Petr Procházka

"Because we were already well known, we were among the people they wanted to get rid of during important anniversaries in August and January. They usually picked us up and put us in preventive detention. They could keep us there for 48 hours. That happened to me a few times. Then they had peace of mind because I couldn't demonstrate anywhere. At that time, however, I was on sick leave, so they thought I would be at home. But I went to Pilsen—it was on the anniversary of the liberation of Pilsen by the Americans, organized by Honza Rampich. We had to prepare speeches because not everyone manages to get there. So that at least some of us could speak. I had it ready, we were there an hour and a half early. We were standing in the square, there were men with open umbrellas, even though it wasn't raining, looking into an empty shop window - we knew right away what was going on. We wanted to hide from them. We went into a building, but we forgot to check where the emergency exit was. They rushed in and arrested us. They immediately hit me. They interrogated us. We claimed we were there on a trip, they wanted to see my ID. ‘Oh, Mr. Procházka, a well-known name. You must know Mr. Hadrava and Mr. Kábrt.’ There was a strange man there who was photographing everything from the bushes. He said he was taking pictures of the sights. I said, ‘These apartment blocks, right?’ And they said, 'You are expelled from the city of Pilsen with immediate effect. Leave the city of Pilsen.' I said I had no way of getting to the station. They took me to the station in a Zhiguli, I had to buy a ticket in front of them, they walked me to the platform and waited until I got into the carriage. The train started moving and they left. But I jumped out on the other side before it picked up speed. And half an hour later I was back at the square."

"I got beaten up in Brno, where I used to visit [Petr] Cibulka, who had his own recording studio there. Back then, there were so-called cassette tapes. You would buy blank cassettes, give them to him, he would record the bands, then you would have a twin tape recorder at home and play it back, which is how music and spoken word were reproduced. Well, one day we were walking around Brno. Suddenly, two cars pulled up, Zhiguli cars, and some guys jumped out, threw us into the car, me and my friend, and threw two other guys into the other Zhiguli and drove off. They started beating us in the car. And I said to them, 'Gentlemen, you could at least introduce yourselves.' And he said, 'You're pretty cheeky.' And I said to him, 'According to Section 90, paragraph 2b, that's abuse of public office, and that's two years added to your sentence.' 'Oh, the little guy knows the law? Here you go.' They beat me up like a snake. The other one kept quiet. Then they drove us to somewhere near the Brno dam. And they kicked us out. It was already dark, and suddenly I said, 'Where are our documents?' When they drove off, the documents flew out of the car. And now, how are we going to get to Brno? So we walked to some village, Kunčičky. We went to a pub there and said, 'Please, we need to get to the center, to Brno.' There was a jolly village guy with a belly who said, 'I'll take you when I finish my beer.' He took us to Brno on his tractor."