The truth doesn’t care what I think.
We knew the various “RAVE” acts would be used mostly to drive out independant venue owners, but in Michigan, they’re pushing the law to extremes that I didn’t think anyone would dare:
In Flint, Michigan (and many other cities) if you go out dancing on a Saturday night and the police happen to arrest other people at the club for drugs, you could be charged with a drug crime even though you had nothing to do with drugs. These innocent party-goers now face up to 90 days in jail and a $500 fine. They also face a criminal record with all the legal and social barriers that brings.
[via Attack On Live Music And Raves - Music For America]
There is no way that would hold up in court though…any decent lawyer who passed the bar exam should be able to get that thrown out. Right? Hopefully? Maybe? That’s scary stuff…
well, in order for me to think that you’re right, I would also have to believe that these laws would never get passed in the first place.
What the RAVE acts did was legally apply the “crack house” label to any establishment that has an event that attracts a drug user, so that the promoter, owner or landlord can then be arrested for running an establishment for the purpose of selling/using/promoting the use/sales of drugs. It’s remarkable, wrong, and damn scary.
I agree that those laws wouldn’t hold up in the higher courts, but that means some defendent has to spend their time and money getting them to the higher courts.
Though the premis of the rave act seems like a good idea to all those who put it into place, it’s just to vague to actually be in effect. I personally have experienced the reprocusions of this bogus law, and yes with my lawer i had the charges dropped. the problem that lies within the comunity that had come to be as much a part of my life as work or even my family, is that even though 2/3 of us “party kids” don’t do the drugs (or at least like me, not to begin with and not anymore) the number of users fluctuates every year. In recent years the numbers are not in the clean dancers favor. The unfortunate part is that 50somthing adults and polititions assume that if one person is doing drugs then we all are. witch as we all know isn’t the case. but because these polititions have never expierenced a rave or the level of comrodery, unity, and respect that we alll share they can’t understand our side of the story and probibly never will. What we as a comunity of clean dancers have to do is stand up for our civil rights and do what we can to put an end to what is in my opinion “A prohibition against freedom of expression!”