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UK Police Raid Party After Seeing "All-Night" Tag On Facebook
An anonymous reader writes "Apparently the police like to spend their time trawling our private information on Facebook looking for criminals. 'Riot police stormed a man's 30th birthday barbecue for 15 guests because it was advertised as an "all-night" party on Facebook. Four police cars, a riot van, and a force helicopter were dispatched to a privately-owned field in a small village near Sowton, Devon in the UK on Saturday, ordering the party shut down or everyone would be arrested. The birthday barbecue was busted up before they even had a chance to plug the music in, reports the BBC. It was about 4pm when eight officers with camouflage pants and body armor jumped out of their vehicles and ordered everyone out about an hour into the party.' The event's organizer, Andrew Poole, said, 'The police had full-on camouflage trousers on and body-armour, it was ridiculous. There were also several plain-clothes officers as well ... they kept on insisting it has been advertised it as an all-night rave on the internet. The times on it were put as "overnight" in case people wanted to sleep-over, but after being explained this they were still banging on saying it was advertised on the internet. They wouldn't accept it wasn't a rave. It was in a completely isolated field.'"
I guess everyone should put all night party tags on their Facebook pages tomorrow night.
Cool! Amazing Toys.
Instead of keeping people you know to possibly be intoxicated confined to an event all night where they can only do harm to themselves (if even), let's break these gatherings up so some of these people get intoxicated elsewhere, and have to drive home early.
Raving is not a crime.
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
Somehow I find the fact that the U.K. utilizes their police force just as disproportionately to minor situations as the U.S. does.
If other nations are crazy that means that we're normal by default, right?
Must suck for those guys to live in a police state. Man am i ever glad to live in a free an democratic country.
Oh, wait...
Did the owner of the field give informed consent for the gathering? If so, then the police had no business being there. Apologies are almost certainly in order.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
What's worse, even if it was a "rave" (*gag*) it technically shouldn't have been illegal. While ravers and raves are probably one of humanity's least finest inventions there's nothing inherently wrong with listening and dancing to shitty techno (a redundancy?), waving around glowsticks like a fruitcake, and taking a drug that hurts no one 'cept yourself. Ravers in all their idiocy are like modern retardo hippies; it's not like raves are an assembly of violent people. The root of this all is the War on Drugs.
So it's doubly-wrong.
(sorry for any possible ravers that read this, 'though I suspect most ravers don't know how to read)
Raves are illegal in the UK? Amazing.
The eternal struggle of good vs. evil begins within one's self.
'Had it gone ahead, it is likely that far more of our resources would have been used to police the event and there would have been considerable disruption to neighbouring properties.
That's from a spokeswoman of the police there.
I mean seriously, you're gonna say that because it's easier to make people stop doing something that you have suspicion it might be illegal it's better to mess up a tax paying citizen's freedom?
To loosely quote Sam Vimes of Discworld, "It's better to say we caught the guy what done it instead of saying we caught the guy who looked like he'd do it. Especially when they say, Prove it."
Also...
'It was fortunate that the force helicopter was able to fly over the site as they were returning from another task.'
Really. In the same article the spokewoman says that it cost them 200 pounds to deploy the helicopter for 20 minutes. The birthday boy spent 800 pounds to get his party RUINED by the police. Fuck you guys, seriously. What the fuck.
does anyone know if this dude can get payback legally in any form? (and by payback i mean something like getting the entire police force fired or something...)
weinersmith
... we had to break away from their empire. If this had been the Roman Empire, the cops would have joined the party.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
How rude, people show up, not invited, for a party and there's no party. It's quite obvious that it was a slow day at #10 Downing, and so someone said, "hay! I know were a party is, let's go crash it!". I guess they just forgot that when you crash a party, it's helpful to bring some drugs, and booze. Of course there's the other aspect, someone at #10 Downing gets paid to surf Facebook. Nasty people, those Facebook users are. I wonder how much law enforcement training is required to break and enter into someone else's secured Facebook enviornment, how ever lightly secured. But hay, cops can hardly be expected to Actually abide the laws they have to enforce. They're under so much pressure, and they know how to break the law so that no one gets hurt. We should all just look the other way? But wait! It's all to save the children!
Frankly I am old enough and bitter enough to just want kids like that off my lawn, my neighboors lawn, and if they are loud enough, the field next to it as well for that matter.
From BBC news - "But local people, fearing a rave was going to take place after previous events with loud music at the same premises, alerted the police."
In other words, this bunch were notorious around town for partying all through the night, playing loud music and generally being a pain in the ass to everybody else. They may have been just barbequeing when the police showed up, but the locals knew what was comming and decided enough was enough.
