Patterico's Pontifications

7/7/2010

Electric Daisy Carnival, aka Ecstasy for Everyone

Filed under: General — Jack Dunphy @ 1:02 pm



[Guest post by Jack Dunphy]

There’s been much discussion here in Los Angeles about the appropriateness of a publicly owned venue like the Coliseum hosting what in essence is an extravaganza of illegal drug use. My thoughts on the matter are posted today over at Pajamas Media. A sample:

On June 25 and 26, something called the Electric Daisy Carnival was once again held in and around the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the site of two Olympic Games but lately reduced to hosting less noble entertainment. Billed as an “electronic dance festival,” the EDC is in reality an enormous outdoor orgy of drug use set to the incessant beat of music which, if it were employed in the service of discomfiting captured al-Qaeda terrorists, would bring threats of sanctions from the United Nations. And it all took place in a publicly owned facility and under the watchful but largely impotent eye of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Read the whole thing.

–Jack Dunphy

30 Responses to “Electric Daisy Carnival, aka Ecstasy for Everyone”

  1. don’t be such a hater…..

    did Villarboboso get free tickets?

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  2. So now the LA Board of Supervisors decides they must take action and “identify the extent of public health concerns associated with rave parties.”. As a result of their epiphany, they are establishing a Task Force…because clearly if they only known ahead of time that there would be ecstasy, various drugs, alcohol, 226 medical emergencies, 114 people taken to hospitals, drug overdoses and drunkenness, they could have prevented it with Task Force rules. It would have been so easy. You know, as opposed to saying NO to the original request for coliseum usage.

    This is akin to believing if the next victim city hosting the G20 summit stamped it’s foot and said absolutely no looting and rioting will be tolerated and then *actually* expecting a sea of calm for that week. Oh. Wait.

    Dana (1e5ad4)

  3. If I lived in Southern California, I would almost certainly have gone to at least one day of EDC, and would have remained sober the entire time. I know some friends of mine were ther last year, and I expect some were there this year as well.

    Even without the addition of drugs, there is something about the energy and the feel of a large crowd dancing to electronic music which I find compelling; every time I’ve gone to such an event, I’ve had a blast.

    That said, I think the police should certainly bill the promoter for extra police time needed for the event; a large group of people partying and having fun shouldn’t be a drain on city resources, and it’s legitimate for the public to demand that use of such resources be paid for.

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  4. I’m with aprhael. I viewed most of the photos @ the link provided in PJM piece and didn’t see anything really scary…no more skin that you’d see on a hot day at the beach. OTOH, unlikely any in the pix would claim membership in the Tea Party.

    Old Coot (082c44)

  5. I have reached the limits of my liberalism, raising a little girl. I now think the way to dry up the drug swamp is to punish the buyers the same way as the sellers.

    nk (db4a41)

  6. According to the statistics I’ve seen, total attendance for both days was 185,000.

    If there was one fatality, than the risk of death at the event was slightly less than the general risk of death when scuba diving (1 in 200,000 dives) and slightly better than double the risk associated with rock climbing (1 in 320,000), while being better than the risk associated with hang-gliding (1 in 116,000).

    None of these activities are resulting in calls to ban them. But this activity is … I think largely because the other activities are perceived as ‘good’ while this activity is perceived as ‘bad’.

    (Statistics courtesy The British Government).

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  7. nk and Daryl Gates are on the same page????
    Dogs and cats must be sleeping together.

    AD - RtR/OS! (568b48)

  8. Actually, Blue (the kitten) and Kodi (the Lab) are. I don’t know if Kodi thinks Blue is her puppy or Blue thinks Kodi is her kitten.

    nk (db4a41)

  9. And I always liked Daryl Gates.

    nk (db4a41)

  10. Dana, yeah, the whole thing is (IMO) fairly silly.

    I really can’t imagine that they know anything today about the risk of electronic dance music massives, or the likelihood that such events would involve ecstacy, drugs, and medical emergencies, than they did when they approved the event. My (cynical) suspicion is that certain politicians are trying to use the girl’s death to their political advantage, and that other politicians are trying not to look unsympathetic to the family … and that the whole public discussion is to some extent play-acting whose intent is to (a) convince nervous parents that things will be OK while (b) not actually changing anything.

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  11. Well, that was a nice little shaker at 1654!
    Wonder where it hit hardest?

    AD - RtR/OS! (568b48)

  12. 22 km (13 miles) NNW (332°) from Borrego Springs, CA, says USGS.

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  13. AD-RtR/OS!, my chandelier swayed quite a bit. Cal-Tech says, 20 km (13 mi) NNW of Borrego Springs, CA, a 3.0.

