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Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009
Why did Utah police this summer storm a harmless and legal rave with guns and dogs, terrorizing partygoers? You don't see them busting down the gates at NASCAR races or concerts by Crosby, Stills and Nash.
Sep 26, 2005 | Close to midnight on a Saturday evening late this summer, a police helicopter crested over a ridge in a desert canyon near Salt Lake City, descended into a low hover over a private ranch, and lit up the area with floodlights. Below, about 1,000 young people were dancing to electronic music at a legal, long-planned rave. They had no idea the police in the sky were armed to teeth and had them surrounded.
Suddenly, cops on the ground stormed in to stop the whole thing. About 90 uniformed officers, equipped with guns, dogs, Tasers and tear gas, marched like a conquering army into the crowd. They shut off the music and ordered people to leave; anyone who gave them trouble -- anyone who merely asked what was going on -- was dealt with harshly. People in the crowd reported being brutalized, terrorized with guns, dogs and other weapons. A two-minute video of the event shot by a videographer named Jeff Coombs shows officers surrounding selected members of the crowd, forcefully pushing them to the ground, and arresting them.
Raves have been a cultural phenomenon for more than a decade. The high-energy dance parties, both organized and improvised, have taken place in countless places -- clubs, warehouses, rooftops, ranches -- across the country without incident. Yet raves clearly upset something in rural Utah. Utah County Sheriff James Tracy says he broke up the rave to stop rampant drug use, sexual abuse and dangerous health conditions. But in the month since the raid, details have emerged in interviews with attendees, in press reports and in court that vindicate the ravers and paint a disturbing picture of excessive police force.
In August, rave organizer Brandon Fullmer filed suit against Tracy, asking a federal court to prevent the Utah County sheriff and other officials from closing down any future legal raves. But despite his outrage over the sheriff's actions -- and the larger outrage in the world beyond Utah -- it now appears that the authorities in the county will face no trouble for the raid. County officials have sided with Tracy and on Thursday a federal judge in Salt Lake City denied the rave promoters' demand to enjoin the sheriff from closing down any future legal raves in Utah County.
"The sheriff has essentially said that we don't want these kinds of concerts in our county," says Brian Barnard, Fullmer's attorney. "They don't want concerts for young people in our county -- they don't want electronic music, kids hanging out all night long. It's a prejudice and a fear of young people."
Folks uninitiated in the rave scene will be surprised by the logistical complexities involved in putting on an all-night dance party for a couple thousand people. A good rave with popular DJs and a great sound system requires the kind of planning and attention to detail that would do a White House advance team proud. This is the sort of rave that Fullmer, a record-store manager and veteran Salt Lake City party promoter, began planning in April, four months before the event was to be held.
Fullmer, who says he has put on more than 100 parties during the past decade, thought of everything. The venue he chose for his Aug. 20 rave, a 350-acre parcel of land owned by local ranchers, is a prized location for concerts. Set in a section of Spanish Fork Canyon called Diamond Fork, it's far from any populated area, giving ravers a great deal of space, and peace of mind, to dance, to make noise, to camp out, to have fun. Because the party was to last all night -- attendees were encouraged to bring their camping gear -- Fullmer outfitted the place with a host of amenities to keep kids happy and safe. He rented dozens of portable toilets and contracted with a team of security guards and with Spanish Fork Ambulance, the local emergency medical team, to staff the rave. Early in August, Fullmer applied for and was granted a mass-gathering permit for the rave from the Utah County Health Department.
Most important, Fullmer saw to the music. He hired a team of stagehands and audio technicians -- there would be two simultaneous stages -- and assembled a line-up of drum 'n' bass stars from around the world, including DJ Craze, from Miami; Seattle's DJ Syze; Spor, from London; and Atlanta's Evol Intent. Fullmer began selling tickets at his record store for $15 (tickets purchased at the gates were $25); he called the rave Versus II, a kind of sequel to a previous rave he'd organized -- only, his advertisement promised, three times better.