"Honestly, what's the justification for this nonsense?"
"War on drugs" ring any bells? - it's a euphemisim for oppression.
High ranking police all over the planet have built beuracratic kingdoms around the idiotic idea of declaring war on a social problem. In the US where this moronic idea came from it costs $100 billion/year to police just pot alone, yes $100 BILLION every YEAR just to stop people smoking pot. $10 billion of that goes directly to the DEA who LOBBY legislatures to keep the status quo. One american is arrested and has their life ruined every 18 seconds just for smoking pot. UK, Australia, etc, are no different.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Because you're old, everyone should be old!
Yeah, I have neighbors who do the whole "BBQ" thing. They like to stay up "barbecuing" until about 4:30 a.m., and one of them in particular likes to rap an entire song's worth of memorized rap lyrics in a loud monotone for several minutes at a time.
Now, I don't want camouflaged police showing up, but when I call the cops and these guys demand to know "which neighbor was it?" and STILL don't shut up after the cops are gone, I have to think that somebody with a Facebook account and a field is probably driving his neighbors FREAKING insane.
Thank goodness for my linux box and synths that can play a nice loud PSHHHHHHTTTT sound, brown or pink as you like it. (Had to work linux in there somehow)
This behavior of law enforcement must be punished. Send the gun monkeys to the projects or Afghanastan if they prefer gunfire. But for God's sake, keep these dim wits out of the social networking and online porn because when it mixes with their testosterone and weightlifting they start to act like criminals and thugs. Maybe we can even let them go coach rugby instead, since its a total waste of tax dollars to have them storm trooping facebook parties. The idiots never even figured out that the really "cool" and "hip" and "happening" kids all RUN CIRCLES AROUND THESE BABOONS so they might as well just give it up. The day they actually get an invitation to a rave BEFORE its a bunch of losers is the day the kids find another way to get viral. Sorry thrugs, cheerleaders still don't wan't you around clunking heads, so why not just get a clue and FIGHT CRIME LIKE YOUR OWN INVASION OF PRIVACY. YOU ARE NOT WELCOME WITH YOUR PUNITIVE ATTITUDES AND IMPOTENT LITTLE MINDS. If Police can't exercise common decency and intelligence then we shall pass LAWS that spell it out for them. Job security is not earned by acting like morons. We need to BUST bad behavior from the public servants that we PAY. Unfortunately, the State is run by a bunch of Government Employees.....
The GP was suggesting everyone put "party in Sowton" (the town from TFA) regardless of the what the event is or the actual location.
We kicked your government out of our country some 200+ years ago, maybe it's time you guys followed suit?
Love,
The United States of America
...the wtfbbq tag would have been more appropriate :/
Remember, remember that Diesel commercial:
"If we put all (30-year) young people in jail today, we will have no criminals tomorrow!"
private information on Facebook
Idiots think putting information on internet is private.....
He'd rented a sound system for 17 friends in a field? Well, I'm not going to judge before all the facts are in, but it seems a little excessive. And considering that local residents had complained about raves in the area before, it seems a little suspect.
However, the fact that the police shut down the party before they had anything more than suspicion is still wrong, I think. If they had the guys assurances that it wasn't a rave, wouldn't it have been enough just to send someone back at 8PM and someone at midnight?
www.eissq.com/BandP.html Ball and Plate System. Amuse your friends. Crush your enemies.
This garbage really pisses me off. The next time one of you whiny little maggots start crying about how some criminal got off the hook and you start to say "We should have 'tougher laws' to fix this", think about this story... this is what "tougher laws" get you... a super uptight nit-picking police force that busts up a RUTTIN' BIRTHDAY PARTY because it used the "wrong words" in the invitation.
Probably arrested under the Criminal Justice Bill.
I went on two London marches to fight against this bill 15 years ago. They were determined to stop us having free parties, "Illegal Raves" as the media called them. No conveys of more than 6 cars, no parties in fields, no freedom to enjoy life without corporate involvement. In my eyes, this is where CCTV Britain started. This was the start of anti-social laws. The nanny state.
These parties still go on though. Fuck the police.
This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
Is this one of those "England Prevails" moments? Or a "God save the Queen" one? I'm confused.
| ... private information on Facebook ...
Are you new to the internet? Since when is anything posted on facebook "private"??
Facebook == Baitbook It time to stand up and take the fight to them, these idiots have restricted are liberty for long enough.
read that again... breathe... there.... you got it, champ.
step one to being a successful "criminal": don't advertize whatever illegal stuff you're going to do...
and no, facebook is not private...
