Quinn Allman, guitarist for the Used, was arrested for opposing a police officer on Tuesday after a show in Jacksonville, Florida, and was imprisoned for almost 24 hours.
Allman was busted while trying to prevent Lt. J.T. Crotty from arresting fan Crystal Joanne Gordon, who was loitering in the venue’s parking lot after the show.
“I was signing autographs, and this cop had his searchlights shined on everybody, and he says, ‘You have to leave the premises right now. You’re trespassing,’ ” Allman said.
According to the guitarist, Crotty got out of the car, grabbed Gordon, pushed her to her knees and cuffed her. Then the cop pushed a male fan to the ground and cuffed him as well.
“I walked over and said, ‘You can’t do this. I’m in the band,’ ” Allman said. “And he said, ‘You’re also trespassing. You’d better take a step back or I’ll charge you with opposing an officer.’ ”
Allman told the officer he wouldn’t leave, so Crotty arrested him. Then the situation became Kafkaesque. What many police departments across the country would have dealt with quickly lasted 22 hours, during which time Quinn was mistreated, he said.
Immediately after cuffing Allman, Crotty put him in the back seat of the squad car, pulled into a dark supermarket parking lot and spent 45 minutes filling out the arrest report.
“I got really mad and I pissed all over the police car,” said the rebellious guitarist. “The police didn’t know or anything. It was just running down my leg.”
When he arrived at the Jacksonville jail, he said he was made to strip and treated like a hardened criminal.
“I had to stand in these lines with 50 guys, and we were all shackled together,” Allman said. “I never even got to make a phone call.”
In addition, he said he was bounced from holding cell to holding cell and taunted by police officers.
“They were trying to make an example out of me,” he said. “They were constantly playing our music and laughing and saying, ‘Sounds like goddamn hippie rock.’ One guy said, ‘Maybe if I pulled you in and heard your music and it was anything like the Dixie Chicks I’d have let you out of here, you f–in’ f–.”
Even after Allman went before a judge, who fined him $153, he was sent back to his cell for another three and a half hours.
“I was just sitting there in my cell looking out of this little foggy window,” he said. “They didn’t even let me make a phone call. It’s f–in’ wrong. It’s inhumane.”
A spokesperson for the police department did not return calls. The incident forced the Used to cancel Wednesday’s show in Athens, Georgia.