I still haven't gotten all the details yet, but Saturday night's party at 1515 Broadway (originally scheduled for 1315) was busted _hard_. Everyone there was ticketed: adults for "loitering", minors for violating curfew. The cops apparently forced everyone to the floor, searched everyone, asked for ID, the whole third world police state trip.
We weren't there -- having read the silly scare piece in the Detroit News the week before, we figured that the PD would pick this weekend to make a big "show of force", and unfortunately we were right.
Channel 7 cameras were there as the bust took place, which indicates to me that the PD had this planned as a media event from the very beginning. The clip I saw showed officers with _guns drawn_ ordering people to the floor. The report on the 11PM news of course followed the city's party line to the letter: "this was an unsafe, overcrowded building, we found drugs there", etc. They _did_ mention however, that no alcohol was found, which makes the idea that they busted it because it was an illegal "blind pig" very suspect. The cop on the news said "This organization is very mobile -- they moved the party from another location down the street earlier in the day to avoid us, but we found them anyway." Ha -- this organization, as if party goers and organizers are some sort of sinister Mafia-like cabal with a planning hierarchy and structure... whatever.
The other comments by the cops only confirmed how truly clueless they are about the whole thing: how the parties were a "new phenomenon" they were going to put a stop to, and how they were something for "out of towners" (neglecting to mention, of course, how many of the DJ's and musicians live and work in the city.
In a nutshell, thanks to a rash of sensational press coverage, the city is coming down with both jackboots on _your right_ to freely assemble and dance to the music of your choice outside of a club environment. I'm going to get contact information later for officials at city hall and police headquarters so that we can all make our views heard. If you've ever attended a party in Detroit, or enjoyed music from a Detroit artist, you need to speak up to preserve what we've built here.
Show them that there's more to life than busting parties and scarfing down jelly donuts.
dave walker, detroit art services
marmoset@msen.com absolutely sweat, marie
it's amazing how a front page article in sundays paper all of a sudden makes everyone want to get involved in the scene here in detroit. well that article fuken screwed the scene n if u were at broadway on saturday u know what i mean.
the cops raided the party sunday along with a television news crew to show people that they were doing something about the scene. all u people that got screwed at broadway don't even begin to think this is the end of the underground in detroit. the cops had there little show and after awhile it'll b back to the same bitchin parties.
stats on the bust at 1515 broadway:
SID