At the weekend, the likes of Kanye West, Soundgarden and Noel Gallagher entertained more than 30,000 at the Gold Coast Parklands for the Big Day Out. But it appears that not all attendees had an enjoyable experience.
Morgan MacManus was a punter on Sunday (Jan. 22) and has forwarded the following open letter to Big Day Out promoter, Ken West. This is only one side of the story, and Scene acknowledges the conduct alleged by Mr MacManus does not reflect the work and efforts of the vast majority of police officers.
MACMANUS OPEN LETTER:
Mate, I just wanted to contact you in response to a quote of yours that I read when googling "Gold Coast Big Day Out 2012 Fights". The quote I wanted to talk to you about has you saying: "At least we don't have a problem that dance festivals have where everyone takes their shirt off and some of them are on steroids and are picking fights." - Big Day Out promoter Ken West
In response to that I wanted to bring to your attention the fight at the smoking side section of the Boiler Room during Royksopp in which a "Shirt off....Steroid" boy started a fight with me by flicking his sweat drenched shirt in my face and saying "I'll fuck you up. I've got so many boys here", followed instantly with 2 jabs to my front teeth followed by a taller skinhead friend of his punching me repeatedly. The initial idiot wrestled with my buddy, then another friend of his took it upon himself to knee my friend on the tip of his tailbone, while he was on the ground still wrestling with the first wanker.
This was all followed up by me trying to seek medical advice for my loose, numb front teeth. The doctor in the medical unit refused to give me painkillers, just ice. I then went to another medical tent a couple of hours later and was refused ice by the same doctor. He refused to allow me to sit even though I was still sore and my teeth/gums were still bleeding. In fact, he called the cops over because I made several requests for my teeth to be inspected properly.
Four police officers hand-cuffed me, pushed me to the ground and then yanked me up so hard that my elbow was dislocated as well as my shoulder, which had previously been injured. Prior to being escorted to the paddy-wagon in the police-holding area in the Big Day Out Festival grounds, two police officers kneeled on my back over my kidneys for several minutes, while I was in handcuffs, forcing urine from my bladder. They then ridiculed me, calling me "pissy pants". A police officer also punched me in the eye while I was thrown in the paddy-wagon. I was not intoxicated and requested a breath-test as proof. The response I got from the police was further ridiculing with taunts of "pissy pants, shut up pissy pants Macmanus". An officer, by the name of Dodd was a main offender in abusing me. No breath testing ever took place. I was let out of the Southport watch-house about 5 1/2 hours later still not having received the medical attention that I had been requesting hours before. You need to think again, Ken West, before you jump to conclusions about the behaviour of Big Day Out attendees compared with other music festival participants. I will definitely be taking this matter further.
— Morgan MacManus
If there were any witnesses to the alleged incident on Sunday involving Morgan MacManus, or if you’ve been involved in a similar incident, we’d like to hear from you.
Readers may recall that only last week, NSW police were fending off allegations of brutality after footage surfaced depicting a man, clearly under the control of police, being repeatedly assaulted.