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
This is what happens when you throw money at police to "fight crime" (drugs, prostitution, violence, whatever) and then tie their hands in apprehending criminals (eg. violence, coercion, and so on). The police get bored and start going after stupid things like this, while the rates for violent crime sky-rocket (as they have in Britain since the 1980s).
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
No, it would be a rather vague blunkett authorisation (most spellings intentional ;-} though this section may already have been on the statute books in 2001) to crack down even on non-disturbing events, as that definition alone matches pretty much any playback of all but the most experimental recordings.
However, the respective section "applies to a gathering on land in the open air of 100 or more persons (whether or not trespassers)" and continues regarding the music "(with or without intermissions) and is such as, by reason of its loudness and duration and the time at which it is played, is likely to cause serious distress to the inhabitants of the locality".
Does not exactly look like the definition of an average birthday party, no matter whether the "kids'" friends were invited by way of (as opposed to the event being advertised on) the apparently suspicion-generating Evilnet.
1) The police didn't scour facebook - locals did, saw it, and reported it as a rave.
2) The helicopter was out anyway, and they just asked the helicopter to fly over the site to really check if there was a party on its way back
It was not police scouring facebook and dispatching a helicopter.
It embarrasses and annoys me that this happened in my own country, which I do love dearly, but I wont let the usual anti-UK/US/Australia facebook crowd exaggerate it further.
You see a lot of kiddies complaining along the lines of "a rave shouldn't be illegal". But in britain, it is. Yes, really. Not concerts or parties, but raves.
The reasons are probably that overtime raves became a problem for some and they wanted something done against them. The other side was not intrested in fighting it and so things got passed into law and voila, you got a specific type of party made illegal.
England, believe it or not is still democracy. More so now then in the last couple of decades because it is no longer ensured who is going to win an election in a region. Safe seats aren't that safe anymore.
If YOU don't fight for your rights, then someone else wins with their rights. The problem with raves is simple, it is the struggle between the neighbours who want a quiet night and the party people who don't. Both have rights but they can't both excersise them fully without restricting the other.
So either the ravers turn down the music or the neighbours give up their quiet night. Ideally, both sides should work this out but as you can see on this side, working things out ain't part of human nature. The anti rave laws have come into being to deal with "illegal" events being held at random location with absolutely no care being given for the consequences. This doesn't just upset the neighbours, it upsets others in the entertainment industry. Not entirely fair is it that a local pub has to spend a fortune on sound isolation but a random group can just hold a rave anywhere, break every law that exists, not pay taxes and get away with it?
The law didn't come into place because YOU played techno in your yard and the neighbour complained. It came into being from 1000+ parties being held in location with no fire safety, no securty, causing serious disturbances. Not just noise, but traffic and things like fights breaking out.
The ravers suffered the public wrath and did NOT regulate themselves to fit into society. Of course, that is not a rebel thing to do but it is the thing to do if you don't want society to turn against you. Because as silly as this story is, the average voter (that is people who actually do vote, not just people who can vote) doesn't give a shit. They just see the tabloids depiction of ravers as crazed druggies, heared from someone at work how a rave is a warzone and are all in favor.
Democracy is just another word for dictatorship of the many. The raves that got out of control created these laws, which weren't oppososed by the ravers themselves and now you got this silly situation.
Most laws are silly, but exist because people are silly. If a lot of rave parties didn't cause such a nuisance (you could hold a rave party the same as any other concert and follow laws of fire safety, drugs laws and noise pollution) then there would be no desire to have them restricted. There are laws that says you can't drill into your wall after or before a specific hour in a building that isn't standalone. Why? Because someone found it neccesary to drill all night in an apartment block. Well not SOMEONE. A LOT of someone's. The apartment block is actually a good example, an old flat might easily have several hundred of apartments and drilling in one sound through the entire building. If a person only drill once every 3 years, it takes less then 1000 people to have drilling going on day in day out.
That is the reason there are rave laws and lots of others. Because without them people just can't be consider the affect their action have on others.
Want to protest that? Then don't say "it shouldn't be illegal". You should made sure when the laws were introduced that it didn't become illegal by doing the same thing the petitioners did. Make your case and show that YOUR case benefits the greater good (gets the most people to vote for you).
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I hope the mind police don't read your post, you'll give them ideas.
One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces. - PF
private information? what kind of retard thinks facebook is private?
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
There's no need to use your slashdot account.
How about this: some people say to the police that they've seen you selling small packs of what looks like heroin or something to people in your house, since the packet was seen in a pocket of someone leaving your house.
Police raid at 2am.
