Xphox

Police arrest 3, ticket 445 at rave

U.S. Customs tip leads Racine officers to hall
By ALLISON L. SMITH

alsmith@journalsentinel.com

Last Updated: Nov. 4, 2002

Racine - Acting on a tip from U.S. Customs agents, Racine police infiltrated and then busted a rave party early Sunday, arresting three people, ticketing 445 others and confiscating various drugs, including more than 100 Ecstasy pills.

"To my knowledge, this is the biggest rave ever in Racine," Detective Lt. Robert Purdy said Sunday night. "There have been a few previous raves, but nothing nearly to the extent of this one."

Police said they received the U.S. Customs tip before the start of the rave, which was held Saturday night in the basement of Tradewinds, a tavern and banquet hall at 1518 Washington Ave.

Because of the tip authorities were able to plan the raid, Purdy said, with a "very strong, proactive law enforcement action" against drug activity typically associated with rave parties, which are underground gatherings of youths that feature techno music.

"Rave parties are not going to be part of our community and are not going to be tolerated," Purdy said.

Undercover police paid for admittance to the party, which was promoted as a "haunted house in a haunted theater," just after midnight. They were redirected by organizers to the party, where police discovered there was no haunted house at all, Purdy said.

The 25 police officers involved were able to contain the hundreds of ravers by blocking off all building exits, Purdy said.

Purdy said the "vast majority" of those attending the party were not from Racine, mostly because the rave had been promoted nationwide through fliers and the Internet. While some in attendance were from Milwaukee and Chicago, the rave attracted people from Nevada, Maryland, Missouri and Arizona, Purdy said.

Police said a 22-year-old West Allis man was arrested on suspicion of felony possession of Ecstasy; a 21-year-old Fremont man was arrested on suspicion of possession of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, and drug paraphernalia; and a 21-year-old Bartlett man was arrested on possible charges of felony possession of Ecstasy with intent to deliver and felony possession and delivery of ketamine hydrochloride, an anesthetic.

The 445 party-goers were issued municipal tickets on accusations of being "patrons of a disorderly house with controlled substances," police said.

The event organizers were not among those arrested, Purdy said, but they were being questioned.

Purdy said Tradewinds staff, who rented the banquet hall to the party organizers, also were being questioned on whether they had knowledge of drug activity at the rave.

In addition to the Ecstasy, police confiscated marijuana and cocaine.

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A version of this story appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Nov. 4, 2002.

Busta

"Rave parties are not going to be part of our community and are not going to be tolerated," Purdy said.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

So yes they had the right to arrest people who were in possession of or distributing drugs. But what exactly were the other 450 people "ticketed" for doing???

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Dj Borg

USA! USA! USA!

How the fuck do you people live there?

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Busta

I live here so I can voice my opinions to my local congressmen and cast my vote in elections in order to make a positive change and help turn this country into what it was intended to be when the pilgrims landed: a free nation.

Commander Keen

yeah, my friend told me about this...
the promoters have a press release posted on the internet.


good question... what were the other people ticketed for??

according to my friend they ticketed the people in accordance to the crackhouse law. (I'm not entirely sure about the law and how it works, but it all sounds like bullshit if you ask me).

This is how I figure how the law works. If a place is deemed to be a crackhouse, then anyone found on the premises can be charged under this law...

Feel free to correct me if I got it wrong.

synesthesia

If I were you I would buy a lot of guns...big ones. And protect your rights to the full extent before marshal law is declared. sure...we need underground compounds and such. "their community" its our community too. in fact its more our community because we are shaping its future.

Busta

Do you know the URL to this?

enD

It was already a free nation BEFORE the pilgrims landed.

If you really want to point the blame...blame the pilgrims...

The Native Americans that inhabited this continent were all about partying for days for centuries on end.



It's a shame that this happened though. I feel bad for the people involved. Being at a party that's raided is NO FUN.

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www.goodfellaz.ca

anabolic frolic

Please update this thread if you hear any more of this. I'm hoping someone will fight their ticket and have it thrown out.

The police CAN do whatever they want, but obviously it's up to a judge to decide if they were within the parameters of the law.

Commander Keen

http://www.hauntedhouseparty.com/

the press release is posted there..

it really really bothers me how the police can do what they want and then settle it later. The damage is already done.

Hopefully if they police are found to be in violation of the law, the production company and maybe even the venue can sue the local police for the violation of civil rights. Maybe then we can get this crackhouse law changed or struck down.

anabolic frolic

People can debate all day about whether we "won" our fight with the police and authorities in Toronto when you look at the state of the scene today.

Whatever's happened to the scene, we would have been WAY worse off had we done nothing. The media eventually warmed up to our side of the story and the police were held in check. When was the last time police here busted up any sort of event? At least we can operate in a legal fashion and the authorities will let us be. I wish everyone involved in this case all the best and know they're fighting the good fight which will have lasting repercussions.

