Land of the free....Just don't expect to go dancing and have a night without a permit
RolandTD20Kdrummer
Posts: 13,066
or your ass is grass......your papers please..
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080609/COL27/806090340
"The DJ was spinning old records by James Brown, Aretha Franklin and the Meters during Funk Night last weekend, when the heavily armed cops dressed in commando-style uniforms burst into the west-side Detroit art gallery.
The cops yelled at the patrons to hit the floor. Witnesses said some officers used their feet to force down a couple of people who failed to move fast enough or asked too many questions.
Detroit police conduct raids frequently for all sorts of illegal activity, and the public never hears a thing. But cops almost never raid art galleries filled with young hipsters, students and at least one lawyer. So this May 30 raid, not unexpectedly, is turning out to have an afterlife: The gallery and patrons have decided to fight back, and the American Civil Liberties Union has become involved.
The site of the raid, the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit -- CAID -- on Rosa Parks Boulevard, is a nonprofit that, for 29 years, has promoted art and art education in Detroit. Aaron Timlin, CAID's executive director and a Detroit booster, notes that CAID's current exhibit, architectural designs to improve neighborhoods, is cosponsored by the City of Detroit.
To patrons, Funk Night, which lasts from midnight to 5 a.m., is a popular monthly dance party that is the laid-back essence of a sophisticated city.
"Most of the people are young, instead of a bunch of young girls and old men, like at a dance club," said Brittany Dallas, 19, a Wayne State University student who was ticketed at the raid. "Since it is an art gallery, there are really cool, cultured people ... instead of at a dance club, where there are people that are trying to get you drunk and take you home."
To the police, CAID was a blind pig, where people were buying beer after hours. They handed out 130 tickets for loitering in a place where alcohol was being sold illegally and impounded 44 cars, which cost $900 to get back.
Cops found no drugs, no weapons, no people with outstanding warrants.
Police spokesman James Tate said officers warned Timlin about violations during a visit several weeks ago. "We don't often do that," Tate said. "He was advised of the issues he needed to clarify."
Timlin confirmed the visit, but said he believed he had made the necessary changes. He said the police told club officials May 30 that they also need a permit to allow dancing.
"Everyone thinks it's ridiculous we have to have a permit for dancing," Timlin said late last week.
Timlin, 37, is an art promoter and provocateur who once stood in boxer shorts at East Warren and I-75 to promote an exhibit, and another time walked from Detroit to New York wearing a cardboard box.
He asked why CAID can't get a break on laws about dancing, for instance, when the city, as he puts it, "bends the rules" on taxes and other issues to convince large companies to locate downtown.
As a response to the raid, Timlin has launched a week-long arts festival that started at midnight Friday and will end with a concert Saturday.
Timlin is lining up bands, artists, lecturers, filmmakers and others to keep the CAID going 24 hours a day for 8 days.
"We're going to dance without a permit," he said. "If we get a ticket, we'll fight the ticket and change the law. People should be able to dance where they want."
A number of patrons and their parents said that they can understand getting a ticket, but they are livid about having cars impounded and having to pay $900 to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office.
The payment is based on a state law that allows police to impound cars for drivers accused of involvement in drinking, gambling, drug and prostitution violations.
Patrons have court dates starting today. Many plan to plead not guilty and ask for a trial. An ACLU-affiliated lawyer will be there.
Spokeswoman Rana Elmir said the ACLU is investigating the case and is alarmed by "masked police officers in commando uniforms needlessly storming peaceful gatherings" and seizing cars.
Elmir asked why the police, if they had a problem with CAID's alcohol policy, didn't deal with the gallery itself. So far, the gallery has not been ticketed, Timlin said.
"I still don't understand it at all," said Michael Mazzola, 21, of Mt. Clemens, a sous chef at a Detroit restaurant. "It was just a group of kids and a big dance floor. I was just there hanging out with friends."
The raid also has raised questions about whether raiding art galleries is the best use of a police force that even Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick acknowledges is significantly understaffed.
