​Hip-hop show’s abrupt shutdown raises tensions in Moorhead

Whether a Moorhead hip-hop show shut down midstream Saturday night created a near riot situation is not clear.

By all accounts, what is clear is that law enforcement were called to assist Days Inn management in stopping the rap show at its halfway point and just before two feature acts were to perform. It is also clear the situation created a very emotional circumstance that had police on edge and concert-goers undeniably upset.

Whether SpringJam 18 was justifiably shut down and done responsibly is questioned by the show’s promoter. The police, on the other hand, expressed relief that it ultimately ended peacefully and without any arrests.

SpringJam 18 promoter Jason Grant, a former 20-year Fargo resident who now lives in Tampa, acknowledges it was not the police but rather Moorhead Days Inn management who pulled the plug on the event.

HPR interviewed Grant, Moorhead Police spokesperson Administrative Lt. Tory Jacobson Tuesday and also reviewed police reports regarding the incident. Days Inn management did not respond to our request for an interview by press deadline.

According to Lt. M. Detloff, who filed the police incident report, what ensued after terminating the event early was close to a riot situation. “The manager explained the guests were going to be upset and he expected potential problems from them. I requested additional officers to try to insure everybody’s safety and prevent any destruction of property the best we could.”

Eight Moorhead officers responded along with assistance from Clay County Sheriff’s Department and the Dilworth Police Department.

After attempts were undertaken to turn on lights in the ballroom, Days Inn management and Detloff asked the DJ on stage to power down his equipment. “So when the DJ refused to turn off the music and somebody was on the stage almost inciting the crowd to turn against us, I powered off the speaker on one side and then walked over to the other side. Once I did this, it had an immediate effect and everybody started yelling, ‘Take it to the street.’ They quickly exited the building and the intensity began to grow outside,” Detloff reported.

Officers were stationed to prevent concertgoers from coming back in. Police soon announced that they were given 10 minutes to leave and anybody who did not leave would be arrested for Failure to Disperse.

“At one point the crowd was on top of a vehicle bouncing around and dancing. They were very disrespectful to management, security and law enforcement. They were also not allowing any vehicles to pass and leave through the driveway and at one point, I had to pull my squad forward and utilize my air horn to try to clear a path so we could get cars to start moving,” Detloff reported. “This had the opposite effect and caused them to start honking their horns and being louder.”

Reportedly, someone took a large quantity of $1 bills and threw them up in the air both inside and outside the club. “It appeared the same individual was repeatedly throwing this money as if to taunt us,” according to the incident report.

The situation was documented by numerous cell phones and police dash cams. None that we’ve seen indicate anything bordering what would be called a near riot, a description reinforced as well by police spokesperson Jacobson when speaking to HPR, and later by the event’s promoter.

“I haven’t said it’s a near riot. No,” Jacobson explained. “What my words are is that it was a very emotional, potentially charged environment where countless attendees were trying to entice, they were being disrespectful, and videotaping themselves to try to capture what they maybe thought was going to be some significant event for whatever purpose. But ultimately, with all of their singing and jumping on the cars and insults, it was determined that they needed to clear the parking lot and if they didn’t do so in about a 10-minute time frame that then they failed to disperse and then they would be charged.”

Jacobson was clear police simply responded to a request by Days Inn management to help end an event on their premises.

“They anticipated some problems in advance,” he said. “They were shutting it down early. They reported that they were having ongoing problems, citing that they had numerous alcohol violations and a number of guests that were being disturbed by people that were inside and outside of the venue so they made a determination that they wanted to shut it down early.”

Jacobson said police were very appreciative the night went without arrests or without anyone being hurt. “This was our assistance to a business that was asking for law enforcement to be present based on their assessment that things could go bad when they were going to request that the event be cancelled for the rest of the night. And, clearly, by countless videos, not just the ones captured by Moorhead police squad car cameras but by the countless Facebook videos I think it’s pretty clear that there were a number of attendees that appeared to be very content with creating disturbance.”

He continued, “They were chanting or singing or dancing or bouncing on cars, insulting, swearing, yelling, you know, things like that that the officers were just in a position of basically using that time certainly to also develop a plan if something were to happen. If somebody in that type of atmosphere made a bad decision and did something significant such as displaying or using a weapon of any kind or whatever could potentially happen in a charged crowd like that that’s clearly a number of them are not happy with the status, then they needed to have a plan so that’s where they were insuring that patience was important and it proved to be an important part of, I think, what brought this peaceful resolution.”

From the promoter’s perspective, part of this unfortunate situation seemed rooted in a change in general managers at Days Inn a week or so prior to the hip-hop show booked for Saturday night. According to Grant, the new general manager informed him that the show would go on, but with a strong show of security, and also that it would be canceled if need be due to unruly behavior.

“So we started doing the show. There weren’t any problems at all in the show. Everybody was having a great time. It was moving along. There’s footage of that, people dancing, smiling, in good spirits, real happy because we finally got to do this show,” Grant told HPR.

When informed shortly after 11 o’clock by management that the show was going to be shut down, Grant was stunned. “At this point, it was right before we were going to get our main act on, and I had to break the news to people. You know, people were looking at me talking to him, they were figuring it out that we were getting shut down. And they started to get upset. I mean like everybody was starting to get really upset because like it’s the middle of the show, it’s also like 11 o’clock and the show goes till 1:30, so we still have two and one-half hours left. And that’s when all the police officers started showing up … like six cars.”

Attendees were soon outside. “So they turned their music on inside their cars and some of the people started rapping, but they wanted to be on stage. They started rapping in the middle of the parking lot. And then the cops, they started turning on their lights, telling them had to clear out,” Grant explained. “I was like, ‘Really, seriously, like what’s happening?’ Trying to figure out if we could still keep it going but it was too late by then. So I said, ‘OK, let me go out here and break this up before it turns into a riot.’ So I went out there to the middle of where all the activity was and I’m calmly telling people to relax, go home, there’s nothing we can do about it. Just leave it alone. And they’re cussing at the cops and all that because they were pissed but they finally dispersed … But as far as riot, the cops showed up, they were all peaceful, there wasn’t any riot gear or anything like that. It was just frustration, definitely frustration.”

One hundred fifty or so in attendance experienced a great show, Grant concluded. “As far as the actual event, it was a good time. People were excited, really good performances, there were donations brought, it was the typical SpringJam -- except for being shut down for no reason.”