Cro-Mags’ Harley Flanagan Involved in Violent Incident with Music Magazine

An altercation at a recent Cro-Mags show became violent on Tuesday, September 12, though accounts differ by party. The show took place at Cafe 611 in Frederick, Maryland. Both accounts are below and are simply allegations at this time; all that is known for certain is that there was an incident and it turned violent.

Cro-Mags singer/bassist Harley Flanagan alleged that he was assaulted by two people in ski masks and that one of him cut with a razor and maced him. Destroy Zine, who said they were there to document the show, alleged that Flanagan sexually assaulted a female editor and that Flanagan and his crew assaulted magazine staff.

Flanagan’s account:

“Great show tonight with DRI with the exception of one incident. A few people that everyone thought was with one of the bands, but turned out not to be caused a ruckus and one of them pulled out-mace by the merch table. I got sprayed my son got sprayed everybody in the room was gasping for air a few people had to leave. I actually got sliced with a razor or something by the guy on my ass cheek as I was trying to pull him and my son apart. the guy who did it got the shit beat out of him by several people, my eyes were burning and snot was coming out of my nose and I couldn’t see. I didn’t realize I was cut till I got to the hotel I just thought my pants got torn. I’m still not sure exactly how or why it all started. But according to everyone at the club him his girlfriend and his friends were being assholes all night. Two of them had ski masks on and were selling magazines and stuff this is why we all thought they were in or with one of the bands. All I know is that shit did not need to happen and shouldn’t have happened. There were kids at the show a 5 year old a 7 year old a 10 year old and my friends 15 year old son and they could have been sprayed or hurt. These assholes obviously came to the show for problems because they had mace, a stun gun type baton and they dropped a bag that had a suture kit with stitches, needles and iodine in it so they must’ve been expecting something you don’t walk around with stuff like that or bring stuff like that to a show unless you’re expecting problems or looking for them. I had to play the set with my eyes and skin burning. But besides that it was a great night and a great show. Thank you all for coming out I saw a lot of old friends and made a lot of new ones but that shit was nuts but I’m not gonna let it ruin what was an otherwise good time DRI put on a great show I love those guys thank you all for the positivity, despite that shit. And don’t worry we will be back. Unfortunately I think we need better security at shows.”

Destroy Zine‘s account (includes a video):

“The Cro Mags offered us ‘press passes’ over Instagram messenger to come document their show at Cafe 611 in Frederick Maryland. We happily said ‘yes’ as we were fans of their band. We went with the possibility of an interview with Harley Flanagan of the Cro Mags, and we were very excited to meet them at first. We arrived at the show and went to the vending area. Merch is completely set up and ready to go. People start coming to check out what we have and asking us about prices for things. As a kid is purchasing a patch from our table Harley Flanagan of the Cro Mags walks up to us and started asking us about the art on our magazine cover. He then slapped our female editors thigh multiple times and said to her: “yeah you better close those legs little girl, you’re sucking me in.” She exclaimed anxiously that she is on the back cover of the magazine, hoping to deflect the attention to something else, in which Harley reply’s ‘damn right you are, I’ll see you later tonight.’ Then he proceeded to say our ‘magazine looks great’ and asked us to reserve him a copy as he wants to see ‘what we’re up to.’ We felt let down, disappointed that someone who is looked up to by so many people just felt welcome to openly say that in front of us, let alone TOUCH a young girl. Harley’s ‘nephew’ or ‘son’ as he says then comes over to her and apologized for Harleys actions. We didn’t interact with the band or any of their crew after that besides to give Harley a Silver Sharpie. He had started yelling at us about the sharpie and we gave it to him in hopes he would leave us alone.

Throughout hanging out at the show, Harley would stare at our photographer/editor on multiple occasions, walking by and/or just standing at the door across from our table. When we spotted Harley, they would look away and try to avoid contact. After a while, Deathwish (the 3rd band to play before Cro Mags) was up and we listened for a bit. We were hanging in the merch room, just chatting, and went to go check out D.R.I’s merch table which was off to the right, a door’s length away from us. Our photographer/editor watched the table alone. We were talking back and forth, checking out the shirt rack at the DRI table when we started to hear our editor/photographer confront Harley as he was staring at her, talking to his crew, and gesturing towards her at the doorway. This was obvious, as each time she would move out of Harley’s sight he would then move in sight of her. This happened a few times before initially calling him out.

We quickly left the D.R.I table to de-escalate the situation. His ‘nephew’ started threatening violence as we said ‘please walk away, we just want peace.’ We begged for peace multiple times. They were made well aware of their sexual assault at the start of the show, and Harley exclaimed something to the effect of ‘maybe your girlfriend shouldn’t have her p**sy out and I wouldn’t be looking’ he then proceeds to rip the other editors mask off and the editor is then pulled back by members of the crew and swung at a few times. He was initially able to get out of it before more hits could’ve be taken. As that occurred, Harley is in the other editors face, pointing at him saying ‘I’m going to break your friends legs and it’s going to be all your fault.’ The Singer of D.R.I then exclaimed from behind his table ‘they aren’t even in a band’ which Harley repeated loudly to the whole crowd. (He knew we weren’t a band, we were there to interview him, after he claimed to give us press passes we never saw or received.)

He screamed these things, all while flipping our merch table full of glass bottles, magazines and all our art while there were children nearby. It was after that, the editor who was being pointed at pepper sprayed Harley in the face so that couldn’t hurt our photographer. He also had to pepper spray Harley’s ‘nephew’/’son’ because they began to rush us from all sides. Our editor was swarmed by their merch guy who was supposedly Harleys ‘nephew’ and another person, as well as Harley. He was repeatedly beaten and kicked and punched as he fell to the ground, curling into a ball while closing his eyes and covering his face. He was dizzy and delirious. We used pepper-spray in self defense, and our female editor used a taser to protect herself from the assault. Tasers are legal in the state of Maryland for purchase (without permit) and are legal for use in self-defense situations. We acted in self-defense within the boundaries of the law.”

Flanagan made various other posts including the below:

“I’m just glad that I got cut and not my son. That could’ve been my son’s neck or face everyone who was maced and assaulted will be pressing charges. These people contacted us, asked for an interview were put on the guest list. They showed up in ski masks armed with Mace a baton some kind of a stun gun. And a suture kit fell out of their bag with stitches, iodine, and everything that one would need to repair a wound, so they obviously came with the intentions of starting something. Anybody who saw anything please step forward. This incident took place before we even got on stage. And there were children in the room who could’ve been injured.”

You can view the posts on Flanagan and Destroy‘s respective Instagrams.