RAVER TO TAKE ON COPS

Woman Lodging Complaint Over Strip Search

Aimee Kindervater plans on taking her Grade 12 law teacher's
advice.

"He came into the store the other day and said, `I have one thing to
say: call a lawyer.'"

Halifax West High School teacher David Williamson's comments came
after the controversial strip-search Halifax Regional Police conducted
on almost 50 people preparing for an all-night downtown dance party
last month.

Police raided the Underground, a dilapidated Maynard Street dance hall
Jan. 29, on a tip there would be 200 vials of the date-rape drug GHB,
and a jar of ecstasy pills, hidden above the ceiling tiles.

Kindervater, a 22-year-old record store clerk, was one of those
searched. In an interview with The Sunday Daily News two weeks ago,
the easy-going rave veteran admitted rolling with the punches when
ordered to strip.

"If you want to look at my fat naked butt, go right ahead. I don't
have anything to hide," she recalled telling a female officer.

But after some thought - and a chat with Williamson - Kindervater
decided to file a complaint against the local police force.

"I have become progressively more angry with what they did to me and
the others," Kindervater said last night.

She is meeting tomorrow with Halifax lawyer Walter Thompson to prepare
her complaint.

Thompson heads up the Nova Scotia chapter of the Canadian Civil
Liberties Association and was hoping to file a complaint on behalf of
the organization.

But early last week he was told the Nova Scotia Police Commission -
the independent body charged with hearing complaints against
provincial police forces - can only accept citizens' complaints.

That's where Kindervater comes in. "Many of my friends just want to
let it go and move on. But I'm worried if I don't take a stand here,
(a rave strip-search) will happen again."

The 30-day window for filing a complaint ends tomorrow.

Others, including Underground owner Wayne Mitchell, are also
contemplating filing a police complaint, Kindervater said.

Kindervater, who worked the coat-check room at the Repercussionz rave,
doesn't dispute the fact police had a responsibility to follow up on
their drug tip. "But there was no need to take it as far as they did,"
she said.