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Cops profiling summer festival goers

vta

vta

Active member
Veteran
here it is.....

With Memorial Day now just a memory, the summer music festival season is on -- and with it, special drug law enforcement aimed at festival goers in what could be called a form of cultural profiling. If years past are any indicator, music lovers should be prepared to encounter everything from announced "Drug Checkpoints" that aren't -- they are instead traps to lure the freaked out -- to real, unconstitutional, highway drug checkpoints masquerading as "safety checks" (complete with drug dogs) to undercover cops working inside the festival grounds themselves.

Nationally known festivals like Bonaroo in Tennessee and Wakarusa in Kansas, as well as countless lesser festivals, especially in rural areas, have drawn special law enforcement efforts in the past. With this year unlikely to be any different, festival goers will need to know their rights and how to exercise them when they encounter the cops.

The police enforcement actions are already getting underway. Last weekend, the 2008 Summer Camp Festival in Chillicothe, Illinois, drew some 13,000 fans to hear a diverse line-up of bands including the Flaming Lips, George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic, Blind Melon, the Roots, and the New Pornographers. It also drew city and state police, who claimed 20 drug arrests -- for marijuana, ecstasy, and LSD -- between them in and around the festival.


The police were pleased. "I think a lot of it had to do with all of the agencies getting together before the event and really planning out our attack," Chillicothe Police Chief Steven Maurer told local HOI-19 TV News. "Our goal is to prevent it from coming in and that's what we did a lot of."

Meanwhile, down in northeast Georgia, some other law enforcement agencies had also gotten together to plan an attack. This one wasn't aimed directly at concert-goers, but at the highway-traveling public in general. In what the Northeast Georgian described as "one of the county's largest highway interdiction and safety checks in at least five years," personnel from the Habersham County Sheriff's Office, Northeast Georgia Drug Task Force, Georgia National Guard Counter Drug Task Force, Georgia State Patrol, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Georgia Department of Public Safety Motor Carrier Compliance Unit, Lee Arrendale State Prison, Phillips State Prison and Cornelia Police Department participated in a 24-hour checkpoint on a local highway.

Police bragged about the success of their checkpoint, which netted 74 arrests, 31 of them for drug offenses. "It worked well, I thought," said Habersham County Sheriff De Ray Fincher. "The operation resulted in a seizure of $36,000 in illegal drugs. And a total amount of currency, drugs and vehicles seized is estimated to have a value of $82,000."

Police did write some tickets for traffic offenses, Fincher told WNEG-TV 32 News. "We got a lot of people with no insurance, no driver's license or suspended license," he said. And some pot smokers: "The majority of our cases were marijuana cases; however, we did get several methamphetamine and we got one case of cocaine," Fincher explained.

In a 2000 Supreme Court decision, Indianapolis v. Edmonds, the high court held that indiscriminate highway drug checkpoints were unconstitutional since motorists were being stopped without suspicion for a law enforcement -- not a public safety -- purpose.


But Fincher was open about his constitutionally-suspect highway checkpoint. "We are trying to do everything we can to prevent drug activity in Habersham County, whether it's just passing through or stopping here," he said, noting that drug arrests in the county were on the rise. "That just means we've taken a real aggressive approach to drug enforcement."

"In the wake of the Indianapolis case, law enforcement has tried to figure out ways to still conduct drug checkpoints that comport with that ruling," said Adam Wolf of the ACLU Drug Law Reform Project. "Intent is the name of the game. If the intent is to conduct a checkpoint basically for law enforcement purposes, that's not okay. If it's for public safety purposes, such as sobriety checkpoints, that is okay."

A constitutional challenge to any given checkpoint would turn on intent, said Wolf. "If it turns out the intent was primarily to be a drug checkpoint, that would be an unreasonable search and not comply with the Constitution," he said. "That kind of checkpoint should be shut down, but it would take someone to challenge it."

Noting Sheriff Fincher's report of cash and goods seized, Wolf suggested the purpose of the checkpoints could really be about something other than law enforcement or public safety. "So often these things are being done to fund law enforcement agencies. Asset forfeiture is really a cash cow," he said.

Whether the checkpoints or other special law enforcement tactics are to raise money, wage the drug war, or indeed for "public safety," experts consulted by the Chronicle sang a remarkably similar song: Be prepared, don't be stupid, and don't give away your rights.