They can break it up if they want to
They can leave your friends behind
'Cause your friends can rave and if they rave
Well they're no friends of them
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1200310/Police-raid-30th-birthday-barbecue-man-used-Facebook-invite-friends.html http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1686735360/nm0000246
Rather than busting a rave, did they just stumble upon the secret shooting of Die Hard 5 ?
Since Thatcher took exception to the actual all-night raves that went on in the early nineties. ...
Mrs Thatcher had been out of power for 4 years when that bill went through Parliament.
Guess you were too busy popping pills at those all night parties to notice though ;P
Check this - in the USA they use police that look like the military, the whole guns and armour thing to break up their parties... so looks like its the same both sides of the pond.
Until a male member of the family arrives with the 'handshake' :)
Careful around any of the Forward Intelligence Teams.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forward_Intelligence_Team
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/21/fit-watch-police-surveillance-val-swain-emily-apple-arrests
Also interesting to see the instant pickup on Facebook ect.
Guess the UK has learned from Egypt when it comes to "web 2.0" and the end 'users'
http://observers.france24.com/en/content/20080729-paranoid-police-brutality-arrest-facebook-users-egypt
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Thatcher did this, four years after she left office the prime minister's office (1990), and two years after she left parliament (1992)?
Really? Because everyone else is blaming a 1994 law. John Major (1990-1997), also of the conservative party, was the prime minister when this law passed, but you don't even mention him. Tony Blair took the reins in 1997.
Perhaps with all the citations and links you could have at least made sure your leading claim lined up with some dates. All your grand ideas about 'government approved this' and 'capitalist that' seemed like the drug-induced foggy ravings of someone who doesn't even have their dates right.
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
My first thought was has there been a breach of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 which restricts the sort of information the police can access without a warrant. If the people had just advertised the party to their friends on facebook then I suspect it become the sort of info the police would need a warrant to access. I seem to recal that the police can't just get warrents to speculative crawl for this information unless they have details of a specific crime that may be committed.
I took a few minuites for my parinoia to subdue when I realised that they had probably listed it as a public all night party event. Which the whole world, its mother and the police can happily look through.
There are four sorts of people in the world: fools, lunatics, idiots and morons. - Umberto Eco, Foucaut's pendulum.
While its true that recent governments seem to have lost a sense of what is "reasonable fun" I think that is only part of it. With the UKs increasing population and the decreasing cost of amplifiers part of the issue is that parties are now loud enough and frequent enough to disturb far more people than before.
What troubles me more with this is not that the police turned up in force (everyone makes mistakes) but that they persisted in shutting down the party once it was explained to them what was happening. What happened to reasonable policing and a little trust? Take the guy's details if needed and if it did turn into a rave then at least you would know who was responsible. The police are supposed to use discretion when using their powers. Examples like this make us remove and restrict those police powers and that means that when they really do need them they won't have them available.
Some guy posted an event on Facebook to have a drink on a public square here in Ghent (Belgium). The event was marked as 'open', and on the proposed evening, not really expected, hundreds of people showed up on the square with bottles of booze.
The reaction of the mayor wasn't to break up the party, but instead to send a team to place extra garbage bins and a handful of cops to keep an eye on things. They looked up the original poster of the event, had a talk with the guy and eventually even dropped their idea of charging him for the extra costs and paid it with city money.
Gave a good feeling that there are still governments left with a sense of humor.
she'd better get her alibi ready.
Winkey shortcut mapping for 64bit windows. WinKeyPlus
Just though of Minority Report with people being busted before the crime is committed... the precogs must still be in training and aren't fully functional yet.
Hi,
I've seen the helicopter thing happen in Germany. It was a small Goa party about two years ago; about 70 people partying on an isolated field. A police helicopter was hovering over the party for a longer while. Police were around the site (but not on the actual party - it was on private property), watching the party with binoculars. Yet they allowed the party to go on until Sunday afternoon, and took no action, except for drug-checking drivers leaving the site (they busted a few - fine with me, partying is one thing, but driving drugged is another).
bye,
Till
good shit....
fucking losers that have 2 ask people "on the net" 2 come 2 a party
nice 2 see everyone is against the cops....
maybe they are just picking on fuckholes that need "net friends"
love how people bag them out......
hope they dont respond to you when your arse is getting kicked by someone
nothing like having a Bill of Rights to keep you protected at times like this. Oh, wait.... you UK folks need to get ON that !
It became illegal about 15 years ago - from TFA, it states Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. This basically criminalised raves (which at the time were being demonised from hysteria and moral panicing from the tabloids and the politicians), even if they are held on legal ground.
