I have been attending raves reguarly and have seen them dealt with in a civilised manor on many occasions.
what happened this weekend was disgusting. numerous riot police (200+ only from what i could count, im sure there was many more) were sent into the area and created a circle around the whole event.
slowly growing in numbers they moved in towards the people. how were they ever expecting to dispurse the situation peacefully in that manner i do not know.
most of the people at partys are peacefull and would not want any trouble and would do nothing but stand around the equitment peacefully in protest.
when surrounded by an army allmost like something out of lord of the rings surging towards everyone how were they expected to react.
i managed to stay on the outside of this circle as i saw it progressing but i saw people trying to get away and being smacked round the head,
young girls beaten out of the way and then trampled on.
i beleive that they made a very bad decision in trying to break this up and after acting once earlier on the saturday to try and confiscate one of the soundsystems they felt they couldnt leave it as they would look silly so carried on by bringing in more brut force.
i can honestly say ive not seen as many troops gathered in a star wars film...the amount of money the police spent must have been RIDICULOUS.
3 helicopters were overhead for most of the time and the amount of riot vans, cars + 4x4's was excessive even for a hollywood film.
i know they have to be seen to be making some effort to police these things but with that many people the way they did it was only asking for trouble.
if theyd waited till the end everything would have been packed up by the ravers, the rubbish cleaned up + then they could have arrested them all on the way out!
there actions caused numerous injuries to themselves as well as ravers and a few ravers when trying to get medical attention were told to go away by the police.
ive never seen such a badly handled situation with such a massive cost and so played down on the news.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/5292582.stm
theres video's of the news reports on there as well
100 or so officers = about 400
christ...i have so many photos of people who got brutalised. even one of a policemans shield covered in blood (he was going for it hard!).
ESSEX RAVE/RIOT
Moderators: DannyBee, tom p, Kenny
sorry but i couldnt be arsed to write anymore about the situation as ive heard way to much about it and had to go to work...i was going to continue my rant... but again i cant really be bothered.
it was there job to dispurse the crowds and they did....all be it with numerous people hurt but thats not what there objective was.
though i do think they were stupid in the way they handled things + a lot of aggro could have been saved. and i still cannnot beleive all over the country news articles are still putting 2 revellers were also injured....i could name about 30 that had serious head wounds and thats just the ones ive spoken to and know of.
does anyone know the right channels to go through to put in official complaints or just somewhere were i could collect peoples storys so the media veiw of the situation is not so grosely biased towards the police and there corrageous actions.
Who was there to dance and who was there to fight?
Ravers vs Police....it shouldnt be this way. something seriously needs to be done about the way things are going.
this will never be the death of the rave scene but it will sure as hell make things more difficult in future.
it was there job to dispurse the crowds and they did....all be it with numerous people hurt but thats not what there objective was.
though i do think they were stupid in the way they handled things + a lot of aggro could have been saved. and i still cannnot beleive all over the country news articles are still putting 2 revellers were also injured....i could name about 30 that had serious head wounds and thats just the ones ive spoken to and know of.
does anyone know the right channels to go through to put in official complaints or just somewhere were i could collect peoples storys so the media veiw of the situation is not so grosely biased towards the police and there corrageous actions.
Who was there to dance and who was there to fight?
Ravers vs Police....it shouldnt be this way. something seriously needs to be done about the way things are going.
this will never be the death of the rave scene but it will sure as hell make things more difficult in future.
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MikeTheBarber
- Graf Kingpin
- Posts: 612
- Joined: Wed Jul 16, 2003 2:27 pm
I wasn't there for this one so I cant comment on this completely, but it doesnt suprise me that the police were heavy handed as this is always the case, no matter which counties police force is in charge.
Another point that is worth mentioning is that this was the august bank holiday......pretty much the biggest weekend of the party year, where normally a lot of big multi rig parties go on. If you put your mind back to last year......I cant remeber if you were there Ali, but the party that was on the other side of essex, near the coast (it was in a field near a big resevior)....Anyway.....that was one where the police went all out using helicopters and riot gear, tried to close the party down one day but failed, and tried again the next and succeeded. The point being that they knew there was going to be big parties this weekend and they were probally all prepared and waiting to launch and opperation like this to close it down, and it didnt help that fact it was the same essex police force that would have been running the show
You can make a complaint with the IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Commission - http://www.ipcc.gov.uk/) But i dont know how worth while it will be. Many times the IPCC have investigated the reaction the police have to raves, and although they seem to be independant, they always side with the police, even when there is a shit ton of evidence and witness reports saying they were too heavy handed. The brainskan party at the norwich airport estate comes to mind where they used tear gas and batons to beat back the crowd yet the IPCC found nothing wrong with the way norfolk police dealt with it...................i'll try and dig up the report so you can read it
Another point that is worth mentioning is that this was the august bank holiday......pretty much the biggest weekend of the party year, where normally a lot of big multi rig parties go on. If you put your mind back to last year......I cant remeber if you were there Ali, but the party that was on the other side of essex, near the coast (it was in a field near a big resevior)....Anyway.....that was one where the police went all out using helicopters and riot gear, tried to close the party down one day but failed, and tried again the next and succeeded. The point being that they knew there was going to be big parties this weekend and they were probally all prepared and waiting to launch and opperation like this to close it down, and it didnt help that fact it was the same essex police force that would have been running the show
You can make a complaint with the IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Commission - http://www.ipcc.gov.uk/) But i dont know how worth while it will be. Many times the IPCC have investigated the reaction the police have to raves, and although they seem to be independant, they always side with the police, even when there is a shit ton of evidence and witness reports saying they were too heavy handed. The brainskan party at the norwich airport estate comes to mind where they used tear gas and batons to beat back the crowd yet the IPCC found nothing wrong with the way norfolk police dealt with it...................i'll try and dig up the report so you can read it
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MikeTheBarber
- Graf Kingpin
- Posts: 612
- Joined: Wed Jul 16, 2003 2:27 pm
A couple of related things.......
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/suffolk/5284418.stm
http://www.nr23.net/ipcc/index.php
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/suffolk/5284418.stm
http://www.nr23.net/ipcc/index.php
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Jonny Megabyte
- Posts: 376
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- Location: EN HQ: Palmsprings
- Contact: