srsly

two news items today.

bad news in utah. just a reposting of what’s already been flying around the web and some keywords for the search engines Utah rave shut down by SWAT and Utah National Guard. the link is to metafilter. and to keep this somewhat balanced, here are links to the story from local news: KVTX Utah, KSL TV Utah. most of what the stink is about this is that the means used to break up this event were rather excessive. and by excessive i mean helicopters, dogs, and SWAT and Utah National Guard dressed in para-military camo pistol whipping party-goers for no apparent reason. by accounts from people that were there, and take this with a grain of salt because i’d be willing to bet neither side is telling the whole truth here, nobody was forcibly resisting authorities, and yet there are reports of people getting severely beaten and abused by law enforcement. link to an account by a DJ that was there. there’s video floating around, most of which is linked on the metafilter article.
i’m not putting this up here to be newsworthy, i just want to make sure this gets as wide a distribution as possible. i’m not pissed about a party getting broken up, this happens. but usually what happens is a handful of local cops come in, find the promotor ask them to shut of the sound, and then they firmly tell everyone to go home. nobody gets hurt, everyone is sad, but they leave because they don’t want to get arrested. in this case, upwards of 60 armored personnel, a helicopter, and k-9 units stormed the event, pointed guns at party-goers and told them to get the fuck out; and in some cases dishing out a beat down. i’m just kind of saddened that this would happen in the US. i guess this is what happens with crap like the patrio act and the rave act. and what pisses me off is that bigger concerts like metal shows and such are far more dangerous to be at what with getting assaulted by some drunk guy if you’re anywhere near the front, and the possibility of getting trampled. but ticketraper would have a fit if armed guards stormed the place and beat down all the tweeker hillbillies at those shows.

the other item is on a lighter note: Japan to promote “Warm Biz” look to save energy. that is, people are being encouraged to not wear a coat and tie to work during the summer months in an effort to keep thermostats a little higher and not use so much energy. and in the cooler months, bundle up so heating isn’t so expensive. i think it’s a good idea. i already employ this practice in my own home. if it’s really hot, as soon as i get home, all the windows get opened, a fan gets turned on, and the pants come off.

hooray for no pants.