"The most efficient way to get arrested for marijuana possession short of blowing pot smoke in an officer's face is to smoke marijuana while driving or parked in your car, especially on the way to a festival," said Steven Silverman of the civil liberties group Flex Your Rights, which has released a video instructing people how to flex theirs. "You have a minimal expectation of privacy, and it reeks. Officers can smell it, and if they can smell it, that's probable cause to search you."

"Keep your private items out of view," recommended the ACLU's Wolf. A baggie full of weed on the front seat is all the probable cause an officer needs to search the vehicle and arrest the owner.

"The only sure thing to do is not to carry," said Keith Stroup, founder and currently senior counsel for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). "But the problem with that is there may or may not be good marijuana available at the festivals. If you're going to bring something with you, keep the quantity as small as possible, and for God's sake, don't smoke in the car!"

If you are stopped at a checkpoint (or pulled over for any reason) and you haven't provided police probable cause to search you or your vehicle, now is the time to exercise your rights. People in such situations should be polite but assertive, the experts said.

"If you are pulled over by police for any reason, the officers are very likely to ask you to consent to a search," said Silverman. "Don't do it. Never, ever consent under any circumstances. It might be couched in terms of a command, but it is a request. If you consent, you are waiving your Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure. They won't 'go easier' on you; anything they find, they will confiscate, and arrest you and put you in jail. Don't do their job for them."

"There is no circumstance I can imagine where you should ever consent to a search," agreed NORML's Stroup. "If you give permission, you waive your Fourth Amendment protections. They may say it'll go easier if you cooperate, but that's bullshit. Their only reason for being there is to see if you have contraband and arrest you and put you in jail if you do."

"Just say no to warrantless searches," echoed the ACLU's Wolf. "Officers won't tell you you have the right not to consent, but you do, and it is one that people have held dear since the founding of the Republic."

There are other highway hazards for the unwary festival-goer. Law enforcement can be creative in its unending war on drug users and sellers.


"Anybody driving to see his favorite band should also be aware of fake drug checkpoints," said Silverman. "Drug checkpoints are unconstitutional, but what some sheriffs will do close to festival sites is set up a big 'Drug Checkpoint Ahead' sign, and then watch who turns off the highway at the next ramp or who throws something out his car window. Then they pull them over for littering or failure to signal a lane change or something. If you see such a sign, keep driving -- it's a bluff designed to see who it scares."

"When you see a sign like that, proceed ahead within the speed limit, driving safely through the area," advised Wolf.

Wolf has problems with the harassment of festival-goers that run deeper than particular law enforcement tactics. "Profiling based on race is not okay, profiling based on gender is not okay, and profiling based on the type of concert you attend is not okay," he said. "It's unreasonable and unjustifiable for police to target a group of people because they are going to any particular type of concert."

"Simply having a Grateful Dead sticker or dreadlocks doesn't constitute reasonable suspicion of anything," agreed Silverman.

But in the real world, it can. Festival-goers and other highway travelers need to be aware of their rights, as well as the realities of life in the contemporary US, as they hit the highway this summer.

And one last thing once you actually make it to the festival. "There's a big myth out there that police officers must reveal if they're an undercover cop," said Silverman. "That's wrong, and it's stupid to believe that. Police officers can and do legally lie in doing their jobs. Believing that has probably led to thousands of people being arrested."
 
RudolfTheRed

RudolfTheRed

Active member
Veteran
bonaroo is right around the corner folks, if anyone plans on going please be safe and stay alert for bullshit like this.

police ain't no different than the Gestapo with these fucking check points. Fuck 'em all. Don't stop for them neither. Just rush the shit with a bunch of other people at once. I'd like to see them try and stop something like that.
 
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Doobie Nyce

Doobie Nyce

upsetting the setup
ICMag Donor
At Harvestfest and Hempstock in Maine, the police set up checkpoints to hand out flyers about the dangers of drunk driving. If you have dreads or any bob marley/dead paraphernelia you will be asked why your eyes are red and if you've had anything to smoke!

lame-o!
 
KillerDemo

KillerDemo

Active member
this happened to me at a few festivals...you'll just be walkin and some rookie tells u to come here and he runs ur name thru the system blah blah blah...real talk this country is becoming the modern-day-gestapo.
 
U

ureapwhatusow

Doobie Nyce said:
At Harvestfest and Hempstock in Maine, the police set up checkpoints to hand out flyers about the dangers of drunk driving. If you have dreads or any bob marley/dead paraphernelia you will be asked why your eyes are red and if you've had anything to smoke!

lame-o!
Click to expand...


and i was going to trek to hempfest last year. never went
 
U

ureapwhatusow

festivals used to be drug hedonism tons o drugs and everybody having fun like there was no such thing as leo

last festie was 2005 moedown>? coudl it have gotten that different that quick
 
J

jipedestran

Folks,

This has been going on in this country for a long time. Anyone who spent time traveling with the Dead has seen it.

