Party Vibe

lol yeah I remember hearing about that norfolk mud-tek :laugh_at:

OTOH I also heard about all the fuck-ups that weekend, which led to lots of sketchy people driving hundreds of miles, location of venues being “forgotten” :hopeless:, rigs getting confiscated as it was so fucking obvious to the locals and feds what was going on….

bear in mind as well I’ve only been in East Anglia a year and don’t know that many people –

Yet due to the arguements online that happened after that event (mostly on SJ) as a “complete stranger” (albeit one with a fair bit of knowledge about raves) I was able to find out exactly who was alleged to have fucked up that weekend (individuals were named and shamed in public on that thread, it was eventually taken down by SJ admins but was left up for days by which time I suspect the damage was done)

I wonder how much of that thread may have added to evidence against people? Sorry if this sounds harsh but it actually put me off raving in this area, as I got the impression that for all the “community” chat there was little solidarity and that people were prepared to grass up each other when things went pear-shaped.

TBH I think that scuffle happened out of pure desperation, people trying to salvage the remainder of the weekend – but those involved got done for it and were lucky not to go to jail…

One thing I will say though is that East Anglian ravers are no different from any other scene elsewhere in the country – they get a lot of stick but I moved here from SE England and there are plenty of angry young kids who think they they can fight the cops in that part of the country as well.

the reason their organisation may be a bit more sketchy and its a bit like the pre-2000 raves in SE England is simply because the cops and locals haven’t clamped down as much in Norfolk compared to other counties (Suffolk and Essex have already been locked down).

The ravers tried fighting back with physical force in SE England and they lost; even if they drove back one wave of cops (such as Ridgeway summer 2004 and Hampshire Moot 2005) it was followed with heavier busts on the same crews later in the season. Cops don’t forgive and forget.

Those parties that still happen in SE England (and they are way less common today) do so because the crews have been smart in their choice of location (i.e one that doesn’t get grassed up by locals) and organised enough to get a rig on and lots of people in the area within an hour – plus they clean up properly afterwards and if cops come they negotiate with them rather than fight.

Also convoys, fun as they are, are obsolete in 2007 with CCTV cameras everywhere (even out in the sticks) and nosey locals watching out for odd traffic movements.

Convoys hot up the raves more by creating a huge load of traffic in areas where anyone over the age of 40 seems to go to bed by 10pm (even in the towns).

I think it may be different this year – cops have been told to work together by central Government and not “pass problems on into other counties” and the backlash is starting to hit Norfolk (plus Suffolk cops are helping other areas close down raves) the crews that survive are going to be the ones that work together and work smarter…

Not sure if I’d class it as naivety (other than people thinking they can fight the cops) – most people I’ve chatted to from round here are fairly clued up…

I’ve been doing a bit of research as well and the impression I get is that Suffolk / Essex got locked down because crews caned all the venues and ravers overdid the drugs (a lot of the 90s crew are now class A addicts) – lots of ravers do realise this but many don’t like facing up to the “bad news” and the younger ones are often in a state of angry denial about what has happened

Norfolk crews got away with it for longer simply due to lack of enforcement, rather than acceptance of raves by wider society…

I think one problem though is people using ketamine to blot out the paranoia and worries about getting nicked, getting stuff confiscated etc… too much of it before the rave is set up and your organisation skills go to hell in a handbasket…

maybe your location at the time helped a lot. Some areas are more contentious than others, dependent on the value of land or proximity to residential areas.

this sort of thing happened “back in the day” as well..

to us yes, especially older ravers who grew up before the backlash against womens liberation (the late 80s/90s were actually quite a “right-on” time ) but attitudes have got worse within wider society.

This is sadly a very common incident in a constabulary where there are high ranking female officers (you may have seen Suffolk’s female chief superintendent(?) on telly last year during the prostitute murder appeals).

Its a sort of hidden “cop culture” – many male cops don’t like the level to which women have got power in the police or even wider society.

Of course they can’t give “ma’am” a slap even if they wanted to or overtly undermine her authority (that sort of thing only happens in British cop dramas) but they can “justify” the use of force against a young woman who is seen as a “criminal”.

Cops are smarter and more ruthless than they were 16 years ago. They may not use violence as often but they know all about how to get away with the controlled and calculated use of force.

I’ve heard of similar things happen in Thames Valley, where there are also a lot of senior female officers.

Two years ago I watched a documentary about yardies and crack, there was a raid on some suspected dealers where the white Trident detectives were at one point clearly giving a black guy a bit of a kicking as they raided a car.

No attempt whatsoever was made to hide this from the cameras. It transmitted on prime-time BBC and there wasn’t a single complaint from any member of the public.

Lots of us liberals like to think it has an effect but sadly I think many normal people are desensitised to seeing videos like this because there is so much similar material about, and feel that cops (or even private citizens!) should be allowed to use more force to defend their property (for instance even in Britain there is still a lobby for private ownership of firearms for property defence).

its not so much just a problem with police brutality, but the fact that society is becoming more brutal….

because our generation was so much immersed in the rave culture its hard for us to remember that there were also lots of people our age who didn’t get involved and retained traditional views on society.

Also, there are serving Police officers today who were part of the rave culture but have had negative experiences – Perhaps a partner got addicted to drugs and became a deadbeat and left them with a small kid to look after, a friend or relative overdosed, or someone they know got bullied by a violent dealer- and those experiences drive them to cross the blue line to seek redress or revenge. Sounds like a movie script, but these things do happen…

Its a hard thing for us “true ravers” to contemplate – someone “betraying” the scene like that, but everyone is individual and has their own motives and desires in life, so we must be aware of it (its why I say people should never underestimate the level of knowledge cops have about how the rave scene works).

true, but as there is no gendarmerie in this country nor do we deploy regular soldiers to put down civil disturbances, every officer may at least once have to go in as a TSG unit (riot squad).

Many don’t always agree with what they are doing but they know they have to do it, so I think that anyone who takes the decision to serve as a constable has already made the choice they are prepared to stop a rave if they are told to do so by their superiors – respect for authority overrides everything else.

Thing is you’ve done well out of life and are therefore prepared to support others rights to have fun like you did…

but there are many others (not just cops) who are our age (and who may not have as happy a life) whose views changed as they got older. People I’ve known and maybe once partied with have said by their late 20s (“oh, this drug culture has got a bit too far now and maybe it is time for a clampdown”, often because they had bad experiences through their own lack of self-control..)

In 2004/5 I was living in Reading (just outside West London) and friends were putting on big warehouse raves. By then there were people the same age as us who lived nearby and were not just grassing the parties up to the police but even prepared to see their names in the papers listed as the complainers.

maybe, but i think the authorities have already geared up for this and have stepped up enforcement against unlicensed events – on here there are many threads about how crews get busted for licensing violations as well as just breaking the CJA..