Chief Kerlikowske, you know as well as I, the AADO--passed in 2002 to replace the Teen Dance Ordinance (TDO)--doesn't even regulate raves. This paper advocated repealing the TDO and replacing it with the AADO precisely because the vague TDO was being enforced arbitrarily to shut down shows based on content: punk shows, hiphop shows. Perhaps your troops didn't get the memo about the AADO. Well, the folks running Saturday's rave got the memo--and a lawyer.
Gloria Connor, the event promoter, had been warned earlier in the week by Seattle Security, Inc. (a group set up by the SPD union to provide off-hours police) that if she didn't have off-duty police at the rave, the police would shut it down. They also told her--get ready for the Catch-22--that they wouldn't work the rave. (Similarly, the police recently, and arbitrarily, decided to stop staffing events at the Showbox, according to Showbox owner Jeff Steichen.)
When the cops showed up at 10:30 p.m. and indicated, inaccurately, that Connor's rave violated the AADO, Connor was ready. She showed them a letter from the city--which said the event didn't fall under the AADO. Evidently, the statement wasn't good enough. The police pressed Connor on AADO guidelines specifying the need for off-duty officers if events go later than 2:00 a.m. (the rave was scheduled to run until 4:30 a.m.). However, if event planners make timely requests for off-duty officers and get turned down (as Connor did), then they're allowed to hold the event. That caveat was worked into the AADO to prevent cops from sabotaging events by simply refusing to work them; in other words, for situations exactly like this. Ever-ready Connor produced a statement from Seattle Security, Inc. showing she had played by the book and requested officers, but been turned down.
The cops tried a third tactic. While raves don't fall under AADO guidelines, they do require the fire marshal's approval. So, the cops put in a call to the fire marshal. The fire marshal had already okayed the gig, though, and was standing right there.
Trumped again, the cops reportedly tried juvenile intimidation, having squad cars flash lights and stop people. They didn't find anyone to arrest. "At the end of the day, it was just a routine check," says SPD spokesperson Sean Whitcomb. Was this the work of "bad apples" or, as local promoters fear, a new coordinated effort to target certain events?
At a meeting two days before the rave, Donna James, director of the Mayor's Office of Film and Music, told Kerlikowske she'd heard talk that police would try to shut down the event without due cause. Kerlikowske said he'd make sure they wouldn't.
Dear Chief Kerlikowske, what happened?
