A good reason to stop the vandalism at parties
by Mr R@t
Last weekend, a new crew tried to kick off a squat party in Urban Reading.
They'd done a few parties in conjuction with other people, but AFAIK this was
the first one they had done all for themselves, and they had put a lot of effort
into pooling equipment and getting it sorted for a good rig and light setup.
They had the party up and running, and around 01:00 The old bill arrived as
they usually do - in Reading every main street has a camera pointing at it so
you can't hide much from them.
Negotiations commenced, usual stuff - who is "running" it, what are
you doing about safety/fire exits, keep cars and people away from causing a
safety hazard on the main road. The crew had just managed to get the cops to
go on their way - when some little idiots smash a window above, showering the
cops with broken glass!
As you can appreciate, they took a very dim view of this - so now they kit
up in riot gear storm into the building with dogs and start hassling everybody.
The crew were lucky enough to manage to distance themselves from the vandals
so they didn't get their rig confiscated, but because of the damage they were
forced to stand down and pull their rig out, and the cops get the window boarded
up and the place secured again [and there were some homeless people I know who
could have used that place to live in after the party was over.]
So what did the smashers achieve? ABSOLUTELY FUCK ALL.
In fact they just cost Reading people their weekend party, and caused needless
hassle to a brand new crew of enthu-siastic young people, so all the work they
had put into the party and the money they spent was for nothing.
In the end most of the people went home pissed off whilst the remainder, instead
of having a really good party in a decent venue had to cram into the front room
of a residential squat with just a home hi-fi system where the residents were
not prepared for a party [although a previous party venue, we couldn't use it
again as the place had had an official noise abatement and had to keep telling
people to turn it down].
The Sargeant had even basically told my friend "look, if those kids hadn't
smashed the window we would have let you carry on until Sunday like we normally
do", and he even said "I know I'll see you again at the next one,
just learn from your mistakes this time!" So even the cops aren't being
that anti-party these days and are cutting the crews a fair bit of slack in
my area, but they DO have to protect peoples property and investments. Thats
what they are there for!
Another poster said his police area [Sussex] has just gone zero tolerance on
illegal parties, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Hampshire and Surrey already are
certainly less tolerant.
Even the Met has been getting heavier recently, whilst the southern part of
the Thames Valley force area remains a "safe haven" for free parties.
However, if every Monday the Duty Inspector is starting his day with irate
property owners ranting at him on the phone "those fucking rave pikeys
trashed my building, and you didn't even stop them!" - the polis aren't
going to continue being tolerant. Anyone with half a brain can see that!
Think about what happened in Reading last weekend , the next time any of you
feel like smashing a window or anything else at a party venue.
Alex
