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~~ San Francisco Police break the law once again. We need your help ~~
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| DanceDemocracy |
If you attended or was invited to our FREE Tiesto afterparty, you may have known that it was shut down by the San Francisco Police Department. What you may not have known is the San Francisco Police Department ILLEGALLY shut down our PRIVATE INVITATION ONLY party in a residential home.
The venue space of the FREE Tiesto afterparty is the residence of an individual named Fan Joseph. Fan and his dog Dopey reside in the room adjacent to the bathrooms and both where present during the party. Plainclothes police officers attempted to enter the residence Sunday November 22, 2009 at roughly 3:30am. Before the plainclothes officers entered the building, the doorman asked them for their membership pass or invitation at the front gate. The plainclothes officers responded with "How much is it to get in?" and the doorman responded with "This is a private event. You don't have an invitation?" The plainclothes officers then pulled out their badge, identified themselves as police officers, and said to the doorman, "We don't need one." The police FORCED their way through the front gate without Fans consent even after being asked numerous times for a warrant; the officers did not have consent to enter. When Fan told the police officers "THIS IS MY HOUSE! YOU DO NOT HAVE PERMISSION TO COME IN HERE!", they told him, "Shut up, put your hands on your head, and sit on the floor unless you want to go to jail." Fan complied and sat on the floor with his hands on his head but told the police officers again that they cannot enter into his home without a warrant and was violating his constitutional rights. He was then told to stand up, was handcuffed, and was told he was "going to jail." The police officers then restricted any persons from leaving or entering his home and proceeded to make their way into his dwelling space. One officer approached the person standing by the sound system and demanded him to turn off the music while the other officers detained everyone in the kitchen area.
After being threatened to be arrested by the officers, a majority of the attending members and invited guests of this private event vacated Fans home. The police began to search Fans entire house, including the bathrooms, kitchen, his bedroom, every closet, guest rooms, and storage rooms. They searched inside drawers, cabinets, and dressers, and under sofa cushions and mattresses. They even searched the unattended backpacks, pockets of clothing and purses without the property owners consent. They basically searched everywhere and everything WITHOUT A WARRANT, PROBABLE CAUSE OR EXIGENT CIRCUMSTANCES! The police basically executed a felony home invasion.
This is unconstitutional and we (friends, family, members of DanceDemocracy, and the EDM community) should not be discriminated against! The police cited Fan Joseph, a member of DanceDemocracy, and the person who was standing by the sound system on charges of "operating without a cabaret permit" and "fire code" violations, confiscated a laptop, hard drive, DanceDemocracy t-shirts, DanceDemocracy banners, and cash. Property slips where only issued for the laptop and hard drive.
We need your help to stop these rouge police who think they can do what they want, whenever they want. We need membership holders and invited guests to write letters to the judge and to let him know that what the police did was UNCONSTITUTIONAL and ILLEGAL! The police are trying to say that there was an entrance fee which made the party open to the public which justified the ILLEGAL entry into Fans home, citations, violations, and ILLEGAL searching of personal property.
In your letter please state that you where personally invited to the party via online or personally handed an invitation. Make clear that a person handed you an invitation and told you that you where invited to the party. Also state that there where no fees for the memberships and invitations. If you would like to really get involved and POSSIBLY show up for court and tell the judge your pleasant experience at one of our events then that would be awesome.
If you witnessed the police entering the building and would like to help out by writing a letter about what you witnessed and/ or POSSIBLY appear in court then this would be extremely helpful in our fight to continue having our private events at Fans home.
If we lose this case then it is likely we will loose this beautiful space that Fan has so graciously opened up to us, and most importantly, Fan will lose his home.
If you would like to write a letter, don't forget to include your full name and leave a contact phone number and/or address. Even if you didn't attend one of our events but had an invitation or membership pass, you can write a letter stating that you where personally invited to one of our events.
You can email letters to:
[email protected]
Fan and us at DanceDemocracy really need you all to get involved, stand up, and speak out on what we are providing you all. We have been hosting FREE events for you all purely out of the love of dance music and we want to provide our friends with a safe and intimate party experience. If you where there at "Way Back When" or the "Tiesto Afterparty" then you felt the vibes, you loved the music, and you can still feel the love.
