Rave Ban Across California Called For By Assemblywoman Fiona Ma
Comments (26)
UPDATED 6:50 p.m. with comment from Insomniac and 2:15 p.m. with comments from Ma's spokesman.
Electronic music events commonly regarded as raves could not be held at public venues and could be regulated at private locations, under legislation introduced Tuesday by State Assemblywoman Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco).
The proposed law, AB 74 or the Anti-Raves Act of 2011, would end controversy in Los Angeles sparked by the death of a 15-year-old girl who overdosed on Ecstasy at the Electric Daisy Carnival in June. Raves seem to come hand in hand with illicit drug use, with Ecstasy being one of the favorite drugs. The event was held at the Los Angeles Coliseum, and the public commission that oversees the storied venue has struggled to reach a consensus on how to limit the number of people ended up at hospitals after raves.
A month before EDC, two people died at a rave in Daly City's Cow Palace--an area which Ma represents. Dozens of people require medical attention at each event, with more overall attendees generally leading to more hospitalizations.
“Raves are a state-wide problem and require a state-wide approach,” Ma said in a statement e-mailed to the press. “It’s time that the legislature says enough is enough and provide law enforcement with the tools to shut down events that have displayed a pattern of fostering youth drug use.”
She said raves are too taxing on the resources of law enforcement and emergency medical responders. Bay Area law enforcement officials pushed the idea of outlawing raves, and her bill comes partly in response to their worries. Her bill could be debated in committee next month. Ma plans to work with rave promoters, county officials and first reponsders to amend the bill as necessary.
Insomniac, one of the leading electronic music event promoters, said there's nothing criminal about such events.
"We are disappointed with the assemblywoman’s decision to introduce a bill that ignores our First Amendment rights," Insomniac founder Pasquale Rotella said in a press release. "We share her concerns about safety and that’s why we have worked so closely with local government and law enforcement to develop effective guidelines for safe events.”
Insomniac put on the Electric Daisy Carnival. The company's next event--Together As One--is hosted on New Year's eve at the Los Angekes Sports Arena in partnership with fellow promoter Go Ventures.
Assemblyman Mike Davis, who represents the Exposition Park area where the Coliseum is located, was not available for comment because most of his staff is on vacation until Jan. 3. A call was placed to State Senator Curren Price, who also represents the Exposition Park area, and he's deciding whether or not to comment. On Tuesday, Price was part of a group that halted the state's sale to USC of several acres of land under the Coliseum and Sports Arena. A spokesman for Ma said both Davis and Price have been asked to help improve the bill.
The legislation proposed by Ma would make it a misdemeanor to hold a public event between sunset and sunrise that features prerecorded music and lasts more than 3.5 hours. The punishment would be a fine of "$10,000 or twice the actual or estimated gross receiptsfor the event, whichever is greater."
Those with a business license to run "a bar, club, theater, entertainment venue, or other similar business, or to conduct sporting events" would be exempt. A spokesman for Ma said the intent is to bar raves at abandoned warehouses or other businesses that do not specifically exist to hold large entertainment events.
The Cow Palace, which is owned by the state, and the Los Angeles Coliseum and Sports Arena, which are owned jointly by the state, County of Los Angeles and City of Los Angeles, would not be exempt. Anyone who holds a rave at these venues, even with approval, would face the criminal charges.
For all of the publicly-owned venues, electronic music concerts appear to be very important income-generator. For the cash-strapped Sports Arena, three events a year bring in several thousand dollars in rent.
The federal government has attempted to pass a handful of measures during the last decade to curb raves and the use of club drugs such as Ecstasy, but only the least stringent of the legislation has become law.
Cities such as Toronto, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco and New Orleans have explored or enacted regulations on raves during the past two decades, but this appears to be the first-ever statewide proposal.
Ma hopes her proposal will also bring out reports from other cities in the state that may be having underreported problems with raves.
For our previous coverage of raves, click here.
Reach executive producer Paresh Dave here. Follow him on Twitter: @peard33.
Comments
Feona needs some ex just to see there's more to life than shutting raves down, and just for the record, that stupid bitch was 15 why was she at an 18 + event taking drugs, funny huh if she graduated harvard her parents who be Taking all the credit, she overdoses and they blame raves, fuckin smarter politicians, the general public will stand as one and fuck you in the ass one day my dear political party.
