
Originally Posted by
shotglass75
OK, here is a part of a re-cap I wrote back from my Coachella 2004 trip. This is the absolute truth. The names have been changed. I give you The Raven Situation. Read this
...When everybody was at the car we decided just to chill there for a while, let the traffic die down, spark one up, and enjoy the moment. We were all just loving the night, the weekend, the experience, and each other. J and I were of course putting on a good show of trying to tell a story and getting nowhere fast with it, when a few yards away from us we saw a terrible sight. There was this young woman pushing a stroller towards us and from behind her this guy came up and pushed her very, very hard. He then said some stuff to her and hit her over the head. I am not sure if it was with his hand or a bottle, but I saw her face and I could tell that it hurt. Now being in the state I was and looking at these people, I first thought that maybe they were just f*cking with us. Like just making a scene to get a reaction and then laugh and ha ha ha. But we all soon realized that this was no joke. This guy hit this girl and was ready to do more if she couldn’t get away from him. So she kinda walked near us, asked us in a very quivering voice if she could join us and she sat down by J and myself. Well the guy stood back for a while and then JN went over to the girl to console the girl. I thought JN did an awesome job of asking questions and just being there for her. The girl explained that he has hit her before because she was with someone else when they were separated. Then the dude slowly walked up to us and asked if he could get a light for a smoke. She said, “Why would you want a light when you don’t even smoke?” So the guy is there, I stand up next to him and take my beer bottle and hold it like I am going to crack this d!ck if he even tries something.
Now let me try and paint a picture for you of what these two looked like. She is wearing all black fishnets, a skirt, top, and shoes. She has bruises on her arms, and short orange-like hair. I decided to call her Matilda. This guy was about 5’6, 125lbs soaking wet. He kinda looked like Jack White from The White Stripes but with zero amount of cool what so ever in him. He was wearing… go figure, black shoes, pants, and a shirt. I decided to call him Raven. Basically, they look like the people you would see at Neo. So Raven is telling Matilda that she is going with him. Well none of us were going to let that happen at all and he starts saying stuff like, “She f*cking cheated on me. Have you ever had someone cheat on you before?” Well I am now standing next to this dumb f*ck, pissed as all hell that our buzz for the entire trip has just been killed, and I burst out with a, “YEAH, YOU F*CK, BUT I NEVER F*CKING HIT HER!!!! ALL OF US HAVE BEEN CHEATED ON!!! IT DOESN’T GIVE YOU ANY F*CKING RIGHT TO HIT A GIRL” So now it seems that I was the guy that Raven was going to deal with. I am not saying that no one else was doing anything because they all were, but I remember what I did because I was freaked out by all of this. So as I am standing there talking to this guy I start to walk through everyone still sitting in the circle and while I do this I am kicking the video camera towards everyone hoping that someone would get the damn hint and start videotaping what was going down. The hint was never received. So this guy is still trying to get her to go with him and she isn’t budging.
The idea was brought up for this guy to walk away for 15 minutes and cool down. I say to the guy in a ‘get the hell out of here kind of voice’ “Dude, I will give you a cigarette if you just walk away. Now will you just leave!!!” The guy stares at me in the eye for a moment and walks away. As he is leaving I shout out, “Thanks for letting me keep my cigarette!!!” So the girl is crying, she introduces us to her baby, the baby looks up, and as if we were in some sort of movie, smiles and giggles. My heart almost jumped out of my mouth and ran away. It was so heartbreaking. Then we are talking how we need to get the cops, and she starts talking as if were right out of a textbook of ‘what battered woman say’. ‘He didn’t mean it.” “It didn’t really hurt.” I deserved it.” Well everyone is like, “F*ck no!!!” During this time, K and I walk to the back of the car to get a water and K suggest that maybe these two are gypsies and might come and rob us. Then we notice the guy walking back but around the other side of the car. I figure he is going to try and grab the stroller and run or something worse so I go and now I am standing next to the baby and across from him. So he starts saying stuff to us and I start saying stuff to him and kinda being a d!ck to him, which he deserved, and I notice his hands. I can’t see them. Right at this moment I look up and he was staring directly into my eyes. The look on his face was scary. It looked like he was going to do something that could absolutely change everyone lives. It looked like he was going to kill me. At least that was what I thought. So in a matter of about seconds I thought to myself, “this guy has a knife or a gun behind his back and is about to kill someone, and that someone is going to be me.” It could have been the enhancements, but I think everyone was thinking the same thing. So I start walking around the circle so I can see what is behind his back. When I get to K, K says, ‘S why don’t you get out of here and get the cops.” I 100% agreed. I looked behind this guys back and all I could see was something that I thought was a lighter but I wasn’t sure.
So I run down to the road out of the lot and grab a cop. He tells me to get in the car and show him where this is taking place. Now this sucked because he didn’t go the way I ran so when we got to the lot I tried explaining to these 2 cops where this was. “Over there straight ahead, no, no, go left it’s right over there by that red van.” So the cops start going to a red van but it wasn’t the one I was talking about. “Then I tell him, “behind you right over there.” I saw where I wanted to go but I could explain it to the cop because I am an idiot. So then the cops say to me, ‘You’re not f*cking with us, are you?” “No, no, look right over there by those people.” And he see’s everyone.
So the cops and I get to the site and they get the guy and put him in cuffs and sit him down by the cop car. One of the cops was with him and the other cop was with the girl and all of us. As he is talking to us he tells her what will happen to him if she presses charges and basically he is f*cked for life. So she is crying, we are all just miserable because of all of this, and that is when the paranoia started to kick in.
At this point the cop is talking to us and asking us who saw her get hit. It was JN, J, P, and my puddled a$$. So he asked to see all of ID’s. Well this whole time I felt like he was looking at me, obviously knowing that I was on something or another and I kept thinking that this guy is going to arrest me too. So when he asks for my ID, I give it to him and then he says, “Would you mind reading your Drivers License Number for me, I can’t see it so well?” So now I am like, “Sure, no problem.” At this moment I could feel everyone just looking at me hoping to God that I wouldn’t f*ck this up. I am about to have a heart attack and I grab the ID and read off the number. I am pretty sure I did a good job of it, but who the hell knows. So now, if this thing goes to trial we might be called upon to serve as witnesses and have to fly out to California for a court case.
It is now about 2 in the morning, we are all ready to get the hell out of there, and the cops decide to leave us along for a moment so we can talk about what should happen. We all were in agreement that this idiot should be locked up. B decided that he should be locked up just for the fact that he was wearing white socks with black pants. That kinda lifted everyone’s spirits. The cop came back with the girl and the decision was made that she was going with the one cop and Raven was going with the other. Fine let’s leave.