That may sound innocent enough, but the purpose of the bill is manifestly clear: Concert promoters will be held criminally and civilly liable for any drug use that may occur on premises they are operating. The RAVE Act has nothing to do with reducing drug use, and everything to do with giving politically motivated prosecutors a tool to go after innocent businessmen who have no ties to the drug trade.
Right off the bat, the RAVE Act creates a non-objective law. What does that mean? It means that the language is so vague as to render it impossible for anyone to know what specific conduct will actually make them liable under the law. For example, unlike the current crack-house law, the RAVE Act says an owner is liable if his premises are "temporarily" used for drug purposes. This one word actually negates the entire purpose of the crack-house law in the first place! A crack-house is supposed to be a building or property whose purpose is to facilitate drug use. The purpose of a concert is to, well, entertain people with musical performances. That's not illegal. But under the RAVE Act, if even one person is using drugs at a show, that can technically create civil and criminal liability for the owner.
Of course, it's doubtful that many raves will actually be prosecuted nationally. What will more likely happen is a few jurisdictions—fueled by misleading news reports about the dangers of ecstasy—will take the opportunity to enforce the law in a very draconian fashion. New York City will probably have a field day, as under former mayor Rudolph Giuliani the city engaged in a massive "crackdown" on dance clubs in the name of preventing drug use.
Not only does the RAVE act attack the rights of concert promoters, it directly assaults the property rights of individuals who rent buildings and other spaces to promoters. If you rent a theater to a promoter, and there is drug use of any kind found at the concert subsequently held, both the promoter and property owner can be held liable. And since the bill allows the government to charge the property owner civilly, prosecutors will be held to a lower burden of proof than in a criminal case. But the results will be just as bad for defendants, since the law provides a $250,000 penalty for violation.
Article comments
1 - Joanne McNeil
There will also be a protest in Washington DC on the West Lawn of the Capital Building. Details are on ROAR's (Raver Organizing Against the RAVE) website
2 - Eric Olsen
Thanks Joanne!
3 - TalkLeft
For more on the reasons to oppose the RAVE Act and on the RAVE protests, visit TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime.
http://www.talkleft.com/archives/000789.html#000789
4 - anna
one more solid coultering of the rave act:
http://archives.annatopia.com/00000211.html
i think a lot of the anti-RAVE posts forget to mention that the law will apply to -all americans- and darn near every peice of property in this country.
5 - Subversive Woofer
Part of the reason this new version of the RAVE act was able to pass is because many of these old conservatives think that this legislation will not affect their music scene. It will only cause trouble for those nasty little ravers, punks and hippies.
Well, I think if this little bit of legislation goes all the way through, then everyone hurt by this act should MAKE it affect their music scenes! In protest, people could sneak joints into opera houses, concert halls, and John Tesh concerts... then LIGHT EM UP!!! YEEHAW!~
It might help to have someone planted who can loudly complain and insist that the venue be held responsible for their actions too.
Then the venue owners for ALL concert halls will have to be tried under the new laws and that will get everyone pissed. This would be sure to get some action happening to repeal this terrible new legislation should it be fully passed instead of just upsetting a bunch of little ravers that no one will listen to.
:D
6 - Kina
the thing is... if you get any random group of ppl together.. a certain percentage of the group will probably use drugs the bigger the group the more ppl using drugs and the younger the group the higher the percentage so i would be willing to bet money some ppl going to the opera halls and john tesh concerts already are going to use drugs : a bored house wife taking non prescribed valum to deal with her husband all night or a rich couple doing a line of coke in their limo before they get there. though i dont mean to stereotype those kinds of events anyways.. i mean i love operas. but your right they need to see how broad and ridiculouse it is. maybe throw them in jail for 20 yrs cause their kid smokes some weed
7 - nima
i think this law is one of the most stupid things i have ever heard. i go to raves and i have never used drugs, i go for the music. now they are telling us to not even listen to electronic music (yeah right!!) if they want to stop people of using or buying and selling drugs, i do not think this is the right way. they need to stop it from where is it starts and find the base of it. have funn stopping raves and raves and the music mofos.