It's everyone's worst nightmare come true. Last

Saturday night, August 20th, 2005, an all-drum&bass

event in Utah was raided by the National Guard. The

details are sickening...



VERSUS II was a 100% fully legal and permitted party

held with full county permits in a valley surrounded

by mountains in Utah... I cannot even begin to

describe the events that unfolded without freaking out

in rage, so I will repost Knick from Evol Intent's

account of the atrocity:



Also, here is a link to the video of the beginning of

the raid. I cannot believe my eyes:



http://homepage.mac.com/apexgrin/FileSharing2.html



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.