    Dana (1e5ad4)

  14. Dana, USGS lists 8 earthquakes in that general region in the last half hour, the largest of which it pegs at 5.4.

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  15. Dana – Get over to the Levi thread, we’re all hugging it out with nk.

    daleyrocks (1d0d98)

  16. Well, I’ve felt about three of the aftershocks, plus the biggie, here in Downey.

    AD - RtR/OS! (568b48)

  17. dang it! earth just move
    for missus haiku not G
    spot just small earthquake

    ColonelHaiku (9cf017)

  18. Comment by aphrael — 7/7/2010 @ 3:11 pm

    I don’t think it’s cynical to suspect pols are using this to advance their cause. I think it sadly, is reasonable.

    The city approved this event *knowing* full well what the dangers were. The LAPD knew, the Fire Dept. knew, and I, a private citizen who hasn’t been to anything resembling a rave for at least 35 years, knew.

    Dana (1e5ad4)

  19. “I, a private citizen who hasn’t been to anything resembling a rave for at least 35 years, knew.”

    Jan Schakowsky’s Townhall meeting last August where not everybody could fit inside the high school auditorium was the closest I came.

    daleyrocks (1d0d98)

  20. Dana: I suspect myself of being somewhat irrational on the subject because (a) I am a fan of electronic dance music, and so (b) I feel like politicians are basically trying to advance themselves at my expense, whenever this issue comes up.

    The thing is: I think the overwhelming majority of people who go to these things know what the dangers are. (Look: crowded dance space. Lots of people. dancing. Ergo: heat, dehydration risk.) These dangers can be mitigated if you’re paying attention and take care to mitigate them.

    It seriously irritates me that (a) some people fail to take the necessary precautions and (b) every time they do, politicians try to ban the events. As I said before: the risk is comparable to the hang-gliding risk … and the fact that some people don’t take the necessary precautions when hang-gliding doesn’t seem to result in calls to ban hang-gliding.

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  21. That’s funny, daley!

    Dana (1e5ad4)

  22. Thirty years ago some wag suggested that the solution to the (then) gang problem in L.A. was to round-up all the gang-bangers, dump them into the Coliseum, and then prosecute anyone still alive after about a week, or two!
    Medieval, but effective.

    AD - RtR/OS! (568b48)

  23. haiku say dump them
    all west of catalina
    first make wear wet suits

    ColonelHaiku (9cf017)

  24. “Thirty years ago some wag suggested that the solution to the (then) gang problem in L.A. was to round-up all the gang-bangers, dump them into the Coliseum”

    AD – Kurt Russell did those movies as Snake Plisskin(sp?), Escape From New York and Escape From L.A.

    daleyrocks (1d0d98)

  25. I agree with aphrael. Maybe its a generation thing – my dad would probably be horrified by the pictures, but to me it looked pretty much like Burning Man, only in the city. As far as the risks, I don’t see them as significantly greater than attending a baseball game or NASCAR event (or at least, not so much greater that a ban would be justified). Let the kids have their fun, I say.

    Sean P (4fde41)

  26. The thing is: I think the overwhelming majority of people who go to these things know what the dangers are. (Look: crowded dance space. Lots of people. dancing. Ergo: heat, dehydration risk.) These dangers can be mitigated if you’re paying attention and take care to mitigate them.

    aphrael,

    It’s not a matter of the attendees knowing what the dangers are, it’s a matter of those dangers straining public resources (ambulance, health care: “…local hospitals, where the staffs have come to regard the EDC as a “mass-casualty event”, planning for it as they would if they had advance warning of a train derailment”, police officers, etc) and even endangering them (police officers breaking up mobs).

    I agree that the pols are using this either way – by approving such a potentially disaster-filled event because they can make big bucks for the city off of it, and, now in their wringing of hands, forming a task force, all the while trying to determine at the end game, appeasing which group (attendees/citizens) will result in the most profits (whether it be votes/approval or monetary profits) – all of which won’t matter when a lawsuit is filed by the family of the 15 year old against the city…

    The other concern are the minors in attendance. According to the LAT,

    Technically, anyone who was under 16 had to be accompanied by an adult — but Gannon said there was no evidence that anyone was checking attendees’ identification.

    I say just ban the rave, it’s not worth it… but then I loathe electronic dance music.

    Dana (1e5ad4)

  27. Comment by Sean P — 7/7/2010 @ 5:28 pm

    They have well-trained security and medical personnel at MLB games, and NASCAR events.

    AD - RtR/OS! (63c5ca)

  28. Every electronic dance music massive I’ve been to has had well-trained security and medical personnel. It would be unprofessional in the extreme not to.

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  29. My daughter went to that event both days. She looked ridiculous in her, and her girlfriends’, attire but they had a good time and came home sober. I think they took her Marine boyfriend with them for an escort so were probably safe.

    Mike K (82f374)

  30. Mike K: they would have been safe without an escort; I suspect the Marine boyfriend was there to have fun, too. 🙂

    aphrael (e0cdc9)


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