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The thing about having your ass kicked by the police is that it is the most professional beating you will ever receive. These men- could be women, usually men- are artists. They will call you a faggot and make you believe it.
The thing about being in the punk scene is that cops love demolishing kids with mohawks so much it’s like they have a fetish for killing dinosaurs and very colorful birds.
The thing about punk shows is that they’re loud. Loud like your first concussion, loud like a crowbar fucking a piano. They have to be loud so the sad, crazy kids who go to them- and I mean all of those words: 1) sad 2) crazy 3) kids- will forget for one fucking minute that when they go home, they will still want to fucking kill themselves, because at home, their lives don’t mean ANYTHING to ANYONE.
So the thing about punk shows is that you get all these half-deaf depressed kids, and you get them all in one room when they all hate the same thing: themselves. And when the cops show up, all that hate has somewhere else to go, because “those motherfuckers want me to go home!”
The thing about punk kids is that they are woefully unprepared to fight the police. It’s pretty hard to resist “the man” when all you’ve got is fists and unhappiness.
The thing about being depressed is that I’m… not. I’m young, white, straight and male in America- I will never kiss concrete if I don’t need to. I will never be kept from being something just for being something, but still the cops stomped on me over and over, and I could have been one of their kids in a costume.
So I think that oppression does not exist because white people hate black people, or straight people hate gay people. I think oppression exists because some people have power and will do anything to keep it. And the thing about power is that it’s really hard to control someone when they’re human just like you. So in America, anyone can be a cop. When you’re a cop, no one else is a person- they’re all perps, hoppers, shit-birds and runners. It’s not about keeping the streets safe anymore, it’s about keeping them empty. Oppression is not a race, gender, or sexuality problem, it’s a humanity problem.
The cops kicked in the doors- I was on my knees in the middle of the pit. All the amps cut out, the PA was just hissing like it had a secret. The officers were marching in- batons on high, and I was screaming, “I am a human being! I am a human being! I am not resisting you!

Neil Hilborn - How to Get Beat By The Cops