Party Vibe

its not that expensive when the vehicle is bought on finance, and as I mentioned in the first post probably less than the financial losses caused by a rave if it strays onto farmland.

It costs a few grand to call people in to clear up other peoples shit, plastic rubbish and other trash and heaven help the farmer if that sort of contamination is found in his crops as they go to market (they will lose the value of the crops and their subsidies and be marked by Defra as “contaminated land”)

delaying the harvest may have meant he lost out to a competitor – in financial terms paying for the cops car is no more expensive than buying a monitored burglar alarm / CCTV system and probably more effective.

Its been going on for years – I’ve seen farmers lending landrovers (from the farm fleet) before to cops before so they can get access to rave venues, and any local paper often shows local businesses sponsoring police vehicles. There were worries about the political implications of this in previous years but the Tories permitted it in the mid 1990s.

Sepura, the Cambridge-based company which makes the new radios for the old bill buys them £2000 mountain bikes so they can chase down the chavs fighting in pubs; the bikes aren’t marked with the Sepura logo, just the standard police markings around the frame. (they are very nice bikes though, top of the range kit with full disk brakes, lights and siren!

he’s contributing to police resources, the vehicle becomes public property and will not just be used for his purposes. it will be a police car like any other one in the area (and still requires available bobbies to drive it or could be deployed to another area!)

TBH I’m surprised he did it; he could have bought a nice landrover for his own farm use and just let the cops drive it when required, instead of giving away the vehicle to a public body. Alternatively, he could have spent the cost of the vehicle on private guards for his land only!

He could probably have got a years worth if not more private patrols for that sort of money; complete with dogs….

“bribery” it may be to ravers, but to him its just being “public spirited” and providing a vehicle for the good of wider society (it could equally be used to pick up any more unfortunates who fall off the cliff if the Ambulance can’t get there).

He’s just helping out his community; and there not a lot ravers can do when he happens to have the spare money to do so from his own business. How many old-skool rave DJs from the 90s do you see using their considerable wealth to put on a free party? TBH I don’t think its ever happened…. (ok fatboy slim maybe and we all know how pear-shaped that event went!)

Is what he’s doing any more different than a dealer giving a loan to a crew to buy a rig in return for a “safe turf” selling drugs at a club or parties, or a record shop owner investing in equipment for a pirate station in return for his/her tunes being played by the DJs?

its just the other side playing the game as well – and a stark warning of how angry the antis are getting. Many would argue that the farmer shouldn’t have to pay twice for the cops; he pays council tax and its quite expensive in East Anglia! The kind of people who may look like they have 24 grand “spare” are not usually fans of “state provision” – they don’t spend it to subsidise a public service they are already paying for unless they are really at their wits end…