Rave near Bath - why are the police so helpless?

Good idea about the crushing Callistemon.

I just listened to him too and DH and I agreed that they probably need double the number of police officers as they do seem to have given up on an attempts to police these mass gatherings in the area.

We think the cars and equipment, sound systems etc that were left behind should be crushed.

I live in the area and have just seen the Chief Constable interviewed on our local News and answering the complaints. There was a huge amount going on in the Bristol-Bath area over the weekend apparently, with hundreds of arrests, 14 police officers injured (one who received a dislocated shoulder, yet who still returned to work after treatment) and I, for one, after listening to what the police were having to deal with generally over that period of time, understand that they can't be everywhere and doing everything.

Police all over the country have been having a tough time recently with many injuries, also injuries to police horses and dogs. It is completely appalling.

Recently, we had someone on our (flat) roof. We phoned the police and, because it was classified as someone breaking in and still being in, we had so many police cars, so quickly, we couldn't believe it.
I think that they'll have to change how they police these things because the public are getting pissed off.

Flopen because they are A&S P

Word of these raves are spread through social media, which the police monitor - why didn't they pick up the information, even if it was moved from Frome to Bath, the information had to be spread somehow

apparently, the cohort least likely to wear face masks is young men. A lot of the older people are staying inside to shield themselves, IMO.

I know I'm banging on and on about this, but I really can't see why they couldn't arrest those who were transporting the equipment away from the venue afterwards. They must have been the only people in whacking great big vans (to transport the speakers). Then give them a big fine.

The same thing happened in Bristol recently. OK, it's difficult to stop once it's in full swing, but they were using big pieces of equipment. The police could easily have arrested the owners afterwards and fined them. Why not?

There have been illegal raves for many years. I remember the from when I lived in Suffolk back in the eighties. So there's nothing you part from the alcohol being cheaper than back then and the drugs being stronger perhaps.

There are no festivals this year so the youngsters need some sort of outlet. In any event, I don't think that lightning strikes the same place twice.

No doubt the police were also engaged in patrolling the towns for all those disobeying the social distancing rules and drinking too much.

Finally, invest in some ear plugs.

How about a naughty step for pensioners? The police could round them up and sit them on the Town Hall steps. Our Rathaus has loads of steps and could probably hold at least 100, even with social distancing.

Might not do their haemorrhoids any good but ...

Galaxy I meant were all residents in your area elderly, but obviously not if you have a local school. How very odd to have so many elderly in groups not social distancing while the school children and their parents were scrupulous. I really am amazed that every one else in your area has obeyed the guidance to the letter, it's been a mixture of all ages that have broken the rules in mine .

As for turning the volume down that wasn’t until 9:30 in the morning - hah! I am at least 6 miles away and it kept me awake half the night.
Yes big tractor with slurry wagon was my idea too flopen. How about a crop spraying plane with coloured dye, then pick them up later?

All elderly in my area janipat, parents at the local school had to advise the children how to avoid them! Perhaps I should suggest they were sprayed with slurry.

The police would like you to think there were 3,000 people there but that was not until much later after they did nothing. When they first got there it was just a few hundred. That’s what Chief Superintendant Ian Wylie said when interviewed on Somerset Live yesterday evening: “There were many many hundreds“ when we arrived. Not thousands. They arrived later. Police just stood and watched.
The rave in Frome to which I referred was a couple of years ago when the same police CS said In the interest of public safety which was the ravers, no action would be taken, and twiddled their thumbs.

Everyone thinks it’s rural Somerset but it’s only 3 miles from Bath and less than 10 from Bristol, yet they say they have no officers. Thousand of people were disturbed not to mention the risk of COVID 19. The police here do nothing. What’s the use of telling us to report any signs of raves when they do absolutely nothing. In Wiltshire they sort it.

A slurry shower would have sent them home pronto!

flopen

I agree with you all. But, given that the police felt they couldn't intervene, rightly or wrongly, surely it would have been easy to arrest the organisers?
I personally would have flown over in a helicopter loaded up with slurry and given them a free shower

Well I don’t usually agree with you flopen but I’m chuckling away here and thinking ‘yes!’.

galaxy how lucky are you to live in an area where not one single middle-aged, young, or minor person has broken social distancing! Or is your area only elderly people? Where I live I have seen breaches amongst all age groups, but the first most visible ones were teenagers gathering in the children's playground areas. To be fair they were just sitting on benches chatting, not causing trouble, but not observing any distancing or wearing masks.

Strange, that's not quite how I heard it. The police were told of a rave near Frome, and went there, but the organisers had diverted to Bath. When the police got there, there were at least a thousand people, with a load of alcohol and illegal drugs involved. There are not enough police in Somerset to deal with that after all the cuts. They did manage to turn the volume down somewhat, but otherwise just had to keep order as best they could till people left.

The police were told by locals at 11:10pm and were there within 10 minutes when the equipment was set up and there were just a few hundred people. They did a risk assessment and decided as it was dark and wet in the interests of public safety by which they meant the illegal ravers and their own safety they would take no action. So nothing happened, just the chief constable sat in his bunker miles away in Portishead whilst the rest of us were kept awake by loud thumping bass “music” all night and well into the next dat.

A&S police are useless. They are too busy kneeling to do their job. They did nothing whilst BML supporters ran through Bristol and damaged property, and they have stood by before and permitted all night illegal raves In Frome and Bristol. It is no wonder illegal rave organisers come to Somerset and with complete contempt call us Scumerset when they know our police will do nothing. In Wiltshire they get removed.

The Chief Constable should be sacked. The police do nothing under his command and do not keep law and order in this part of the country. They are a laughing stock.

Every single person in my area I have seen breaking social distancing has been elderly every single one. It reflects very badly on that generation that they feel entitled to do as they please.

The police should have gone in and ordered them to turn off the amplification, and removed it if necessary. But there would only have been a few police officers available, in rural Somerset (?), and with 3,000 people attending they probably felt discretion was the better part of valour. Arresting the organisers will be nigh on impossible as it was illegal. Not right, but very difficult to summon up enough manpower without preparation. And of course the participants will be lined up with phones ready to record every move.
It reflects very badly on our young, who having survived covid lockdown feel they are entitled to do as they please.
Suffered several 'folk festival' weekends held near my house; it took several years and a whole community effort to close it down.

I don't understand why the police didn't just confiscate the generator and sound system. This isn't the first time Avon and Somerset police have failed to stop a "rave" - one was blocking a road in a residential area and despite the police receiving complaints from about 5.00 pm did not show up until late at night and then said there were too many people to disperse safely!

I wonder if young people somewhere are moaning about the older entitled generation. My son is in the woke generation you talk of.

flopen

I agree with you all. But, given that the police felt they couldn't intervene, rightly or wrongly, surely it would have been easy to arrest the organisers?
I personally would have flown over in a helicopter loaded up with slurry and given them a free shower

Brilliant ??

I agree with you all. But, given that the police felt they couldn't intervene, rightly or wrongly, surely it would have been easy to arrest the organisers?
I personally would have flown over in a helicopter loaded up with slurry and given them a free shower

Except the poor people who live in the vicinity! Whoops, I forgot they're probably law abiding,tax paying and middle class, oh and white, so who gives a stuff about them? Serves them right probably! What a country we've become!!