AFAICT, it criminalises any gathering of over 100 people in a public place where music is played (defined infamously as "sounds wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats"), unless they have obtained the appropriate entertainment licence, but furthermore, any it allows the police to disperse any gathering of 2 or more people if the police think they're preparing a rave, or 10 or more people if the police think they're waiting for a rave.
No evidence, no courts, no right to appeal.
Of course, the police deserve criticism for applying the law in a case that was clearly not in its original spirit, but let's not remember the law they used to do it is broad and draconian. The worrying thing is that the police haven't backed down and acknowledged it as a mistake - they still believe that anything advertised on the Internet as an "all-night party" should be illegal. What is this, a curfew? Telling us when bed time is? Talk about nanny-state - it's like the strict rules my college used to have about parties, where you needed permission, and parties had to be over by midnight.
From TFA, the polic: "far more resources would have been used to police the event". In my experience of Cambridge's Strawberry Fair, these resources would predominantly have involved the police doing a fishing expedition in order to catch people with cannabis on them (I experienced this first hand when travelling through Cambridge Train Station that day - even though I wasn't going to the fair, every single person getting off the train that day was detained for about 30 minutes for stop and search for drugs).
On one hand, we have a government that is entirely too willing to "Control and Defend" (what ever happened to "serve and protect"?) and on the other hand, we have short-sighted people who are all too willing to request and expect such things from government.
It was "the locals" who contacted the authorities to have this birthday party cancelled according to the articles. (I wonder how much we can trust the articles to actually be telling the truth in this matter?) If this is true, then "we have only ourselves to blame" in that we are begging government to protect us from just about everything.
No amount of any single thing will back this problem out. Soccer moms and elderly don't give a rat's ass about freedom and self expression. They want the world to change for them, not the other way around. And I have to admit that I have my own "the world offends me" perspective from time to time... especially when I am driving and the person in the passing lane is moving too slow and I get blocked in by two or more drivers who don't seem to notice or care that they are impeding traffic. (There are those moments when I actually wish I could slap a police light on my car, whip out a badge and a gun and get crazy on their asses... but at just about that moment, I remember that this is exactly why I don't own any guns -- I might use them! And frankly, I know I'd have much to regret if I ever did.) I can identify with the world offending me in any case, but here's what I do about it:
I try, as often as possible, that in order to protect my own rights, I have to make allowances for and respect the rights of others and that [especially] includes the right to be DIFFERENT. I think that somehow, the world of people at large has forgotten that when you try to take the rights of "some people" away, you invariably harm the rights of ALL people. Perhaps I am showing my age, but there was a time when we taught this sort of wisdom in schools... civics or social studies... not sure what they might be called today, but it seems pretty obvious to me that people of my age, older and younger either never had such classes or didn't learn from them.
But here I sit with a real problem. Because I am in the clear minority in this position as are many slashdotters who probably agree with me. On this issue, the need to see that rights are to be protected and respected for ALL or NONE, I am a member of a minority group. The rest of the people don't understand or even care about their rights and freedoms. I want the world to change for me... but really, for us all... but primarily, for me.
You missed subsection 2, which covers:
two or more persons are making preparations for the holding there of a gathering to which this section applies,
ten or more persons are waiting for such a gathering to begin there,
It doesn't matter whether they really were preparing for a rave, only that a "superintendent reasonably believes" it. This is a typical theme with both the Conservative and Labour Governments - it's no longer about being guilty or innocent, instead the grant powers to criminalise everyone, and let the police choose who to use it against.
You should read a bit of history, matey. "Never had any kind of revolution or defining moment"... "never had to struggle to get (freedom and liberty)"....
Take a bit of time out to read some history and you might find out why you've got the right to vote, what habeus corpus is, why we we're allowed to move from parish to parish without getting permission from our lords and a whole lot more.
f the party is too loud, I'm quite sure there would be existing laws on the books to deal with tha
You'd think so, but the police don't want to know.They refer complaints to the local authority (the council) to progress under environmental health regulations. Which they'll do in their own, good, time - i.e. 9 - 5. Monday to Friday (but not national holidays).
Ask youself: when was they last time someone held a noisy party at those times.
As it is, the original story - from which this Slashdot thread was started has since been modified to give a more balanced view. It turns out that the party-giveer had been the subject of many complaints for previous, noisy parties and it was the prospect of another one, rather than the police scanning Facebook (as if they would know how to do that!) that brought about a complaint from locals which resulted int hepolice presence. However, that doesn't make such a juicy story - guaranteed to picque the sensibilities of a group who would love to see the cops ridiculded for OTT reactions. While they should be, I'm firmly of the view that this should only be done when there has been a genuine instance of brutality, stupidity, insensitivity or negligence. While this is not one of those, there are still far too many real cases there the police overstep the mark.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
You RTFA. Whilst the locals may have also reported it, the police made it clear that:
"On this occasion, we were extremely concerned how the event had been advertised on the internet as an all-night party and it was therefore necessary to take the appropriate steps."
