utah

utah sucks balls ... seriously ... read this, then watch the video, it is severly fucked up ... literally gave me goosebumps watchin it ... i cant stress it enough, watch our own fuckin government at work as a facist police state ...

(all info courtesy; lord dubious of superstatus crew)

Knick of Evol intent puts the night's events into his
own words::

Last night, I was booked to play an event about an
hour outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. The hype behind
this show was huge, they presold 700 tickets and they
expected up to 3,000 people total. The promoters did
an amazing job with the show.. they even made slipmats
with the flyers on them to promote in local shops.

So, we got to the show around 11:15 or so and it was
really cool. It was all outdoors, in a valley
surrounded by huge mountains. They had an amazing
light show flashing on to a mountain behind the site,
the sound was booming, the crowd was about 1500 people
thick and everything just seemed too good to be true
really. Well...

At about 11:30 or so, I was standing behind the stage
talking with someone when I noticed a helicopter
pulling over one of the mountain tops. I jokingly said
"Oh look, here comes big brother" to the person I was
with. I wasn't far off.

The helicopter dipped lower and lower and started
shining its lights on the crowd. I was kind of in awe
and just sat and watched this thing circle us for a
minute. As I looked back towards the crowd I saw a guy
dressed in camoflauge walking by, toting an assault
rifle. At this point, everyone was fully aware of what
was going on . A few "troops" rushed the stage and cut
the sound off and started yelling that everyone "get
the fuck out of here or go to jail". This is where it
got really sticky.

No one resisted. That's for sure. They had police dogs
raiding the crowd of people and I saw a dog signal out
a guy who obviously had some drugs on him. The
soldiers attacked the guy (4 of them on 1), and kicked
him a few times in the ribs and had their knees in his
back and sides. As they were cuffing him, there was
about 1000 kids trying to leave in the backdrop,
peacefully. Next thing I know, A can of fucking TEAR
GAS is launched into the crowd. People are running and
screaming at this point. Girls are crying, guys are
cussing... bad scene.

Now, this is all I saw with my own eyes, but I heard
plenty of other accounts of the night. Now this isnt
gossip I heard from some candy raver, these are
instances cited straight out of the promoters mouth..

- One of the promoters friends (a very small female)
was attacked by one of the police dogs. As she
struggled to get away from it, the police tackled her.
3 grown men proceeded to KICK HER IN THE STOMACH.

- The police confiscated 3 video tapes in total.
People were trying to document what was happening out
there. The police saw one guy filming and ran after
him, tackled him and his camera fell, and luckily..
his friend grabbed it and ran and got away. priceless
footage. That's not all though. Out of 1,500 people,
there's sure to be more footage.

- The police were rounding up the staff of the party
and the main promoter went up to them with the permit
for the show and said "here, I have the permit." The
police then said, "no you don't" and ripped the permit
out of his hand. Then, they put an assault rifle to
his forehead and said "get the fuck out of here right
now."

Now.. let's get the facts straight here.

This event was 100% legal. They had every permit the
city told them they needed. They had a 2 MILLION
DOLLAR insurance policy for the event. They had
liscenced security guards at the gates confiscating
any alcohol or drugs found upon entry (yes, they
searched every car on the way in). Oh, I suppose I
should mention that they arrested all the security
guards for possession.

Oh another interesting fact.. the police did not have
a warrant. The owner of the land already has a lawsuit
against the city for something similar. A few months
ago, she rented her land for a party and the police
raided that as well. And catch this, the police forced
her to LEAVE HER OWN PERSONAL PROPERTY. That's right.
They didnt arrest her, but made her leave her own
property!!!

Don't get it twisted, this is all going down in
probably THE most conservative state in the USA. And
this is scary.. a gross violation of our civil
liberties. The police wanted this party shut down, so
they made it happen. Even though everything about this
event was legal. The promoters spent over $ 20,000 on
this show and did everything they had to to make it
legit, only to have it taken away from them by a group
of radical neo-con's with an agenda.

This was one of the scariest things I have ever
witnessed in person. I can't even begin to describe
how surreal it was. Helicopters, assault rifles, tear
gas, camoflauge-wearing soldiers.... why? Was that
really necessary?

This needs to be big news across the USofA. At least
in our music scene (edm as a whole)... this could
happen to any of us at any time. When we're losing the
right to gather peacefully, we're also letting the
police set a standard of what we can get away with.
And I think that's BULLSHIT!

The system fucked up last night... They broke up a
party that was 100% legal and they physically hurt a
lot of people there at the same time. The promoters
already have 6 lawsuits ready to file with their
lawyers and the ACLU is already involved.

I'm sure some pictures (and hopefully some video) will
surface soon. I'll make sure to post them up here on
404, so you can see the Police State of America at
work.

pics and vid here:
http://v2.vidman.ca/utah_rave/