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Indonesian Town, Told They Can't Throw a Dance Party, Starts a Riot Instead

All they wanted to do was have a good time.
Indonesian Town, Told They Can't Throw a Dance Party, Starts a Riot Instead

A small town in Indonesia just had it's own Footloose moment—although this time the story ended not with a massive dance party, but in flames.

Let’s backtrack a bit. Farmers in Lewele, a small town in South Sulawesi, just had a good growing season. So, naturally, they threw a harvest party to celebrate. It was a moment for them to count their blessings, live a little, and eat some good food, you know? And, of course, any good party is going to include a little dancing, right? The farmers thought so too. So they asked the local police if they could extend the party into the night and dance a little.

But the police, much like the city council in the hit Kevin Bacon movie Footloose, denied the request. Then everything immediately went to hell. Local residents started to hurl rocks at the police. The officers responded by firing canisters of tear gas into the crowd, which was met with even more rocks. Then the party turned on the police's vehicles, setting fire to seven motorcycles and one cop car. In the video below you can see some residents go ham on a police car before pushing it into the fire.

The night ended with seven people in handcuffs and the local police down at least Rp 1.8 billion ($118,400 USD) worth of vehicles (based on how much seven police motorcycles likely costs here). You can't help but think that it would've been a lot cheaper to just let everyone dance, right?