Jay-Z Concert – Chaos
Things were going very smoothly, albeit somewhat slowly. There were four magnetometers and many thousands of people waiting to get in. Some had waited since 3 pm and it was now about 6:30 pm. I was dutifully overcoming my unconscious bias and giving out stickers to everyone that walked by me.
A commotion erupted at the left-most magnetometer. A man who seemed very intoxicated got into a dispute with the police and the secret service. It went on for a while before he was shuffled away.
As if this little dustup were a dramatic foreshadowing, a real crisis erupted. Suddenly a very large crowd of people waving “preferred” tickets arrived from around the other side of the building. They seemed disgruntled and were demanding to be let into the venue. Nobody at our station knew what was going on or where they were coming from. It turns out there was a suspicious package at the VIP/preferred entrance. The secret service closed the gate and sent them to us. Maybe somebody was informed, but my team was surprised. I called the overall leader to let him know and he told me about the package.
The people patiently standing at our gate were understandably reluctant to give up their places to this new folks, irrespective of their “preferred” status. I’m told that some senior Clinton staffer lifted the gate to allow the preferred people in front of the regular folks and all Hell broke loose. The crowd surged into the security stations and the Secret Service declared a safety hazard and shut down our gate, as well. The crowd erupted. For the next 40 minutes various police and regular people tried to get the crowd to back up to no avail.
Jan Roller, my host in Cleveland, and her sister stood up on some concrete barriers and shouted for the crowd to step back. “Go back!! Go back!!” they bellowed. It was pretty scary. This video doesn’t really convey the crisis situation, but gives an idea.
Somehow, very gradually, some space was established in front of the magnetometers, enough to begin screening people through again. After about half an hour of screening people, some order was restored. It was pretty amazing that the mood of the crowd became more festive. It was during this period that the guy said I looked like Bernie Sanders.
Ast a kind of epilogue, we went for Chinese food after the concert. I walked behind Jan, Joy and a couple of their friends as we entered the restaurant at about 11:3o pm. As we were being seated, a couple in the booth next to us asked how we liked the concert. Jan asked how they knew we were there. The guy said, “You were the lady shouting, ‘Get back! Get back!”
Cleveland is a small town.
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