The county PD and Downtown Silver Spring mall managers painted a picture of massive crowds amped on music and puberty, leading to Saturday night’s fisticuffs on Ellsworth Drive.
“We had 7,000 people there, a very large crowd,” Jennifer Nettles, property manager for the outdoor shopping center, told Silver Spring’s citizens advisory board Monday night. The horde, most of them in their late teens and early twenties, were on Ellsworth Drive to attend a free outdoor concert promoting non-violence.
The concert’s last act got the crowd revved around 9:00 p.m., and that’s when the shit hit the fan. A small group of concert goers started something near the foot of the stage, but it’s unclear what triggered the fight, MoCo PD spokesperson Paul Starks told The Penguin.
An unconfirmed account appearing on the blog “Maryland Gangs” reported one young man being “visciously [sic] beaten by five to six attackers beside New York & Company.” The blogger also wrote that one man had his head “kicked into the ground repeatedly.”
However, PD spokesperson Starks told The Penguin that beyond the five people treated on the scene for exposure to pepper spray, there were no serious injuries that evening. Darian Unger, chair of the citizens advisory board and a volunteer firefighter with the county’s fire and rescue services, confirmed that emergency crews saw nothing heavy that evening.
“It was a pushing kind of fight,” Nettles told the advisory board.
Officers parked on the public parts of Ellsworth Drive — at its intersection with Fenton Street, and near its corner with Georgia Avenue — closed in. But when one concert goer resisted arrest, the cops called for backup. In the end, 35 on-duty cops from the third police district responded to the mayhem, plus another 40 called in from other districts, the county sheriff’s office, the Metro transit PD, and the Maryland-National Capital park police, according to Starks and a police press statement.
Deborah Linn, an advisory board member, described how every cop in creation showed up for the gig. Squad cars sat on Colesville Road, Georgia Avenue, Fenton Street and even East-West Highway, she said, essentially placing the central business district in lockdown.
In the end, 16 people were arrested for assault, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest; half of them were adults. Mall manager Nettles also said the paddy wagon was filled with “local and non-local people” that night.
So now what?
“We learn from this experience, and the next time we’ll do better,” Roylene Roberts, interim director of Silver Spring’s regional center, told the advisory board.
Photo courtesy of Flickr user Alan Bowser. Republished with previous permission.
Updated Mar 10, 2009, to clarify an attribution.
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7,ooo. Really? I’m confused, so there were no officers walking the crowd? Just “parked” down the block?
L.
The way I understood it was this: MCPD were parked on both ends of Ellsworth Drive, behind the barricades; DTSS security guards worked the crowd. (Ellsworth Drive is considered private property.) When shit went crazy by the stage, the PD moved in.
Jen, thanks for the clarification. It’s hard to imagine that these kids have any real respect for DTSS security though. Brave souls.
L.
Thanks for the most informative thing I’ve read about this incident.
Jennifer Nettles said “this was a pushing and shoving kind of fight.”
I’m quite sure Jennifer is in possession of video of the chaos, since Downtown Silver Spring does maintain video surveillance of its properties.
How much do you want to bet neither you or I will every see those videos?
How much do you want to bet those videos would prove that “pushing and shoving” is not what was going on Saturday night in Downtown Silver Spring.
I’m not willing to bet anything against you, MDGangs, because there’s a good chance you’d win.
Was the brewha more than a shoving match? Must have been to get cops from the county, Metro transit, and the Parks Dept down there. Will we ever see surveillance video of the fight(s)? Probably not, but I’m scouring YouTube as we speak.
Did someone get his head kicked in? You say yes, the PD says no. I’m willing to split the difference and say someone was fucked up, though not badly enough to warrant medical attention.
My impression was that most if not all victims were themselves gang members. Many gang members have warrants or parole-related restrictions. In those instances, they aren’t going to seek medical attention unless they’re dying.
The fight by New York & Company, while brutal, ended quickly, as soon as police got near the area.
But the more I think about it, the more I think Jennifer should let the community see those videos. In the interest of transparency, and responsibility.
There were adults involved with this who have yet to publicly take any responsibility for what happened. I don’t know of anyone who has taken any responsibility for the mistakes that were made.
And that’s the thing. What happened was awful, and stupid decisions were made (such as scheduling a go-go band late at night) but no one who was involved wanted or expected this to happen.
But because no public or private official that I know of, and no one who was involved with the decisions that were made, has publicly taken any responsibility for what happened, they are only making the fallout worse.
I have not received any info indicating that those arrested were gangstas, or that the fight was related to gang activity. If I do, it’ll be posted.
I don’t know of any public officials who are willing to acknowledge the presence of gang members in Downtown Silver Spring, on Saturday night or any night. But some police officers on the scene did acknowledge that, and their frustration with the notion that “we don’t have those problems in Montgomery County.”
We were having dinner at Ceviche when all the shit hit the fan. We didn’t have a good vantage point of what happened, but there were police in every direction. After dinner we walked to the movie theater and it was eerie how empty Ellsworth was because the police weren’t letting people on Ellsworth.
I can only hope that this event doesn’t take away from what downtown SS has worked so hard to create. Hopefully, the property managers and the organizers learn from this incident and people will continue to frequent Downtown SS.
Jennifer, thanks for posting this info. This is definitely the most information that I’ve seen on the events of the evening!
Details drip? What does that mean?
Editor’s note: I don’t know. Will come up with something that makes more sense tomorrow. — JD (Mar 10, 2009)
FYI:
Councilmember George Leventhal spoke out against gangs at concert
http://marylandgangs.blogspot.com/2009/03/county-councilmember-george-leventhal.html
Nothing about the reports from the officials seems “right” and I only know what’s been reported. But maybe this actually was an isolated pushing and shoving kind of fight and the video shows a huge mass of cops mixed with a bunch of black and Latino kids, most of whom were enjoying themselves and not fighting. That’s not really an image MCPD wants promoted either (probably more than the actual problem of gangs). I wasn’t there, so it’s not an accusation, just another way of looking at it.
Wow, 75 police officers showed up in short order. That’s impressive. That actually makes me feel pretty darn good. Quick response, arrest a bunch of the brawlers, make it clear that this is NOT the place to do this sort of thing.