Since we reported on the civil rights violations endured by club-goers in Flint, Michigan last week, 3,500 supporters have sent messages to city officials expressing their disapproval. This is a tremendously successful effort and has been phenomenal for raising public awareness of what happened.
 
New details that have emerged via eyewitness reports include accounts of patrons being strip searched and cavity searched, some of them in unsanitary or dangerous ways. Because Michigan has strict rules about when and how police officers can conduct cavity searches, these searches may have been in violation of state law. As for the arrests themselves, the local law against frequenting a known drug establishment, which was used to arrest and ticket many patrons of the nightclub, broadly defines a "drug establishment" as any place where people use or sell drugs. This means the law could be used to prosecute anyone who is ever in a place where drugs are used or sold.
 
With concerns about the constitutionality of such a broad statute and the legality of some of the searches, the Greater Flint ACLU and ACLU of Michigan are holding a meeting on Thursday to speak with people who were present at the nightclub raid. If you were there and want more information about fighting back, please submit an incident report to the Electronic Music Defense and Education Fund and a copy will go to the ACLU. If you live in the Flint area and are able to organize people for a possible future event such as a public rally, please contact us directly.