The Alliance has started a campaign to pressure Utah politicians to look into what happened. Watch the video, and then take action.

The “war on drugs” took on a literal meaning this past weekend when SWAT Team agents in full military combat regalia stormed a rave an hour outside Salt Lake City, Utah. Covered in a recommended blog on Daily Kos is a firsthand account detailing what transpired at the event on Saturday, August 20, where military soldiers swooped on the crowd of about 1,500 people in the Spanish Fork canyon. The event’s promoter claims to have attained all the necessary permits to host the rave and even had an insurance policy of 2 million dollars.

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Utah County detectives wanted to “get their point across that such activity was not welcome in their area,” a point they made with more than 90 law enforcement officers  and camouflaged SWAT Team members, vicious dogs and tear gas. According to the Utah County Sheriff’s office, their Major Crimes unit dispatched several undercover officers to the party and waited until they witnessed drug-related crimes to send out both local and state SWAT teams. Eyewitnesses have posted their accounts of police brutality and other civil liberty violations, as “crowd control” became an assault on many peaceful partygoers who were doing no harm to others. Watch a video of the raid here.

Rave busts have become infamous for their abuse of the civil rights of young people across the country who only want to enjoy music. The most recent widely publicized bust took place in Flint, Michigan, where eyewitness reports included accounts of patrons being strip searched and cavity searched, some of them in unsanitary or dangerous ways. 

The RAVE Act, passed in 2003, claims to target promoters and venues who host Raves with the intent of distributing drugs. The Alliance has questioned the true intent of the law, submitting a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Justice Department asking for any documents that reference the RAVE Act with respect to electronic music events. Any information found will assess whether prosecutors are abusing the law or upholding the civil liberties of music fans.

Those involved in the raid, or interested in more information should visit: http://www.music-versus-guns.org/