It's unclear what happened first - perhaps it was reported, then they searched for it, or perhaps both happened coincidentally, but the articles linked, and many other media sources, are reporting the Facebook angle here.
The Register also use the word "dispatched", so blame them if you like - it's not a problem of not RTFA (the only one who didn't read the article is you). The BBC use the word "deployed". I'd argue that both terms are accurate, even if the helicopter had also been on a previous job. Note that it still cost the police £200, so your comment is misleading to suggest that the helicopter merely looked as it was passing back on a normal route. The police still had to divert resources of the helicopter, at a cost of £200, so "dispatch" is perfectly reasonable.
The process was started before she left retard.
Kinda like how we still live with crap Reagan introduced many years ago.
It has nothing to do with drugs. This is Slashdot where people make all sorts of wild claims, regardless of facts.
...how this is even close to be thinkable as being legal?
I mean, in simple words: Who is the one who got hurt here?
Because if nobody is, and nobody could be, then this whole thing by itself is illegal. (Because the police clearly wrecked the night for those 15 people.)
The UK gets more and more like 1984. Raids before a "crime" even happened. Surveillance. Harrassment by the police. Etc, etc, etc.
And apparently, the threshold for real riots because of this, is far from reached, is it?
How far are you from a revolution up there? (Remember to not let your feeling on this be influenced by the "they are stronger" fear. Because in fact you are always at least ten times more people, and not only therefore always stronger.)
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
I think everyone misses the point that no law is impossible to change or remove.
So blaming John Major even after Blair elected and did nothing about it doesn't make any sense.
I would be just like Obama, keeping Guantanamo open even with more torture and blaming W. Bush for Guantanamo while he can easily close it down. (which he did or something)
are defined by this very same section as quoted in the grandparent.
I.e. to paraphrase, to be a rave by law it has to be "something big" or to look like "something big brewing"...
How could any superintendent "reasonably believe" that a 100+ attendance for playing distressingly loud music is imminent at the sight of a BBQ-munching dozen seeking shelter from the rain and offering to hand over the power cord just to finish their burgers?
(Reason in English law at least is a term of art, making disproportionate crackdowns illegal. TINLA YMMV)
You don't need to make up story. He spoke about "boiling teenagers in oil" , call the police and say you read a guy talking about boiling teenagers in oil "in an hackers forum".
If they come to his house and land a helicopter on his lawn, he will remember this message.
BTW, I am not joking. It may actually happen as I know how police mind works. There is a low rank police friend of mine which I joke as "rescue me from police station" each time I call. Guy knows me for 30 years and every single fscking time, he asks "What did you do again?". Notice the "again" part!
Used a rave as an excuse to bring in truckloads of National Guard, SWAT and local police with helicopters and tear gas as a training exercise against a rave in Utah.
Sometimes I don't even think this is ecstasy hysteria. Sometimes it seems like echoes beyond the singularity of the defense forces of the anglo world in service to the RIAA keeping ears safe from the competition of Euro-trance.
http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/news/Sowton-party-man-s-anger-police/article-1171221-detail/article.html
Man, they are really taking this obesity crisis seriously!
Ugh. Next you are going to insist that Thatcher was all for raves ....
The fact that the law was passed four years after her departure does not mean that the anti-rave hysteria was not initiated during her reign and that it was quite compatible with Thatcherite ideology, whereby anything involving large numbers of people coordinating for some common elite-unsanctioned (and/or unprofitable for the elites) goal was to be immediately terminated with extreme prejudice. Her sentiments were quite obvious. See also under: "poll tax".
The fact that the subsequent governments perpetuated the core elements of her ideology and kept descending ever more deeply into the filth that is the "neo-liberal" ideology, finally culminating with the UK turning into the Elite-friendly Police Surveillance State it is now, never you mind the Iraq fiasco, does not take away from her leading involvement in the matter.
Forget whether all night parties/raves are/should be illegal... forget whether the police overreacted... Whoever wrote that reading something on a Facebook is "trawling for our private information" is a twit. This is 2009. When will people learn that NOTHING on the web private? That's ESPECIALLY true of a social networking site--the whole purpose of which is to put yourself out there where other people can get to know you! You want to keep your party private? Don't #(*^%@ advertise it on Facebook! Seriously, people, this is internet 101. Okay, rant over.
What about swords, big sticks (like you said), knives, daggers, shovels, bats, hammers, sledge hammers, trucks, hell you can make a weapon out of just about anything given enough imagination.
