Case Studies

Rave displacement

by Mark Rowe

At an unlicensed music event in the street in Brixton last night, 22 Met Police officers were injured (none seriously) and police vehicles were damaged. Other police forces have warned against open-air raves. Is it any wonder? asks Mark Rowe.

Criminologists are debating and working out how crime is changing during the Covid-19 lockdown. Complacency is our greatest enemy in the fight against the virus, warned an open letter by civic leaders in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Regardless, just as ‘football lads’ carried out disorder by showing more interest in baiting police in central London than supposedly defending statues of British historical figures – doing the same disorder they would on a Saturday, except differently because football too is in lockdown, only re-started behind closed doors – so young people are displacing themselves. They cannot go to pubs and clubs, even in midsummer? They seek their own entertainment regardless of appeals to act responsibly, and ‘the public health message and regulations’ as explained by police.

An illegal rave ran near Lichfield in Staffordshire last weekend drawing several hundred; police issued warnings to parents who were found dropping their children off to attend. Since last weekend’s raves at Carrington, and Daisy Nook in Oldham, Greater Manchester Police have established a dedicated policing operation; likewise West Midlands Police.

WMP Supt Nick Rowe said: “Events like this are illegal. They are unacceptable at any time but even more so during a pandemic in which large gatherings are banned to help stop the spread of a killer virus. We are taking steps to deploy significant extra resources, including our drone and dogs units, to ensure public safety and minimise the risk of any anti-social behaviour, noise pollution and crime that can result from these type of unlicensed events.”

Police do point out that the vast majority of the public have followed the rules in place to limit the spread of the virus, and as a result the UK has seen sustained reductions in reported crime.

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