@DaftFader 419569 wrote:
yeah slammin vinyl over the years got a very high police/security presence – most were all fucking wankers too. And it definatly got ruder as time went on.
Its a vicious circle.
Criminals rob people and beat them up and sell crap drugs what make folk ill, so the security have to deploy the conventional Emergency services to pick up the pieces, rentaguard/bouncer types don’t have the skills or authority to properly solve crimes or treat victims of violence or drugs casualties. Even on-site paramedics can only do so much so often the casualty has to be presented to the nearest Emergency Department, often taken there on blues by the local NHS Ambulance Service. Each incident is logged by the Police and the NHS. Details are fed back to the licensing committee for the event.
(bear in mind that compared with the early to mid 1990s the public sector authorities have much more accurate ways of keeping track of incidents using computer databases).
TBH The only reason these events still happen is because under European human rights law and its British interpretation it would be unlawful for authorities to refuse a license for a public event because a minority of people commit serious crime there. (in reality there is no more personal drug use at a dance music based event than in a townie pub these days, and even the feds realise this!)
Organisers still have duty of care to the people attending, but they have to be given the opportunity to address the issues, by deploying appropriate safety measures before a license is refused or they are asked to contribute more to emergency service costs.
Other events which have not got a bad record for negative incidents of crime, violence or excessive drug use have far less oppressive security presence but its up to those attending and the organisers to keep it that way. The smaller “hippy” festivals and smaller dance events generally have much less hassle.