Thank you.
Fan Joseph
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DanceDemocracy |
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| Musicjunky |
| This is complete bs. |
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| diskodave |
| Honestly - what do you expect by posting a 'rave afterparty' on internet forums? Let alone you passed out invitations during a rave at the cow palace... which has been known to be highly patrolled by undercover officers :rolleyes: Underground (private) parties have been a huge target by the police dept, and they have been actively monitoring and shutting down private underground parties a long time now. I can guarantee there was a massive amount of illegal activity going on at his pad, judging by your target audience/patrons. |
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| DjWoody |
| It's not worth fighting this one, you're gonna loose. If the cops saw any little reason for probable cause they can enter your property. I bet they saw tons of it. |
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| Musicjunky |
| I highly disagree with Woody. Definetly fight this. They need a search warrant to enter. Unless they saw money being exchanged at door. |
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| DaveT |
I wouldn't call your party invitation only...it was publically promoted.....it was just a party that requires RSVP, but it was basically open to the public beyond that.
And yeah, I wouldn't be amazed if they found out about it through undercover at the Cow Palace.
I dunno how the laws work when it comes to this stuff, and maybe you were within your legal limits, but you have to understand you are entering a bit of a gray area and probably should expect that there's the chance of having trouble with the police considering how the parties are promoted. |
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| bigperf |
| they should have arrested you guys for hosting a "tiesto afterparty" and not securing tiesto!:haha: |
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| DaveT |
| quote: | Originally posted by Musicjunky
I highly disagree with Woody. Definetly fight this. They need a search warrant to enter. Unless they saw money being exchanged at door. |
If they see/smell alcohol around and know underage people had access to the event, they were probably suspicious of illegal underage drinking going on....and that's could be reasonable cause for entry w/o a warrant.
If they smell marijuana and believe underage kids could be partaking, that's prob reasonable cause too.
The way the party was PROMOTED (on boards, handing out flyers promoted), it may not legally be considered a private house-party (in SF).
If there's anything they can use as a reasonle cause to suspect something illegal was going on, they'll use it as the reason to have went into the place w/o a warrent.
In regards to it being referenced as an illegal underground party basically....it'll depend on how the laws work. And that'll prob determine the issues they have legally in that regard. |
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| Musicjunky |
| Was this a 21+ party? If not that is your first problem. But u can have alcohol at a private party at any hour of the night as long as your of age. |
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| R!CH |
| you were openly promoting an 'afterparty' at the most law enforcement infested venue in all of california. if ever there was a place to get busted in the edm scene, that was it. based on the way you were promoting it i knew the cops were going to hear about it. they probably understood they had no in at the door, but a tactical decision was made to get in, find cash and drugs, and if nothing else ruin the party. you aren't the first or the last underground promoter this has or will happen to. if you want it to stop, you must sue the pd. merely getting the charges dropped doesn't deter them from doing it again next week. their purpose isn't to seek convictions, it's to ruin your night so you won't even bother trying again. |
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| 2tall |
it's a gray area and throwing these parties is known to be a risky venture
the bigger picture is that for around the past year, the SFPD and ABC have become more strict (and true... possibly a bit too aggressive with some of their tactics and confiscation of property). and whether they are reading forums or have "informants", some parties were getting shut down within five minutes of doors opening.
a couple years ago, it was almost too good to be true, with promoters abusing what they got away with... people gathered in front, cabs lined up, police turning a blind eye. and that's the cycle.
and there are probably several reasons, like legit afterhours clubs complaining especially when business in this economy might be slower, government workers like the ABC are probably trying to justify and protect their jobs by actually doing something for once, there's the ever present drama of the sf entertainment commission, and we also have that new sfpd chief. |
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| diskodave |
| quote: | Originally posted by Musicjunky
I highly disagree with Woody. Definetly fight this. They need a search warrant to enter. Unless they saw money being exchanged at door. |
Or 16 year old kids entering or exiting the party where alcohol is being consumed... that alone would give reason for them to enter... and I can only imagine the age group that attended being that it was heavily promoted a rave. |
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