Parties and Police, January 2011

Party in the forest, Norfolk, England (EDP 15 January 2010)

'Officers moved in on an area of forestland at Two Mile Bottom, Thetford, at around 11am on Saturday morning. At the height of the event there were believed to have been up to 150 people attending. A boarded up holiday house had been broken into and used by the organisers.

Officers had been closely monitoring the situation since midnight and were actively turning away people attempting to attend. No complaints were made in relation to noise nuisance. The nearest property was around half a mile away... Sound equipment was seized and six arrests were made for offences including theft, burglary, being unfit to drive, criminal damage and organising an unlicensed music event. All of those arrested were taken to Bethel St Police Station'.

Warehouse Party in Bristol (BBC 2 January 2011)

'Three people were arrested when a New Year's Eve rave party at an industrial estate in Bristol turned to violence. The event, promoted on the social media site Facebook, was being held at South Liberty Lane.

Police said at its peak, more than 1,000 illegal ravers attended, breaking into commercial premises, occupying buildings, setting fires and throwing bottles at officers. The arrests were made for public order offences and damage. A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police said officers were working under "sometimes exceptionally violent and difficult circumstances to bring the situation under control". Police broke up the party at about 1100 GMT on Saturday'.



Cavers hit back at police 'illegal ravers' claims: Bath, England (Bath Chronicle, 6 January 2011)

'Cavers who saw in the new year at a former underground quarry near Bath have criticised police for labelling them "illegal ravers." Wiltshire Police had issued a warning about trespassing on land after they heard about a planned underground gathering at the Brown's Folly mine complex at Monkton Farleigh.

But people who attended the event said the New Year's Eve incident had been exaggerated by the police and that they were not causing any harm to anyone. One of the organisers, who did not wish to be named, said they had come up with the idea around two weeks before and had been careful not to cause any trouble.

He said: "People sat around on stone seats, built from large square stones laying around, with some background music with a couple of beers, "bring a bottle" kind of nature, and chatted about the year's adventures. Some left before midnight, some slept underground and went the next morning. All the rubbish was removed."

He added that for decades people had been visiting these types of sites without any trouble. Another caver, who also did not want to be named, said it was sad that the police had been so quick to assume the group were troublemakers. Late last week police warned the public that anyone entering the site would be treated as trespassers and would be committing offences under the Licensing Act 2003'.

Kathmandu, Nepal (Himalayan Times 9 January 2011)

'Police raided Platinum Disco in Durbar Marg in the wee hours of Saturday and arrested 51 persons for allegedly violating the government rule that prohibits public gathering after midnight. The local administration citing security reasons has barred discotheques, restaurants, pubs and bars from dispensing business after midnight.

SP Pradhyumna Kumar Karki, acting Chief of Kathmandu police informed that 51 persons, including Platinum Disco staff, were arrested as they were found operating the business till 12:55 am... The police released 45 disco-goers this morning on condition that they would not indulge in illegal activities in future. However, the disco promoters and staffers have been taken into custody at Metropolitan Police Range, Hanumandhoka, for further investigation'

Nepal: Thank God it's Friday (morning)

People all over the world look forward to going out on Friday night, seemingly in Nepal school students can't wait that long and bunk off school to go dancing at Thank God its Friday parties on Friday mornings:

'Continuing its crackdown on dance bars and discos running in the capital city, police took into custody around a hundred school and college students from a popular discotheque in Sundhara area on Friday morning. A police team carried out a raid at Babylon disco in the busy market center Sundhara today morning and found mostly teenage students enjoying themselves in a revelry mood while still in their school or college uniform.

... pandemonium was let loose when police suddenly raided the disco while the students were busy dancing to the beats of the disco music. There was big confusion as students tried to flee from the disco to escape police arrest. It is estimated that there was more than 300 students at the disco at the time of the raid. Many managed to flee from there, police said. Most of them had bunked their school and colleges to be at the "morning disco". The Metropolitan Police has started to crackdown on dance bars and discos in the capital citing such night establishments pose threats to law and order situation (Nepal News, 19 March 2010).

'Nearly 300 students were arrested in Babylon Disco of Sundhara on Friday morning at 10 am in a series of raids on dance bars, discos and restaurants of the capital. The raids were carried out two days after the police swooped down on X Bar in Sundhara and other dance bars on Wednesday... The discos usually organise parties on Friday targeting students who bunk classes to attend them. The students have been taken into custody in Hanuman Dhoka Metropolitan Police Range and Nepal Police Club of Exhibition Road. Police said that the students were caught consuming alcoholic drinks and drugs. It is reported that the police has begun its investigation into the incident. The proprietor of one of the discotheques has also been arrested. According to the police, the students would be subjected to medical tests for alcohol and drugs' (Himalayan Times, 19 March 2010)

Nepal Disco Workers Protest

Hundreds of disco and nightclub workers protested Wednesday in Nepal's capital for the right to work all night long, eyewitnesses and police said. Protesters blew whistles and screamed slogans "Stop the crackdown on night workers" and "Down with government," as they rallied in Thamel, Kathmandu's tourist hub, an AFP reporter at the scene said. Police watched the protesters but no one was arrested.

"More than 500 workers staged demonstration demanding they be allowed to operate bars and discos all night," Ramesh Thapa, a police officer at the scene, told AFP. "Due to the operation of night bars and restaurants, public security has worsened. We have begun to crackdown on such midnight activities to maintain law and order," Thapa said.

Police began raiding scores of restaurants and discos last week after the new home minister of the Maoist-led government ordered a crackdown on them, saying nighttime activities were compounding security problems in the capital. Since then, disco bars and eateries that operate at night have been forced to close down by midnight in Kathmandu - home to more than two million people - in a move that has irked some in the business community. "There are thousands of people who are dependent on night jobs to earn a living. The government just can't take such a decision on an ad hoc basis," Ramesh Basnet, a protester, told AFP.

"Closing the business is not the solution. The government should make proper laws to regulate nighttime business rather than completely shutting it down," Basnet added. Sameer Gurung, president of the Night Entrepreneurs Association, said the forceful closure of dance bars, nightclubs and discos have left some 80,000 people jobless.

Source: AFP, 17 September 2008