found this at hiprforums.com:
From Mountain Groove:
Hey there, Just thought as festival season is "heating up" I would pass this along. It is from a Patty who lives in Atlanta and goes to a bunch of the biggies in the South. Wonder how that boat cruise ( SCI, I believe- hc) will settle out with this type of stuff?
DEFINITELY not trying to freak anyone out but, trying to educate and inform so we are all smart hippies not smelly Ween ones.
Anyone been to any northern fests this year? Planningto go?
I just went to Smilefest in North Carolina, which has always been a very chill festival, but this year the place was crawling with state pigs and undercovers and all kinds of quasi-legal/constitutional-sounding searches, set-ups, entrapments, etc. Many many busts, and what sounds like some brutality, as well. Like, someone got punched and then arrested for alerting neighbors in the campsite about undercovers.
I know the festival organizers, and they sure were not smiling, all weekend. They had no control and were threatened repeatedly with charges of obstruction of justice. I dunno how many people in total were busted, but it sounds like 25 or more. They had a paddy wagon there, if that tells you anything. This wasn't "let's get the dealers", or "let's just look for people being too blatant/out of control", it was "let's go bust that father over there puffing at his campsite and rip him away from his crying wife and kid." They were also harrassing people for having beer at their campsites and using open container as an "excuse" to search campsites.
Anyway. These days I am the queen of near-paranoic discretion, although it seems like I was just lucky for not getting busted (i.e., I just heard of one kid who was inside his tent all zipped up -- as I had been several times throughout the weekend -- who got busted when a cop smelled something and opened the tent). I actually did not witness first-hand any busts or any people who were "obviously" undercovers. But every time I saw someone from the festival staff, the strain and pain of the situation was written all over their faces. They, of course, always have had county sherriffs onsite "to serve and protect", but in this case, without any warning, they were inundated by all kinds of state law enforcement who were clearly out to kick some dirty hippy ass.
My question: is this because of the RAVE Act? Patriot Act? Both? Are Nothern festivals experiencing similar police presence and overzealous activity? Is festival culture as we know it about to disintegrate because promoters and land owners can be held responsible for drugs at their events?
It kills me that even with significant opposition, the RAVE Act got tacked on to the Amebr Alert bill and passed (THAT's playing dirty..). I'm not clear as to whether or not the following language was actually in the RAVE Act that passed, or if it's just in the new CLEAN-UP bill that is trying to be passed (Sponsored by Rep. Doug Ose (R-CA), the "Clean, Learn, Educate, Abolish, and Undermine Production (CLEAN-UP) of Methamphetamines Act):
Section 305 of the CLEAN-UP Act stipulates that: "Whoever, for a commercial purpose, knowingly promotes any rave, dance, music, or other entertainment event, that takes place under circumstances where the promoter knows or reasonably ought to know that a controlled substance will be used or distributed in violation of Federal law or the law of the place where the event is held, shall be fined under title 18, United States Code, or imprisoned for not more than 9 years, or both."
Is that some scary, potentially all-inclusive language, or what? If this is the case, what happens to, say, Phish tour?"
------------------------------
do you guys think that Bonnaroo will be all sketched out like that? hrm...
|