"Absolutely," said Tate. "Because this is a violation. What's the difference between this location and a location we raided two weeks ago? The law is the law. We can't treat two types of businesses differently."
Timlin said the 192-hour art festival this week will be alcohol-free, but in featuring dancing, he seems to be asking for more trouble.
"We're standing up for what we believe in," Timlin said. "We'd prefer that the police come and dance with us.""
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080609/COL27/806090340
"The DJ was spinning old records by James Brown, Aretha Franklin and the Meters during Funk Night last weekend, when the heavily armed cops dressed in commando-style uniforms burst into the west-side Detroit art gallery.
The cops yelled at the patrons to hit the floor. Witnesses said some officers used their feet to force down a couple of people who failed to move fast enough or asked too many questions.
Detroit police conduct raids frequently for all sorts of illegal activity, and the public never hears a thing. But cops almost never raid art galleries filled with young hipsters, students and at least one lawyer. So this May 30 raid, not unexpectedly, is turning out to have an afterlife: The gallery and patrons have decided to fight back, and the American Civil Liberties Union has become involved.
The site of the raid, the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit -- CAID -- on Rosa Parks Boulevard, is a nonprofit that, for 29 years, has promoted art and art education in Detroit. Aaron Timlin, CAID's executive director and a Detroit booster, notes that CAID's current exhibit, architectural designs to improve neighborhoods, is cosponsored by the City of Detroit.
To patrons, Funk Night, which lasts from midnight to 5 a.m., is a popular monthly dance party that is the laid-back essence of a sophisticated city.
"Most of the people are young, instead of a bunch of young girls and old men, like at a dance club," said Brittany Dallas, 19, a Wayne State University student who was ticketed at the raid. "Since it is an art gallery, there are really cool, cultured people ... instead of at a dance club, where there are people that are trying to get you drunk and take you home."
To the police, CAID was a blind pig, where people were buying beer after hours. They handed out 130 tickets for loitering in a place where alcohol was being sold illegally and impounded 44 cars, which cost $900 to get back.
Cops found no drugs, no weapons, no people with outstanding warrants.
Police spokesman James Tate said officers warned Timlin about violations during a visit several weeks ago. "We don't often do that," Tate said. "He was advised of the issues he needed to clarify."
Timlin confirmed the visit, but said he believed he had made the necessary changes. He said the police told club officials May 30 that they also need a permit to allow dancing.
"Everyone thinks it's ridiculous we have to have a permit for dancing," Timlin said late last week.
Timlin, 37, is an art promoter and provocateur who once stood in boxer shorts at East Warren and I-75 to promote an exhibit, and another time walked from Detroit to New York wearing a cardboard box.
He asked why CAID can't get a break on laws about dancing, for instance, when the city, as he puts it, "bends the rules" on taxes and other issues to convince large companies to locate downtown.
As a response to the raid, Timlin has launched a week-long arts festival that started at midnight Friday and will end with a concert Saturday.
Timlin is lining up bands, artists, lecturers, filmmakers and others to keep the CAID going 24 hours a day for 8 days.
"We're going to dance without a permit," he said. "If we get a ticket, we'll fight the ticket and change the law. People should be able to dance where they want."
A number of patrons and their parents said that they can understand getting a ticket, but they are livid about having cars impounded and having to pay $900 to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office.
The payment is based on a state law that allows police to impound cars for drivers accused of involvement in drinking, gambling, drug and prostitution violations.
Patrons have court dates starting today. Many plan to plead not guilty and ask for a trial. An ACLU-affiliated lawyer will be there.
Spokeswoman Rana Elmir said the ACLU is investigating the case and is alarmed by "masked police officers in commando uniforms needlessly storming peaceful gatherings" and seizing cars.
Elmir asked why the police, if they had a problem with CAID's alcohol policy, didn't deal with the gallery itself. So far, the gallery has not been ticketed, Timlin said.
"I still don't understand it at all," said Michael Mazzola, 21, of Mt. Clemens, a sous chef at a Detroit restaurant. "It was just a group of kids and a big dance floor. I was just there hanging out with friends."