:)
And even if the cops did have guns or tear gas or whatever, I'd like to see them stop a speeding truck at them. Hell that just gave me an idea, molotovs those would be a bit hard to stop too.
Why is common sense called that if it's not common?
Video of British police breaking up a party due to excessive music. The incident occurs at around the 55 second mark.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
If I was the farmer who owns the field I'd be happy with good job the police did. You townsfolk do not realise what damage such party can do. Just imagine lots of rubbish left by lot of drunk people on that the field. The party goers didn't think about harm that they could cause by that to farmer's animals and the amount of money and work required to repair the damage to the field.
There, fixed that for you, /..
Good grief!
I think making sure a rave is safe is a good idea, after what happened to the people with the lasers a while back, but otherwise, what's the harm?
NONE, ZERO, NADA.
Between the US and UK, what the fuck is going on?
Blogging because I can...
Time to fire up the theremin, we're gonna party!
FrankN
I smell a complain about the police, and a lawsuit coming in UK.
Protip: If you put it on facebook, it's not private. Fucking idiot.
I can't imagine why this AC got modded troll. TSA sez:
Apparently the police like to spend their time trawling our private information on Facebook looking for criminals.
And... well, if you put it on Facebook, it's not private. I dunno the laws regarding fighting for your right to party in Merrie England, but by no stretch can the announcement be considered private.
I don't have , and I'll never have a facebook account. But a private event invitation sent via facebook, shoudn't be private ? I know, facebook != privacy. But it will be the same thing , if I sent 30 invitations email for my birthday party? Even I don't care if everyone in the world knows that I plan a party. But come on, if the police can find the party with facebook tag "all-night" , they are able to read that's just a BBQ party. And their was only 15 guest that accept the invitation. Ok let do a event : A traffic jam party: more than 100 person, music ( I'm sure that at least one person listen music in his car), etc.
Yup, this has happened in the USA before in 2007. This isn't limited to the UK.
Police raided a gay bar in Texas, on the basis of public intoxication...on the very anniversary of the police raiding a gaybar in New York! One of them is even in the hospital because 'his brain is bleeding'.
I shit you not sir.
A problem we have here in Washington is something like 5000 people a year die of drug over doses. Much of the time, someone could of called it in but were afraid of being prosecuted for the drugs (heroin and meth usually). Members of our legislature are trying to make it so only people who provide or sell the drugs can be prosecuted.
Process is important.
MAN has birthday party plans.
(Zelaya dreams of 2nd term is president of Honduras.)
Man POSTS plans to the internet via webpage.
(Zelaya calls for nonbinding public referendum on presidential term.)
Someone (or something) surveils the internet.
( Honduran power-elite get nervous.)
MISINTERPRETED information leads to incorrect assessment.
(International press speculates wildly.)
PLANS are made to preempt the 'illegal' activity without investigation or corroboration.
(Mistakes were made.)
Lack of care or concern on the part of LAW ENFORCEMENT officials OVERREACTS with improper use of force.
(Michelletti led opposition order Zelaya's removal.)
Man PO'd
(Zelaya in embarassed before the world in his pajamas.)
Press Contacted
(The UN is petitioned.)
'Story' written & posted
(Zelaya address the OAS & UN)
(to be continued) ...)
(again, & again, & again
--- Scott McNealy was pimping when he said, "Get over it."---
"Apparently the police like to spend their time trawling our private information on Facebook looking for criminals"... I always thought that if it was on Facebook, it wasn't "private"... Be careful what you post, people...
Thought-crime.
Arrest people before anything happens.
What a splendid idea.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panther_Party
"The BPP sought to oppose police brutality through neighborhood patrols (an approach since adopted by groups such as Copwatch). Police officers were often followed by armed Black Panthers who sought at times to aid African-Americans who were alleged victims of police brutality and perceived racial prejudice. Both Panthers and police died as a result of violent confrontations. By 1970, 34 Panthers had died as a result of police raids, shoot-outs and internal conflict.[29] Various police organizations claim the Black Panthers were responsible for the deaths of at least 15 law enforcement officers and the injuries of dozens more. During those years, juries found several BPP members guilty of violent crimes"
Parties are way more important to people's life than political rallies, and closing down the social life for a group of people is serious harassment.
Political rallies are only held for cameras these days. Real political activity happens in the media and the internet.
