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The San Bernardino punk riot occurred on March 4th 2006 after a popular punk rock festival entitled the British Invasion 2k6 in San Bernardino was shut down early due to a stabbing during the concert. Several fights had already broken out earlier that night between Neo-Nazi gangs and concertgoers when police responded to a call that someone had been stabbed. Upon arriving at the venue they were pelted with rocks and bottles and were unable to retrieve the stabbing victim. After the crowd refused to disperse, the police used to tear gas and pepper bombs to break up the crowd and shut down the concert which still had several hours to go. Upon being herded out of the venue and into the parking lot by the police, many of the concertgoers refused to leave and lingered outside the venue gates. The police were unable to control the growing crowd and were forced to retreat after angry fans started throwing bottles and rocks and destroyed the two police squad cars at the scene. Helicopters and riot police were called in and the crowd moved out of the parking lot and into downtown San Bernardino. At this point estimates put the crowd at 1,500 fans who then began trashing local businesses and parked cars in the downtown area. Dumpsters were set on fire and several shops were broken into and looted while dozens more were damaged. Nearly 200 police were called in to quell the riot which lasted several hours. At least four officers were injured and two concertgoers were hospitalized, one of them being the stabbing victim. The police made over a dozen arrests. Estimates at the cost of the riot are as high as 500,000 dollars. The concert had been set to feature several popular punk rock groups such as The Adicts, GBH, Vice Squad and Broken Bones.
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