Nightmare on Gilman St.

"At the Gilman, for us, it’s all about the music and the community..."

By Jake Sperling
May, 2007

Youth Radio's Jake Sperling is a volunteer worker at the local punk club 924 Gilman. He explains how it has become a second home for him and many of his friends. Jake also looks into recent police profiling of the club, and tells why the behavior of few may threaten the livelihood of many.

924 Gilman is a local Berkeley, California punk club where hundreds of people, young and old, gather every weekend to watch bands perform – from Jason Webley to Deadfall to the Phenomenauts.

But for my friends and me, it’s more than just a music venue. It’s a unique place where we feel comfortable because it reflects our morals and money’s never an issue. At the Gilman it’s all about the music and the community. Some of my friends have even slept there when they had nowhere else to go.

Recently, however, neighboring residents and business owners have been filing more and more complaints about graffiti in the neighborhood. They also claim that people are drinking and dumping their bottles on nearby lawns. And of course they blame us punks at the Gilman.

In the past few months, I’ve seen police cars on every corner during weekend shows. And in a letter on the band Blatz’s website, Ginny, one of the Gilman’s founders mentioned the police are now staking out the club by videotaping everyone who goes in and out.

There have even been accusations in newspaper articles of “menacing looking characters” walking in the area. When I read that, I didn’t even know what to think. What exactly is a “menacing character” anyway? Just because I wear a leather jacket and combat boots – or have dreads and a partially shaved head – doesn’t mean I drink, tag, or commit any other crimes.

Even though some people who go to Gilman might commit these petty offences, that’s no excuse for the police to subject everyone to this kind of profiling. Its like this time a police officer came up to me and my friends and decided to just search one of my friends who happened to be black, only on a little grander scale.

What we really need to do is get rid of the typical stereotypes that come along with the punk culture. We cannot give people who don’t understand who we are any excuses to close the club down just because of a few attention-getting criminals. After all 924 Gilman is too important a place to me, my friends, and so many others.