Zombie “Terrorists”
It’s been all over the news, so I’m sure by now you’ve heard about the Zombie Dance Party that ended up getting all the participants arrested on “suspicion of having ’simulated weapons of mass destruction.’” They were walking around being zombie-like, dancing, and wearing backpacks with stereos that happened to have wires sticking out.
“They were arrested for behavior that was suspicious and disturbing,” said Lt. Gregory Reinhardt, a police spokesman. Police also said the group was uncooperative and intimidated people with their “ghoulish” makeup….
“Given the circumstance of them being uncooperative … why would you have those [bags] if not to intimidate people?” [Inspector Janee] Harteau said. “It’s not a case of [police] overreacting.”
What? What? Apparently there’s been a rash of clown robbers in a few other states. But what does that have to do with Weapons of Mass Destruction? I’m sure if I’m going to go on a suicide bombing mission, I’m gonna dress up like a zombie, play music, dance around, and otherwise make myself as conspicuous as possible before I blow myself to bits.
Amber, commenting at MNspeak, sums it up best, in my opinion:
I think both are at fault. There seems to be a trend lately with Minneapolis law-enforcers refusing to be forthcoming with what they’re questioning/arresting someone for. Citizens do have a right to know why they are being questioned by police and/or arrested. However, why give fuel to the fire by refusing to show identification?
However, I also feel that all of this could have been easily solved with a dance-off. Then we would all know who was really 2 legit 2 quit.
Ba DUM bum!
KSTP has pictures of the zombies.
Related posts:
This is even over on MetaFilter a couple of times.
This makes me look forward to the ZPC even more, now.
I wanted to leave a clever comment, but this just pisses me off.
Normally, I would totally side with those getting harrassed by the police.
But I hate zombies. I really hate zombies. I’m not fond of people when they’re dressed up as them either. I suppose if you’re going to have an irrational dislike and hatred of something, it’s good to have it for something that doesn’t exist.
Now the zombies want an apology.
You know, I’m having a hard time being sympathetic. I feel like they can’t quite get their story straight. That might be an artifact of the reporting, though.
Did they refuse to show ID? Or did they just not have ID (and why the hell not?)? The police had gotten complaints about their being there.
But I don’t see how they were “intimidating” or threatening in any way. If the police did threaten to shoot them, that seems a little much. And the police should have told them why they were being detained.
Hard to say without having seen any of it, but I think both parties are going a little overboard.
Jesus Fucking Christ. This whole thing pisses me off. THESE PEOPLE WEREN’T EVEN DRESSED LIKE GOOD ZOMBIES. THIS IS WHAT A ZOMBIE LOOKS LIKE:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cdwarren/52890495/
That one girl looks like she’s in a Mad Max movie, not a zombie.
Mad Max. Heh.