The raid also has raised questions about whether raiding art galleries is the best use of a police force that even Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick acknowledges is significantly understaffed.
"Absolutely," said Tate. "Because this is a violation. What's the difference between this location and a location we raided two weeks ago? The law is the law. We can't treat two types of businesses differently."
Timlin said the 192-hour art festival this week will be alcohol-free, but in featuring dancing, he seems to be asking for more trouble.
"We're standing up for what we believe in," Timlin said. "We'd prefer that the police come and dance with us.""
Progress is not made by everyone joining some new fad,
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
FUCK YEAH!
naděje umírá poslední
Verona??? it's all surmountable
Dublin 23.08.06 "The beauty of Ireland, right there!"
Wembley? We all believe!
Copenhagen?? your light made us stars
Chicago 07? And love
What a different life
Had I not found this love with you
There's a night club in this town here in China where the security guards/bouncers dress like nazi stormtroopers - they wear all black, and wear helmets with the word 'Police' on them in white lettering. They loiter around the dance floor looking menacing.
It reminded me of the Dead Kennedy's song 'Saturday night holocaust'.
"Saturday Night Holocaust"
There's a prefab building and a funny smell
Around the hill outside of town
Every now and then we wonder
But we shrug our shoulders
And get back to work
There's a railroad there and trains go by
And there's people locked in cattle cars
And have you noticed
The french fries at the A&W
Taste a little strange?
I drive down to the disco
Pompadour and pink lamme
I bow and blow the doorman
He parts the chain, says join the game
A quick line in the girls room
To the bar for the electrodes
A coin into the right slits
Tape my temple watch me go
Now I want your perfect Barbie-doll lips
And I want your perfect Barbie-doll eyes
Slip my fingers down your Barbie-doll dress
Up and down your spandex ass
If I lit a match for you
You'd melt before my eyes
C'mere my pretty glow-worm
You look so fine to dance with me
The fly-eye lights are throbbin'
I'm burning up the floor
Whirling twirling
Close my eyes
No faces judging me
But I want your perfect Barbie-doll lips
And I want your perfect Barbie-doll eyes
Slip my fingers down your Barbie-doll dress
Up and down your spandex ass
A Hitler youth in jogging suit
Smiling face banded 'round his arm
Says, 'Line up, you've got work to do
We need dog food for the poor'
A scream bleats out, we're herded into lines
Customized vans wait outside
I'm getting scared of my new home
To Auschwitz condominiums we go
Oh no
Now I want your perfect Barbie-doll lips
And I want your perfect Barbie-doll eyes
Let my fingers down your dress
One more time
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
i just hope you all know how to goosestep. heil heil.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
It is not uncommon to need permits for these activities. It can be a special use permit for specific events or a change of use if they plan to have it as an ongoing thing.
On one hand it has to do with zoning. Code is written to allow certain types of businesses in certain areas. This can be good, but I've seen instances where it's just lame.
On the other hand, there are safety issues in regards to occupancy levels. Intended uses for a building come with specific occupancy restrictions, exit plan requirements, fire safety requirements, ADA requirements, etc.
So, while it seems like "they need a permit just for *dancing*", it's more complicated than that.
Again - I do think the cops WAY overreacted.
***********************
"We've laid the groundwork. It's like planting the seeds. And next year, it's spring." - Nader
***********************
Prepare for tending to your garden, America.
In other words, 'land of the free' should be changed to just 'land'.
naděje umírá poslední
Pretty much.
I've seen zoning kill projects that have been in the works for several months, but for some reason nobody ever bothered to ask if their plan is allowed in their area. Being a part of breaking that news to people sucks.
***********************
"We've laid the groundwork. It's like planting the seeds. And next year, it's spring." - Nader
***********************
Prepare for tending to your garden, America.
LMAO!
I was trying so hard not to bring up Footloose. It's one of my favorite movies.
***********************
"We've laid the groundwork. It's like planting the seeds. And next year, it's spring." - Nader
***********************
Prepare for tending to your garden, America.