I remember getting back to our hotel, after the first night of two in Charlotte, lead story on the news was the two busloads of Hippies they arrested for drugs in the parking lot.

This is also the same parking lot that a Christian women was walking around, led by a leash with a sign that said, I am My Husbands Slave.......

peace
jip
 
Doobie Nyce

Doobie Nyce

upsetting the setup
ICMag Donor
If you DO attend hempstock or harvestfest this year, be sure to look out for the cannabis-growing information booth!

thats me!!

P.S. I would say fests in maine still qualify as 'drug hedonism'. They haven't ruined it for us yet!
 
VanillaGueriila

VanillaGueriila

Member
DISCRIMINATION at its finest folks, get used to it, thats how they run they show in the states. If they could make it any easier to bust the mellow people they would, it keeps them safe and away from meth/crack labs and other such dangerous crimes.
 
Tarantula-1

Tarantula-1

Member
Police bragged about the success of their checkpoint, which netted 74 arrests, 31 of them for drug offenses. "It worked well, I thought," said Habersham County Sheriff De Ray Fincher. "The operation resulted in a seizure of $36,000 in illegal drugs. And a total amount of currency, drugs and vehicles seized is estimated to have a value of $82,000."
Click to expand...

For anybody still wondering how this tyrannical, counterproductive and utterly fucked War on Drugs can drag on and on with no end in sight - there's your cui bono: asset seizure/forfeiture. The WOD has turned LEO into a commission salesman, and it looks like - this summer, anyway - music lovers looking to get mellow at festivals are gonna be his "Glengarry leads".

It's a cash cow for the fellas in the Darth Vader outfits, and it's only gotten worse in the blanket of fear that post-9/11 security paranoia has become, when no one speaks out because no one is even 100% sure of exactly what rights we have left. The Orwellian chimera of "the terrorists" which is gutting our Constitution like an abandoned car in a burned-out lot has been such a godsend to our politicians and fixers - local and national - that they might as well drink a toast to the 9/11 bombers every September. Couldn't have done it without ya, guys!

Unfortunately, I only see it getting worse, not better. We're just now entering an economic meltdown that won't be fixed anytime soon, and that means local and state LEOs are going to be faced with budget cuts, and that means they'll be under pressure to generate fresh income.

F'rinstance - didn't I read on IC, just a few weeks ago, about a DEA raid prompted by a package of beans intercepted at Logan Airport? That don't bode well for anyone who's ever been green-taped and entered onto their records. Fasten your seat belts, kids, cos we may be in for a bumpy night here.

(Sorry if this comes off as needlessly alarmist, but the asset-forfeiture scam has been a bug up my ass for years now: it's a slippery slope without any clear borders or boundaries, a set-up ripe for widespread abuse. And We The People have never been so vulnerable as now. Believe me, I'll be happier to be proven wrong than anyone.)
 
rocky_mtns

rocky_mtns

Member
the last couple-mile stretch into 10k lake festival was a bit scary last year, people pulled over left and right, dogs in use at most of them... glad i don't look like a hippy, had a ball of hash about the size of my head in the trunk, lol
 
U

ureapwhatusow

rocky_mtns said:
the last couple-mile stretch into 10k lake festival was a bit scary last year, people pulled over left and right, dogs in use at most of them... glad i don't look like a hippy, had a ball of hash about the size of my head in the trunk, lol
Click to expand...

I never had police trouble going to or from a show but


I remember one of the firsts bonnaroos there were people dressed as moses holding signs like

Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison & Janice Jopli are in hell were drug users belong

or somehting like that

it was surreal

I remember leaving a phish festie and having my buddy have a complete meltdown mentally, reminded me of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

he eventually was hospitalized

There are worse stories, but I don't want to galmorize drug debautchery, ICMAG is not about that.

I wish I had always used my best judgement, but everyone has a character defect or two
 
T

thedarklurker

Member
That is nothing. In a popular festival in my area on private land they were videotaping people from a hilltop and were using face recognition software. It was in my very well respected city newspaper and they were cheering on its use.

I am not going to link to the story or say what festival because I am the dark lurker after all.
 
Daemon

Daemon

Member
It wasn't too bad at Bonnaroo this year. I walked right in without being searched or anything, as a matter of fact I wasn't even checked for a ticket!
 
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