Violence erupted at Insane Clown Posse [ tickets ]’s Wednesday night (3/7) show in Shepherdsville, Ky., when more than 50 police evacuated the venue due to a bomb threat, according to a local newspaper report. The rap act has posted an account of the incident on its official website that accuses local officials of concocting the bomb threat, and accuses police of physically abusing the group’s fans.

According to a report in the Louisville Courier-Journal, a bomb threat against the Paroquet Springs Conference Centre was phoned into police around 8 p.m. Police arrived at the venue, stopped the opening act’s performance, turned on the venue’s lights and told the crowd to leave the building.

Bill Dail, ICP’s tour manager, told the paper that “no one communicated a sense of urgency to the crowd.”

Shepherdsville Police Chief Ronald Morris said in the report that people started throwing bottles and cans at police while fans were being ushered out of the venue, and that the police reacted after several minutes by using pepper spray.

''They were hollering and cussing,'' Morris told the paper. ''They just wouldn't leave.''

Psychopathic Records’ Stefan Kudeck, a representative of ICP’s record label, said the situation spun out of control when people tried to get away from the pepper spray, according to the report.

Four men were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, criminal littering and second-degree riot, the newspaper said.

City Council member James Watkins, who was in attendance at the show, told the paper that, "It got exciting, but in my opinion it was handled the best it could be handled. All of the police officers involved need to be thanked.''

ICP, however, stated its belief that the police staged the bomb threat in order to cancel the show. According to a statement posted on ICP’s official website:

Police with riot gear, who somehow seemed to be deployed BEFORE the threat was phoned in, began rushing into the venue to clear out the fans. When the Juggalos [I.C.P. fans] refused to leave, the police attacked, spraying tear gas into the entire crowd, and then beating Juggalos with night sticks. One 14 year old Juggalo who was attending the show was grabbed by 5 police officers, thrown to the ground, and repeated beaten over the head until he passed out. It took another Juggalo to summon the paramedics to save the kid.

Many Juggalos were beaten without provocation, many Juggalos were arrested without commiting any crime. And in the end, the police bragged about what they had done, and even remarked to one Psychopathic employee, ‘If you ever come to Louisville agian, we are gonna bust some more kid's heads!’

The statement goes on to claim that most of the police acts were captured on videotape, and that copies of the tapes are being sent to Pyschopathic Records in Detroit.