.

Basically, these attacks should be taken more seriously. People go to gigs to have a good time and bands play gigs because it is their passion and they’re now being ruined for both parties by people who don’t have any respect for anyone around them. Time after time I’ve seen massive fights break out and people attacked at gigs and time after time the people who cause the trouble walk away from the situation without getting into trouble. If they were arrested after these attacks you can bet they wouldn’t do it again, so maybe, that is exactly what is needed.