WISCONSIN RAVE REBELLION:

Racine in the Hot Seat as Hundreds Demand Trial on Bogus Bust at
Electronic Music Benefit Concert

Racine, WI, police must have thought they scored a major coup when
they raided what they described as a "rave" organized by a local civic
organization early in the morning of November 3. But a month after
the raid went down, it is turning into a major embarrassment instead
- -- one that could end up digging deep into the pockets of Racine taxpayers.

It all began when Racine police infiltrated a benefit for the Uptown
Theatre Group. Officers allegedly observed people making drug
transactions and arrested three of them. It was their next move that
sparked outrage and controversy. They then barred the doors and cited
everyone in attendance -- some 445 people, some from as far away as
St. Louis and Chicago -- for being present in a "disorderly house," a
$968 ticket. That was too much for the Uptown Theatre Group and for
most of the ticketed attendees. As they complained loudly and
vigorously, the word began to spread in the electronic music community
and among civil liberties groups.

By this week, groups including the Wisconsin ACLU, the national ACLU's
Drug Policy Litigation Project and the Electronic Music Defense and
Education Fund (http://www.emdef.org), an affiliate of the Drug Policy
Alliance, had joined forces with local attorneys and angry show-goers
to start making life miserable for the city of Racine.

"We've received more than 250 complaints," said Susan Mainzer,
spokeswoman for EMDEF, an organization formed to defend the electronic
music scene from attacks by misguided prohibitionists. "And with
reason. This was really over the line." Mainzer forwarded those
complaints to the state and national ACLU, she told DRCNet.

After receiving numerous complaints, the Wisconsin ACLU investigated.
"The city of Racine needs to drop those charges and apologize," said
the group's lead attorney, Micabil Diaz. He said the same thing in a
letter sent last week to Wright. He hasn't yet received a response,
he told DRCNet.

Wright, hoping to make the hubbub go away, last week offered to reduce
the fines to $100, but that wasn't good enough for the busted music
fans. On Monday, as the first batch of ticketed partiers appeared for
their first hearings on the charges, legal teams outside the
courthouse provided them with information about their legal options
and the possible consequences of their choices. At the end of the day
Monday, 166 people had appeared for their hearings. Only 19 took the
$100 "no contest" plea offer, while a whopping 147 people pled not
guilty and demanded jury trials. Almost 300 people have yet to make
an appearance, but advocates expect to see a similar percentage
demanding their day in court.

"We told them about their options, but the decision to demand a trial
was up to them," Diaz told DRCNet. "They refuse to take a plea," he
told DRCNet. "This is a matter of principle for them."

As it should be, said local attorney Eric Guenther, who is
representing the Uptown Theatre and several of those ticketed that
night. "The police conduct was an outrageous violation of First
Amendment rights to freedom of assembly and speech," he told DRCNet.
"The police are supposed to arrest drug violators, but these people
didn't do anything more than attend an electronic music concert. The
police claimed there was rampant drug activity, but then why did they
only arrest three people on drug charges?"

Mary Hahn of the national ACLU's Drug Policy Litigation Project
concurred. "That was a really egregious First Amendment violation
with frightening ramifications," she told DRCNet. "Are they going to
ticket everybody at a jazz club if someone is using drugs?" she asked.
"Those people were not committing crimes, they were doing nothing
wrong."

Racine will pay a price if it attempts to prosecute these cases, said
Guenther. "The city is saying it will have to hire a special
prosecutor to handle the caseload, and it will have to pay huge
overtime costs for police officers to testify in hundreds of trials,"
he said.

And that's not the only possible price. Although Guenther, who
represents the Uptown Theatre, refused to comment on the possibility,
press reports this week quoted theatre director Gary Newman as hinting
that the group could file a civil suit against the city. He told the
Racine Journal Press that the raid and arrests damaged the group's
reputation and ability to raise funds for the theatre's renovation, a
two-year-old project. "We have been harmed by this," Thompson said.
"They (police) decided they did not want this party to happen... the
police blunder may end up costing the taxpayers."

A civil suit would typically first seek injunctive relief, said Hahn,
but plaintiffs could also seek damages.

And the Racine police still don't get it. "When we see probable cause
to make an arrest, we do it," said police spokesman Sgt. Macemon.
"The courts may disagree, but I don't think we would do anything different."

Racine taxpayers might have something to say about that when the bills
start coming in.