peaceful hippies at local rave attacked by........

[Senor Miguel]

........bored police with nothing better to do on a saturday than dress up in riot gear and go hippie bashing! Boy what a weekend, I got the train up to essex yesterday morning for a mate's birthday party, we stopped by at a 3 day outdoor rave event on the way to try and score some drugs, walked a few miles to get there so we hung around for a bit, met some people we knew and were just catching up, it was a really nice festival atmosphere, maybe 4 or 5 rigs pumping out a bit of techno, weather was good and 500 or so crusties were making the most of it.......

anyways then we had a call from a mate in my local town (saffron walden), he told us a bunch of police were loading up at the station in vans with riot gear and getting ready to move somewhere, we'd noticed a big police presence in the area on the way and there were helicopters hovering over real low the whole time, we thought it was unlikely anything would happen as the whole thing was so peaceful, but we figured it wasn't worth hanging around so we got our drugs and left......as we walked out they were curtaining (sp?) off the whole area and not letting anyone else in, so we warned our mates who were still at the festival what was going on and went on our way.......we went past the local rozzers when we got into town and sure enough there was 11 meatwagons and a few dozen police in riot gear outside the station, it was so surreal to see all this is out in the middle of the country, the most uneventful small town dullville and they're pulling out the riot gear we got a phonecall a couple hours later from someone still at the rave saying the police had rushed over the hill in riot gear to try and shut the rigs down!......a bunch of normal people, just having a good time out in a field in the middle of nowhere, mostly kids and families but the police didn't even approach rationally they just rushed out in riot gear i mean what the fuck.......

so obviously there was a bit of resistance, the rigs were turned off and then back on again, so what was the police response? 4 more waves of police in full riot gear, now there was a few hardcore hippie ravers but the crowd was mostly adolescent youth and families there with young kids and babies, but that didn't stop them, fucking tossers, and then they started teargassing people!......i don't pay my taxes to get teargassed when I'm out having a good time, ffs what is this country turning to? the actual rave was a few miles away from any residential area so there wasn't any real disturbance, it was in its second day and growing a bit and what tipped the police off was a copule of disgruntled neighbours moaning that some people had parked all down the access roads and some in the resident spaces none of this makes any sense it's like they were all just bored and fancied some weekend overtime.......

just ranting really because i still can't believe what has happened, there's gonna be an uproar because this is such a small town and this was such an over the top reaction, i was there for a few hours and the vibe was so mellow and laidback, not your typical techno rave i suppose but it was more of a mini-festival......parents are gonna find out their children who went out camping for the weekend got attacked by police with teargas and they'll want to know what happened, apparently there's a new superintendent who's been 'cracking down on crime', i guess because there's not much crime in the first place he's resorted to cracking down on fun, i hope his head rolls for this.......and the riot police who followed the orders are just as bad, motherf**kers the lot of them. this whole country is quickly turning into the US, home of democracy and land of the free, where even some hippie civilians out in a field on a bank holiday aren't safe, what a fucking disgrace.

ETA: i've just seen it on the bbc news, i love the spin they put on it......story.

[Kermit]

You went to an illegal rave and damaged the land of another person, and the police broke it up.

*shrug*

[SuzyCreamcheese]

Fucking cunts wasting time and money breaking up something that would be over soon anyway. I dont get whats the big deal if its out in the country somewhere or not disturbing people.

[Fiend_85]

I suspect you'd think it were more of a big deal if it were your field they'd parked on without asking you.

[Kermit]

Originally Posted by Fiend_85

I suspect you'd think it were more of a big deal if it were your field they'd parked on without asking you.

Well exactly.

Poor innocent hippies trashing other people's property, and then whining like little kiddies when they get turfed off the land.

Diddums.

[Teh_Gerbil]

Peaceful Hippies injure nine police.

How peaceful.

[Disillusioned]

Originally Posted by Senor Miguel

just ranting really because i still can't believe what has happened, there's gonna be an uproar because this is such a small town and this was such an over the top reaction, i was there for a few hours and the vibe was so mellow and laidback, not your typical techno rave

Who gives a toss what the atmosphere was like? They didn't have permission to be on the land and chilled out atmosphere or not it's still trespassing and the farmland will still be damaged. What if it was your farm and your livelihood?

Originally Posted by Senor Miguel

parents are gonna find out their children who went out camping for the weekend got attacked by police with teargas and they'll want to know what happened,

Middle class parents are among the first to want the police to get tough on crime, if they don't like the consequences when their kids break the law...tough. And I wonder how many parents knew where their kids really were, more like a few kids will have been found out lying.

Originally Posted by Senor Miguel

apparently there's a new superintendent who's been 'cracking down on crime'

Great.

Originally Posted by Senor Miguel

this whole country is quickly turning into the US, home of democracy and land of the free, where even some hippie civilians out in a field on a bank holiday aren't safe, what a fucking disgrace.

What's the US got to do with this?

[VinylVicky]

I'm a big fan of outdoor parties but at the end of the day, you are on someone else's land without permission. who was going to clean up the mess after all those people had left?

[AllAmericanRageJunky]

Originally Posted by Senor Miguel

this whole country is quickly turning into the US, home of democracy and land of the free, where even some hippie civilians out in a field on a bank holiday aren't safe, what a fucking disgrace.

you leave my country the hell out of this.

[migpilot]

Nothing wrong with a bit of rule breaking and shit.
Although I do agree about the trespassing and the rubbish....

RageJunky, dunno where in Montana you are, but maybe you are close to Great Falls, there's a biggest collection of airplane models in the world there, it's on my list next time i fly over!!

[AllAmericanRageJunky]

Originally Posted by migpilot

RageJunky, dunno where in Montana you are, but maybe you are close to Great Falls, there's a biggest collection of airplane models in the world there, it's on my list next time i fly over!!

I'm in Missoula. The name Great Falls sounds familiar, it probably is somewhere within a few hours drive.

So you're into model airplanes? That's cool.

[SuzyCreamcheese]

Originally Posted by Fiend_85

I suspect you'd think it were more of a big deal if it were your field they'd parked on without asking you.

nah tbh. If it was my field id probably let them. Tbh, id probably be there myself.

[NinjaMaster]

Originally Posted by Fiend_85

I suspect you'd think it were more of a big deal if it were your field they'd parked on without asking you.

Don't see that many riot police storming travelling peoples caravans and sites?

Not that I agree with the "illegal rave" thing completly it is a bit of double standards. I've been to a few raves in my time and to be fair most of them were harmless get togethers which ended in great spirits. And we tidied up after ourselves. But to go in with full riot gear and break it up seems a bit over the top in my opinion. Why not go in and open up communications first like other situations.

[Jim V]

A thought it was a small group of police who turned up to stop the rave, then they called out the boys when they got attacked? Not that it justifies the reaction, but the police aren't ever going to back down once one of their cars has been set on fire.

[ricdiculous]

i can see it from both side, some people want a festival good, but its easy to find a farmer who will rent out a field pretty cheap for 5 days, and the police were out of order but if the hippies were really peaceful they wont have retaliated,
go raves tho'