I love how as time passes on the number of people we are allowed to know in real life is continuously degraded while the number of people we hear of and speak to online continually increases. We as people are no longer allowed to exist with one another peacefully when the government imposes laws ordering us to stay confined to a set number of friends. Any large gathering of people no matter how peaceful the majority are will have it's troubles and it ultimately leads to the police imposing restrictions on the entire group as a whole. So we turn to the internet and only see real life people during forced events(work, school, military, family gatherings) and this begins to associate the real world with events that are not our choosing and the internet is associated with a life of openness and choice.
.
Then we have reports on TV about how your children are addicted to the internet(guess what, you're addicted to the TV and all of it's bullshit drama) and we wonder why? On the internet you can have as many friends as you like and you are never hassled by officials. You are free to speak your mind in most cases relatively free from harm or backlash from anyone besides some anonymous loser.
.
We are continuously scared of the real world from television news and shielded from outside influences as children, then grow up in a world where we are not supposed to congregate with more than a few people unless you are extremely wealthy, at a workplace or working for the government and we wonder why our society has gone so anti-social?
.
Granted this can not be said for everybody everywhere, but it generally stands that when you're hanging out with a very large group of friends at a private residence you are worried about it getting broken up.
>> trawling our private information on Facebook
"advertised" on a social networking site hardly qualifies as "private information".
1 in 4 Maine children in struggle with hunger.
I wonder how many fatcat "royals" and other assorted aristocratic doffuses attending soirées where music is played that the cops there have gone and busted up? I am guessing maybe around zero or close to that.
"oh, beg pardon your royal duchess, but you didn't receive the proper assembly and entertainment permit, sorry, this £million sweet sixteen birthday party is now over"
Maybe I am wrong though, maybe they do that there. uh huh
>> ... the police like to spend their time trawling our private information on Facebook...
Some poor sod posts something on a public site and expects it to be private?
What's wrong with this picture?
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
Anyone who expects privacy on someone else's public web site is a fool.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
What I don't understand is... what's the problem with a rave party? Doesn't the police have anything to do? Like catching criminals or something like this?
I don't see any problem with a few hundred people dancing and having fun together. Isn't it what the fucking life is for? To have some fun.. to actually LIVE A BIT?
People are cattle... not more for the whole bunch of idiotic politicians and their stupid cops who obviously don't see a need to use a brain anymore.
shitty techno (a redundancy?)
http://xkcd.com/411/
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
Uhhhh, sorry if this is dumb, but... WTF?! Was there a threat to UK national security? Have the Brits gone completely bonkers? I don't understand. What happened to "Just don't frighten the horses?"
``Tension, apprehension & dissension have begun!'' - Duffy Wyg&, in Alfred Bester's _The Demolished Man_
Thats why the prodigy album bagged the cops and they should be bagged, they are like the SS in .de.
Might as well advertise alldayparty ie all 24hr day party, or full earth rotation party.
or a 90% night party.
a good way btw to throw the dogs off, is to flood the train with water laced with pot residue.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
the uk electorate are sheep, they take no notice of politics and hang on every word the tabloids spew out. Then they elect politicians for the tribe they represent. The politicians then defend any policy they put in place be saying but people voted for us.
They do not point out that after the Thatcher era (I include major) we would have voted Hitler in to get rid of them, we are about to see the same again with zanulabour of course in the aftermath of a torie victory up and down the country the sheep will bleat.
Bhaa Bhaa ... and so it go on with the same groups in power and the sheep doing as they are told
Apparently the police force in England has nothing better to do with their time than to surf facebook and then WASTE a significant amount of funding in a pyrrhic show of law "enforcement:?
This is a classic example of how New Labour have given the police the power to make up the law as they go along.
I'm not really concerned that LEA is mining social web sites for intelligence.
What's really concerns me here is the lack of accountability for incompetence demonstrated here. Yes, I expect there to be disciplinary action taken but I fear it's no more than a statement in their next performance review. Here on the far side of the pond, if search and rescue is called out for me (even if I'm not lost) I get billed for the event. These bills can be tens of thousands of dollars. Perhaps we should start billing incompetent officers for the cost of their mistakes. Yes there needs to be due process and perhaps officers that get a warrant from the courts before making these raids can be indemnified.
<RANT>
Frankly, I sick of hearing about the increasing cost of incompetence being dismissed as cost of doing law enforcement. I'm sick of off duty cops writing some kid a ticket for spitting on the sidewalk so he can put in for 4 hours of overtime he didn't work ( yes this really happens, ask a retired cop ). I'm sick of the men in blue being more concerned about the image of being right than they are about being correct. Perhaps counting convictions is the wrong performance metric?
</RANT>
Could someone please respond? I think this is an unfair modification.
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
Does your Department Of Justice, a federal department, include state money spent? Inquiring minds want to know. I want to know.
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
Adding them all together, it still doesn't reach $100B.