Hippies

[RangerDanger]

It seems odd to me that people nowadays don't realize that people used to get beat up in the U.S. solely for having long hair.
Beaten by other citizens (jocks, construction workers, truckers) and especially cops.

I posted a Q asking if people were aware of this on Yahoo Answers, and most responses called me a liar. But it's true. It happened to me as well as some of my friends.

Cops would always find a reason to harrass hippies. For instance, if you had a garter or St. Chistopher's medal hanging from your rear-view mirror, that was ok, but ganja forbid you had a peace sign--that was a sure-fire way to get stopped.

I've mentioned this to young cops today and they shake their heads in wonder.

Do cops today routinely beat up people in your area, and for what?

 

[Jim Finnel]

I remember all that. It still goes on. I live in an area that is time warped. Nothing has changed here. The cops have the same attitudes now as then.

 

[4iLLEsT2bTCH0]

cops beat up people around here all the time... one of my friends recently had an incident like that.. i dont kno the specifics, but i saw his face... and his body, not cool.

 

[tommysmokes]

It seems odd to me that people nowadays don't realize that people used to get beat up in the U.S. solely for having long hair.
Beaten by other citizens (jocks, construction workers, truckers) and especially cops.

I posted a Q asking if people were aware of this on Yahoo Answers, and most responses called me a liar. But it's true. It happened to me as well as some of my friends.

Cops would always find a reason to harrass hippies. For instance, if you had a garter or St. Chistopher's medal hanging from your rear-view mirror, that was ok, but ganja forbid you had a peace sign--that was a sure-fire way to get stopped.

I've mentioned this to young cops today and they shake their heads in wonder.

Do cops today routinely beat up people in your area, and for what?

In the sixties I was a roadie with a local rock band in eastern Washington. One time we had a job in Dayton, a small town in corn country, and when we got to the hall it was locked , the lights were off and no one was there. We made a bunch of phone calls and finally found the man we had a contract with and he said sorry the dance was canceled. We decided to get some burgers at the local drive-in before we drove home and were met by the local County Mountie. He informed us that we weren't hungry and that we wanted to leave town. Then to make sure we didn't get lost he kindly escorted us out of the county. We were refused service in many restaurants throughout eastern Washington, Northern Idaho, and Eastern Oregon. Hotels and Motels didn't want to rent to us. Gas stations would mysteriously be out of gas. The sixties was a great time but sometimes just having long hair would get you into a lot of trouble.

 

[chibudman1231]

hell yea cops still beat on people, at least around hear they do. just like an hour ago i was wit my boy chillin in front of my girls steps wen 5-0 passed by me n my boy wurr clean but my girl had a sack on her, we wurrent doin n e thing just talkin standing outside n they pull up n flash the light in our face,call us over tell us to put our hands on the car n shit,they search us n ask us all these question.they thought we ran wit the gang around hear we told them no n they start hitting us wit their big as flash light upside the head,we got lucky cuz they've done worse 2 other people i kno.after they harrased us fo a while they eventually let us go,they never searched my lady so they never found shit.ughhhhh now its time for a bowl fuk da pigs!

 

[RangerDanger]

In early '70 a friend and I accepted a large job in Oklahoma City, hanging drapes at a large hotel/convention center. We drove out there via legendary Route 66.
We both had long hair and beards. Not totally hippie-ed out--"working hippie's".
Things were hunky-dory in Cal, and not that bad in Ariz, but when we got to N Mex. things got bad in a hurry.
For some reason, Indian bikers hated hippies.
We got a lot of dirty/hostile looks and made as few stops as possible.
When we were driving through Texas we passed thru a town and noticed American flags hanging everywhere on the main street.
When we stopped for gas I asked the guy "What's up with the flags?"
He looks at me, looks at Bruce, spits at our feet and says "We're hanging some hippie's today". (We found out later an astronaut was going to be in town, that's why the flags were everywhere).
In OK city it was worse.
There were no hippies to be seen.
The looks and attitude were so hostile we immediently got haircuts and trimmed our facial hair.
Finally we found the hippie "section" of town--a 2 block stretch of Paseo St.
The 2nd night there we were in a small rock club, the only one we ever saw in OK. About 9 p,m, some piggie's walk in and announced "This place is closed, go home."
Just like that.
Everyone started to meekly leave so we did likewise, but this never would have flown In L.A.
Even tho we had trimmed our hair it was still longer than what everyone else had, and we had a hard time getting service at restuarants and gas stations. Usually we were ignored, several places we were asked/told to leave. We got called "dirty commie's" a lot.
We had to bail on the job after about 3 weeks. We went to lunch once and when we got back someone had bolted our ladders to the wall, and our tools were missing.
On the way home we had a flat tire. The spare was good, but needed air. We were in the middle of the desert about 20 miles out of Kingman Arizona. We drew straws and Bruce hitchhiked into Kingman to get air in the tire. He did bit hitch hiking back he got jumped by a passing group of hitler youth and beat up.
The only good thing about being in OK City was that the chicks loved us. We got laid a LOT, and 4 of the girls we met visited us in L.A.