Participants in a drum circle at Liberty Park created a few tense moments for Salt Lake City police Sunday evening. But rather than letting the situation escalate, officers resolved the problem without using force or making arrests.
Just before 6 p.m. police received several complaint calls that a woman in the drum circle was hitting other park patrons as they walked by, yelling and "acting weird," Police Sgt. Fred Louis said.
When officers arrived they attempted to control the female, who they said was acting unruly. Other members of the drum circle apparently thought police were violating the woman's civil rights and surrounded them, said Louis.
The two officers called for three more officers as backup. But by the time they arrived the situation was resolved, Louis said.
The drum circle crowd saw the officers weren't doing anything wrong and backed off when they saw the woman really needed help, he said.
This was a "totally different situation" than a highly publicized incident at the park two years ago involving the drum circle and officers in riot gear, Louis said.
In April 1999, more than 50 officers, including some SWAT team members, used batons to clear the park after nearly 200 drum circle members threatened to assault police officers who had just arrested one of the group's members for drug use.
The woman drummer Sunday told police she had been using drugs, Louis said. She was taken to the University of Utah Medical Center.