The bill is ridiculous, EDC and all massives for the most part are 18+ it's a negative on my part, because I am not 18. But it is understandable because you have minors that have no clue of what there doing. The ban i taking things way to far. Kids die at concerts, are we going to ban concerts to.
Although it is a tragedy for the death of anyone, especially one so young. But banning all dance events on public property or whatever, is not going to fix anything. If the lawmakers believe that stopping dance events will stop this type of problem, well I have news for them. They are just plain wrong. How about some plausible solutions?
Do me the favor of stopping all "Dance" related events, but not touching other types of music or entertainment events. Because for some reason, nothing seems to ever happen at Hip-Hop festivals or Huge rock festivals.....cough! Because if a want to be rapper shoots or stabs someone in a crowd, or a long haired angry rocker bashes someone to death with a chair or something, thats ok because he wasn't high on Ecstasy or some other kind of "Rave" substance.
Even better yet, stop all forms of music gatherings all together. Yes... Because that makes sense.
How about taking some actual time and develop some new laws that actually do something to fix problems instead of trying to just essentially sweep "Raves" under the proverbial rug. And make sure they apply to all events. Because crowd management is crowd management, no matter how you look at it.
Ignorant laws make for bad solutions because they dont think anything through, and only make things worse.
Before you go try stealing everyones fun, maybe you should learn to have it yourself. Because god knows how many law makers love that alcohol. (worlds most deadly substance by the way)
Promoters should be more careful when planning and putting on events, regardless of what type of music event it is. (A simple search could have prevented this)
Event Goers should be more aware of your surroundings, and get educated on the risks of substances if they plan on taking or giving it to anyone. Seriously... get online and get an ecstasy test kit for 15 bucks or whatever it is. Not that im promoting anything illegal, just that if you plan on doing it, then you should be prepared. There are plenty of organizations that help with that sort of thing.
and drug dealers.... seriously... 15 year old kid come on.
Whether it be in a giant warehouse, underground compound, or outside in a public venue, these events will always happen... I can remember several "Anti-Rave Laws" that were put into place here in Michigan and literally stopped events for about 2 weeks, thats it.
Seriously.... get a clue
You are totally right brother, i wanted to leave a comment for these bastards but you took the words right out of my mouth! Raves hurt no one kids with drugs hurt adults who've probably hurt them back, god do you really need a dagree to understand logic and common sense?
I definitely agree with all of you! I feel terrible for what happened to that girl, but at the same time EDC was 16 and under WITH GUARDIAN!!! I like how once again music is being blamed for someone's lack of parenting mixed with their child's inability to control their own actions. I highly doubt that she was never informed about the risks involved with taking ecstasy. It's really unfortunate that all of the people that love the music so deeply and know how to enjoy it responsibility have to catch so much crap for this incident. Sorry to sound so heartless but if I was ever injured at a party on my own accord, I would never want anyone involved to be affected negatively. Pasquale has provided dozens of my friends and I with some of the most amazing nights of our lives for the past 5 years and we all made it back safely to tell about them. I guess that's what happens when responsible people go to safe events. Sounds like Ma needs to start pointing fingers in the right directions. Don't worry kids they've always been trying to shut us down...NOT HAPPENING.
Peace.Love.Unity.Respect.RESPONSIBILITY
Fiona Ma has no friends...party poooper
In the UK we had this 20 years ago with 'The criminal justice bill'. We still have raves, we still have drugs(if you want them) we are just one more step further from trusting the authorities. Is this progress?
Whenever there is fun, there are haters. I have faith that PLUR will win out in the end.
Lol Comedy. Passing a silly law like that isn't going to keep the real promoters from throwing parties and certainly isn't going to keep the real ravers from raving. Raving is love. And you definitely can't keep people away from what they love. This woman's a head-case and needs to focus on real state-wide issues instead of wasting time and money on something she can't win.
First and foremost I understand why you guys are jumping to trying to solve the problem with this. Think about the repercussions this will have on the people that attend said raves. When you officially ban raves from happening you put the people that attend these raves in a state of emergency because you're essentially taking away the safe part about these events. This will not stop the raves from happening this will only make them stronger and it will come to this point again 4-9 years from now. I don't think anyone quite understands the passion between these events and ravers but when you do you will realize doing this is a horrible idea.
The city of Angels in a state of shock on how poor we are and you guys want to get rid of the main revenue for this city? Likewise state-wide, how selfish do you think this idea is?