Party Vibe

my personal experience over 20 years is that cops by and large only kick off at the end of a event when people have promised to close down at a certain time and then gone over it. (if they wanted to close it at the start they would deploy sufficient units to do so, or turn up before the rig has been set up).

A good friend of mine from SE England has had to personally shut down another crews rig because they insisted on playing “one more tune”. if he hadn’t done that, TVP would have come back, taken every stack in that building and also done full traffic checks on everyones vehicle.

This is England, not some tinpot foreign dictatorship – even in East Anglia the cops did give ravers loads of chances.

Last night I was reading all the meetings of senior Police officers in our area that have been released on FOI and they give a distinct impression that when people closed down raves voluntarily by Sunday afternoon at an agreed time and that the bulk of people present also wanted to get enough sleep for work on Monday it wasn’t viewed as that much of a problem.

They (Suffolk and Norfolk) confimed that there is a significant amount of intelligence gathered on rave organisers and its done by the same teams what investigate rapes, murders and serious domestic violence, and that they have found links between the entire drugs/club/nightlife scene and these unpleasant incidents.

TVP and Hantspol have also confirmed the same informally or by letting slip info (I certainly had a local inteligence file on me which was set up in 1992 and was still there in 2004). Even then the cops aren’t idiots or completely prejudiced – if you are in full time employment and not funding the purchase of your music equipment through drugs sales you are left alone most of the time and only discreetly watched, as it only takes a spell of unemployment/hard times for a “good person to go bad”.

When I was interviewd in 2004 over a minor incident (and released w/o charge) the copper inadvertantly disclosed info that confirmed TVP knew about a recent period of unemployment and heavy drug use, and possibly had even checked NHS records which show my mental health issues (partly caused by drugs, although partly cured by them too!) in my teens and early 20s.

None of this is secret BTW, much is on google – just search for your local constabularys name and “rave” or “unlicensed music events” and stuff like “minutes or area command team meeting”

Its true they expect a closedown time to be done on the dot and not a hour later whilst people sketch around and snort more lines but they are a blue light service where they are judged on performance / response times to the second so thats only to be expected.

Also another side of it few fok are aware of (especially nowadays with airwave radios what can’t be scanned) is that some of the cops on that rave roadblock have done a double shift and might have spent the previous 6 hours on scenewatch at somewhere where a girl was raped after a night out clubbing, and then they are faced with more young people giving them shit for only doing their job. Hardly surprising a few of them want to go in heavier – I wouldn’t be able to do the job myself without losing it with some little shit and not being “politically correct” about how I dealt with them..

@Raj 455864 wrote:

If as an organiser you negotiate an end time then you should adhere to it rigidly – not keeping your word means next time they may not give you the benefit of the doubt. Shutting down on time and clearing the site in an orderly fashion while avoiding drug driving are (IMO) responsibilities which every crew should be honouring.

Although I did not live in this area in 2005 when this incident happened, the fact that Brains Kan did not adhere to a negotiated closedown time was officially cited as the reason for sending in the public order units (riot squads) to forcibly close down the Ramsholt event.

A few years ago I met one of the “Tango Victors” (TVP specialist traffic cop, he did even appear on telly a few years later) who had been sent down to put his camera on the peopel going in and out of the rave and he was much more concerned over road safety issues and the then emerging links between gary boy culture and raves than anything else. He even complained that they shouldn’t have sent his VASCAR out for such a trivial purpose when there is already a Forward Intelligence Team!

One bit of info i’ve gleaned is contrary to popular misconception the bulk of local cops actually dislike having to deploy in public order formation and use force to close down raves as they know they are essentially fighting against the kids of their own community, often friends of their own familes – but they know that folk in EA are stubborn and are trained to deal with this – plus its their duty to protect peoples property rights.

TBH thats what also escalated things in East Anglia, instead of the coppers either letting people go or confiscating the rig there and then say they will let people go and try and seize the rig when its separated from the rest of the ravers. All this does is makes people less trusting of the Police and they then have to deploy the public order units anyway.

I suspect this is due to the frontline cops being told at the last minute by senior officers not to “let popele get away with law breaking” as they may have had more complaints from locals but its irrational and pointless and actually has a knock on effect especially with young teenagers, who are then more likely to commit crime/ASB in their local areas having seen the Police “not keep their word”.