DJames

Thats Bull Shit
Who The Fuck DO these Fascist Police Think They are?
"This scene will Fall Victim To There Violence Or Lies
United as One
We Won't Stand Aside
You Try To Fuck With Our Scene
We're Gonna Fuck Your Life"
Show your Support and fight this shit till there is nothing left to fight if you are american it's your Constitutional Duty to fight this shit and if your Canadian It's Guerenteed to you in our Charter of Rights
We Need to do something about this shit and we need to do it now befor it's too late
The day is coming that Throwing Partys will be considered A terrorist action Thank you C-36 (Canadian) Anti-Terror Legislation (Amarican)
Rise Up As One And Fight Back, This is what Needs to Be done
You Can no longer be so Fuckin Passive about these things One day if it hassent already you will be put in a possition much like these kids and you will agree with me so all I have to say is Don't Wait! Fight Now!, Fight In Solidarity, Fight In Unity Either Way This needs To Fucking Happen Now!

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Busta

Just wanted to point out that there is some additional information including a statement from Dancesafe on their website http://dancesafe.org/.

According to the article there the 445 people were arrested for "being patrons of a disorderly house." I never knew such a law existed. Is that for real?

shuko_x

its shit like this that really bites...its because they can't tax us therefore its illegal. I have an idea.....Lets start a rave war. Keep partying till they kill us. Then broadcast it. The general public will get a glimpse of this governmental brutality and fight with us.

"Start the War....Cuz we are on the floor....its never scene before...ARMY OF HARDCORE .....HARDCORE>>>> )

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Phlux

Land of the free my ass...

Baker

I think the one saving grace that the organizers have, and that the cops fucked up in over looking was that it was a Non Profit Charity event, which is why neither the Promoters or Venue owners were charged, like the guys in New Orleans were, which is Enforced in the RAVE act (crackhouse law).

Good luck to everyone involved. Everyone on here should make sure we keep up to date on this issue.

Swiss

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Technology

From how I see it, that is one of the underlying issues on it. They won't directly say that in any press releases, but it is the main cause for anti-rave action by the federal governments. On a municiple level, I think police bust them up because they tend to think its more of a morality issue. They don't exactly understand the appeal of a party, and so its deemed inappropriate/immoral.

It sucks that so many people got ticketed (and the party was busted) but at certain times that's kind of the appeal...

anabolic frolic

But it IS taxed, or at least is supposed to be. I have to remit 17% of every ticket to the government, and that's before any income taxes on any profit made.

Obviously if a promoter is running the operation as a total cash business and not remitting anything, then it's an illegal business even without bringing in the whole issue of drugs.

How in the world is an event that has a "secret location" with map point and a total cash take at the door with no declared anything supposed to be taken seriously by any government body? The days where we operated and no one knew we existed or what was going on are LONG over and there's no going back. Rave's should be promoted as what they are, a dance music concert.

monstercan-D

^^^ but then what's with the weird hours, Mr. Frolic?

If it's just a dance music concert, the authorities might respond in such a fashion.

Personally, I can't see going to a party that didn't run the course of the night. The need to go all night long is definitely seen as one of the reasons they seem 'out of control', as one of my non-raving friends put it.

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Technology

The weird hours are a part of our overall culture (within the rave community). Its part of the appeal of a party. The chance to go all out for a night, then <hopefully> sleep it off the next day.

I think a lot of people would either disregard that concert statement, or outright object to it, citing that its 'something more than that' (which I agree, although I can concede the similarities now), but I disgree at them being concerts because I find them incredibly more intimate than any concert I've ever been to (even the non fun parties).

The go 'all night' quality of parties does indeed ad to the negative view of parties. Older blue collar folks (like my parents for example, who've used this many times in my 16 year old shanagins and keeping me from parties) think "What is there to do at 3am, and if there is something to do, its trouble".

Busta

I use to go to all night skates at our local roller skating rink nearly every weekend for a while when i was younger. There's no big deal about having something all night. And we all skated all night long without the aid of any drugs.

anabolic frolic

Obviously I think of Hulla as more than just a concert, the point I was trying to make was coming up with a way the outside world might accept it. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, or something to that effect.

No one has the money to win this battle. Yeah you could in theory sue the police, and then the issue will be brought through the courts and the police will be told exactly what they can and can't do, but no one is going to do this. So the alternative is to pack it in completely, or work within some compromise that allows you to operate.

monstercan-D

I remember meeting several Americans at Group Hug 2001 who said that they were going to the 'Anabolic Frolic concert' when they were questioned at the border.

monstercan-D

They also have 24 hour bowling alleys and pool rooms too, but without the bad P.R.