Disaster at the Code Orange Show

I just read Emily Jane Hoffman’s story last night and went through a few stages of my own: heartbroken for the beautiful girl, unsure if I was going to puke or pass out from disgust at the situation, and then anger at the asshole who has no respect for other people.

Emily was at a Code Orange show about a week ago in Salt Lake City when a guy in the pit wearing steel toed boots did a “crowd kill” (doesn’t that sound awful enough as is?!) and roundhouse kicked her in the face. He broke her jaw in four places, which caused brain bleeding and forced her into the hospital for an extended stay. She has not been able to eat solid food or speak, and she’ll likely be out of work for a while. She had to have her jaw completely restructured as it was completely broken off from the rest of her face on one side. She’s only 22 years old.

She has a GoFundMe account set up to help pay for her medical bills. Please donate if you can. The band has shown support for her, which is uplifting to a point, but it’s a situation that never should have to happen.

Here’s Emily’s statement:

I went to the Code Orange show this last weekend at Kilby Court and I left with the worst merch ever. Some guy was there who decided to wear steel toe boots. He round house kicked me in the face.

I wrote about mosh pit etiquette a while ago and I don’t think I said anything about “don’t wear steel toed boots” or “don’t kick people in the face” or god forbid “don’t be the reason someone ends up in the hospital for a week with a broken jaw and brain bleeding.” I guess I didn’t think it was necessary to say “be a normal human being with a little respect for others”?

Shows should be sacred and pits should be loving. People go to shows to feel safe and at home, surrounded by other people who love the band as much as they do, celebrating the music together. Strangers become family in the pit. If your sole intention is to hurt someone, you’re better off in a dark alley looking for a fight. It just blows my mind that someone would knowingly kick someone in the face while WEARING STEEL TOED BOOTS. And he didn’t even stop to see if she was okay…after she was unconscious… He ran, and as far as I can tell, they haven’t found him.

Is this real? Like is this a real thing we have to worry about at shows now? I consider myself a pit crew girl, but I don’t want to have to worry about something like this happening to me. I bring new people to shows who’ve never even seen mosh pits before, and I don’t want to be responsible for something like that happening to them. I don’t want to ever hear about another completely avoidable injury like this happening to anyone again. It’s truly awful. No one goes to a show expecting to wake up in the hospital. They go to have fun and enjoy themselves. Don’t be the asshole to take that away from them.