binge;223514 wrote:
As in Thames Valley… well it was by the time I got to any of thoses parties (2006ish). Whendid they get the Rave Squad? That’s always a bad omen….
Around 2004/05. before the airwave radios as some of us used to listen to their antics on scanner
The term “rave squad” was and TBH is just spin.
you did have cops monitoring websites in their spare time and “armchair vigilanté” locals passing on info from SJ and here,
but all the rave squad actually consists of is just a few extra bobbies in a couple of “serial” vans with “PSU” gear (what is normally called a “riot” van) that were available for the whole area to use for any large scale incident of anti social behaviour, This included the usual pissheads you’d get fighting in town, particularly after football.
these sorts of anti social behaviour unit actually existed before the rave lockdown!
What happened though is because of the behaviour and attitudes changing, the overuse of venues in both regions, and the NHS flagging the increasing binge drinking/drugs problem in Britain, the gap closed between pub/club/townie type idiocy and the rave scene and parties went from being viewed as a rather quirky bit of youthful mischief to medium level crime.
this is also why the cops can argue to the news media they aren’t spending loads more money, as those extra coppers are already out on the streets anyway…