In every other European country its either full on zero tolerance (including CS gas and the threat of firearms units even though they are rarely used) or smaller parties especially those with < 500 people in remote areas are left to continue (which is even what a Tory MP and the Police in SW England are advocating provided there is permission to use the area). What happens in England is half-arsed and causes more trouble than is actually needed.

@Minghead 456382 wrote:

i have heard that a system similer to france was proposed by someone in government, i couldnt apploud that decision enough, ive been banging on about it for years, hopefully ill see it happen before i hang up the raving boots! har!

yes, its a Conservative MP in his mid 40s in a constituency a bit west of you (I think its Devon). however other than his own website, the only media coverage is a critical report from the Daily Mail, quoting some self-appointed spokeperson from a “federation of private residents” which I have never heard of despite being one for over half a decade.

However the French law still allows entire Council areas to object to raves including the same last minute changes of minds and seizures as kss found out.

A better system would be that of the Netherlands where although its not the ravers’ paradise its made out to be and they only begrudgingly endure the pill culture rather than tolerate it (something you only unearth after learning a bit of Dutch and reading the real opinions of local people and politicians) each council area at least accepts there is a demand for late night venues playing dance music (similarly in some parts of Germany) but arranges the venues and streets/public transport so there is no need for excessive drug driving.

The costs of tolerance are offset by what is basically a “dealer tax” where middle level dealers are given a proportionate fine and a similar penalty to a adult Caution (also their media and courts do not not publish full names and addresses of cirminals in the paper) – rather than pointless short prison sentences which affect their ability to work. its not perfect and busted dealers who cannot make up the losses are hurt or killed by those higher up the chain when those involved are more desparate and the drugs revenue is funding families (rather than being a side earner) but even then its not that common as violence carries a far longer prison sentence whereas class A dealing has maximum 5 years in NL!

I heard a entire van was stolen containing sound equipment although its unclear if the target was the van or both (though it wasn’t a particularly new van). Last year my local crew were stalked back to their own lockup which is an particularly remote part of Suffolk and had the rig stolen.

Very soon peak oil and the knock on effects of the Arab spring are going to make it way too expensive for most younger people to drive more than 30 miles simply for a weekends fun (or even drive at all for non essential purposes)

With todays advanced surveillance and policing its easy enough for cops and the criminal justice system to bust people who are using night life venues to blatanly launder drugs money, and also ensure more the more sketchy and potentially or actually violent drugs/alcohol users are either sent down to prison or mental hospital so there isn’t any major risk to any town from accepting EDM events like was once common across the UK even 10 years ago.

I think they have replaced their kit but I’m not aware of anyone being brought to judgement or justice for nicking it. the wider effect isn’t so much the loss of the kit but folk lose their enthusiasm for getting involved, particularly as they reach their 20s. as for the SE England theft it did seem odd as well that anyone would even want to steal what was a old and boring van with little resale value – unless they knew its contents.

TBH I suspect that rigs are being targeted by those on the urban music scene (grime/rnb) as putting another crew out of action (either by stealing equipment or disrupting a event by violence) is part of the game.

Its why metpol put in form 696, not because they were “racist” or don’t like the music – people were getitng hurt and bullets and blades don’t care what colour you are. its also why the townie clubs are going bust as they cannot afford the security costs as young chavs can’t afford the door entry fees.

the media outburst from London came last year because it was not just in the centre of London or the pecrcevied violence against the cops but was also viewed as a stich up of a older hipster type bloke who was part of the music / media scene himself and had gone through the “proper channels” to legally rent the building. He may well have been a bit of a posh Nathan barley type twat (and ironically had put on a rave himself before) but still has a lot of media connections.

I am not sure if the targeting of the building was even intentional or just a coincidence as the building had been raved before, but it even made the Norfolk news as Aviva (Norwich Union) had a stake in the building but the revenues (which peoples pension funds are invested in) depended on it being legitimately rented for full market rate, not used without payment in that manner. The worst case is that this building was used because he had given or offered paid work to someone involved in a sound system and either the deal fell through or someone was envious of his success and chose to bust into the building, having gained knowledge of how to do so.