Investigation of Pepper Spray Incident at Turnstile Show Underway

“Surprise, surprise,” I say completely unsurprised by this situation. We’re not fans of cops over here, so having their presence literally anywhere is already a bad start, and this case is no different. At Turnstile‘s show in Richmond, Virginia on Wednesday, September 24 at Brown’s Island, a police officer near the stage truly showed how utterly out of touch they were with what it is we do at these things.

While Turnstile was playing “Birds,” fans understandably crowd surfed their way to the stage to dive off, like what is commonly done at basically every show ever. The band obviously knows this, as they ALWAYS encourage fans to come up and join them on stage, but whoever was on duty for security surely didn’t. Fan filmed footage (some of which you can see below) shows bassist/vocalist Franz Lyons trying to help someone get on stage while security tried to intervene.

It’s kind of hard to make out, but an officer was then seen pepper spraying fans near the stage before then spraying it directly in the face of a fan trying to get up. You can then see in the video how Lyons shielded his eyes from the spray as well. All the hubbub forced attendees to tend to one another by pouring water in the eyes of those affected. It’s also reported that a teen in attendance required some sort of medical attention.

Richmond Sheriff Antionette Irving has since announced that her office, who was in charge of security at the show, has opened an investigation. “We are reviewing the concert activity and any allegations related to any incidents,” Irving said to CBS 6 (WTVR).

No one from Turnstile’s camp, RMC Events nor show promoter The Broadberry have commented at time of publication. File this under yet another reason why cops should just leave us the hell alone and stick to killing people unnecessarily and all the other dumb business they do (*eyeroll*).