After an egregious assault on the rights of dance music lovers, the community is fighting back. The promoters of a Utah rave that was raided by SWAT teams in August have responded by hiring a lawyer, establishing a website to organize information about the rave, and encouraging people who were there to report abuses. The Alliance is also fighting back with an action alert to put pressure on state politicians to look into what happened.

Watch the video.
 
At 11:30 PM on August 20, police officers and SWAT team members stormed Versus II, a legal party being held on private land in Utah County. The county sheriff's office made clear that it was targeting this event because it was a rave. In a statement after the raid, Sheriff James Tracy, Jr. said, "From several previous experiences with Rave parties of this size, a large amount of drug use and underage consumption of alcohol occur. In addition [there are] reports of sexual assaults, overdoses, firearm violations, vehicle burglaries, and numerous individuals drive from the party under the influence of alcohol and or drugs."
 
In order to protect citizens from these alleged grave dangers, the county sent in 90 officers from local and state SWAT teams, along with dogs and at least one helicopter. Attendees were intimidated by heavily armed officers in fatigues, and several eyewitness reports describe people being tackled and kicked, though they did not resist arrest.
 
To add to its justification for the raid, the sheriff's office said that the event was illegal because not all the correct permits had been obtained - a claim which has been called into doubt. The promoters explain on their website, "[The law] states that if the party was to exceed 250 people and go over 12 consecutive hours we would have needed to clear it with the county commissioner. The fact is, that although the party was to exceed 250 people, it was NOT to go over 12 hours." The event started at 9 PM, and contracts with the audio crew and security indicated that it was to end at 6:30 AM. The sheriff said that police raided the party when they did because they anticipated high attendance - 700 tickets were sold in advance - and were afraid it would get out of hand.
 
Undercover officers at the party allegedly observed "illegal use of drugs, distribution of drugs, and underage consumption of alcohol," but any concerns about illegal activity could have been handled on a case-by-case basis rather than with a gross display of force.
 
You can speak out against what happened, even if you are not from Utah. Because a tarnished image hurts tourism revenue, the state Office of Tourism and the Governor will be very interested to hear that this display of brutality is making you think twice about Utah as a vacation destination. Put pressure on politicians by hitting their wallets!