((this year))...at Summer Camp
SURPRISE!! When you put tens of thousands of kids (kids=16 to 36 year olds...my opinion!) together with nice weather, live music, camping, etc. is it really that shocking that a few hundred people out of tens of thousands decided to use the opportunity/environment presented to them to do illegal activities? Tell me -- tell me I'm wrong in what I am about to say... Most people in the U.S. have never attended an event quite like Summer Camp. Because of this, there is a HUGE segment of our society that, while considering themselves "open-minded" on issues such as gay marriage and the separation of religion and education, will read/see the headline above (see title of posting) and then draw the conclusion that those people who were arrested (ultimately representing only a small percentage of overall attendees of the festival) represent the majority of people who would be attending a festival and festivities such as Summer Camp, Peace Fest, Burning Man, etc.
While I am not going to sit here and try and tell you (you, reader!) that 99% of the people in this scene are anti-illegal activities, the simple fact of the matter is that the overall attitude of those who attend these sorts of events, while it can be said to be generally more accepting and tolerant of the use of certain substances, illegal and legal, to "enhance" the festival experience, to generalize these concepts to the extent one believes that most people there are just there for the party (i.e., illegal substances, generally "psychedelic" drugs) and not really for the music, people, and environment is just the same as assuming every young Black, white, or Hispanic male between 16 and 36 who wears the suuuuper baggy pants, waist at the knees almost, with some flat-brimmed hat representing a sports team or hometown/city MUST (or, at least 99% of them MUST) be in a gang/be a drug dealer/have a criminal record/has spent time in jail/prison. We all know that not only is this not true but it's not right; it's thoughts and ideas and value-systems that are based on these types of views that lead people to truly dislike, hate, and look down on. Read on and draw your own conclusions...
By Matt Buedel
CHILLICOTHE — Police seized more than 16 pounds of marijuana and a rainbow of other drugs while making hundreds of drug-related arrests at the Summer Camp Music Festival.
The annual Memorial Day weekend event at Three Sisters Park drew tens of thousands of revelers from around the country for what ended as one of the wettest and coldest festivals since the event’s inception more than a decade ago.
The inclement conditions overall appeared to have resulted in fewer safety-related calls but did not dampen drug activity, law enforcement officials said Wednesday after releasing a preliminary tally of arrests and illegal substance seizures.
“With the weather we were dealing with and everything else, I think everything went as well as can be expected,” said Chillicothe police Chief Scott Mettille. “It seemed like there were less calls and less incidents to respond to out there.”
Still, between patrols by Illinois State Police outside the park grounds and operations on the grounds by officers with the Chillicothe Police Department, Peoria County Sheriff’s Office and Multi-County Narcotics Enforcement Group (MEG), hundreds of arrests were made.
According to figures released by police, patrol efforts resulted in 272 citations for traffic and criminal offenses and two arrests for outstanding warrants. Written warnings totaled 268. Other non-patrol enforcement efforts resulted in 119 drug-related arrests.
“Initially, I thought with the weather we would be less active,” said MEG Director Rene Sandoval.
“When you stop and look at the stats, they definitely reflect that we were busy out there. … The place was pretty active.”
While the variety of drugs encountered at the festival is unusual when compared to typical drug seizures in the area, the mixture of drugs such as Ecstasy, LSD, mushrooms and stimulants were as expected.
But the seizure of those substances was only one part of a three-pronged approach law enforcement take at the festival, Sandoval said. Officers are there primarily to provide safety for concert attendees and neighboring Chillicothe residents and help promoters with security efforts, in addition to enforcing state and federal drug laws.
“People who go out there need to take responsibility for their actions,” Sandoval said.
By the numbers...
Police on patrol in and around Three Sisters Park for Summer Camp Music Festival over Memorial
Day weekend seized a variety of drugs, broken down by substance below.
Marijuana: 7,547.7 grams
Ecstasy: 137.7 grams powder and 218 pills
LSD: 187 hits and three strips
Methamphetamine: 310.4 grams
Ketamine: 230.8 grams
Psilocybin mushrooms: 256.1 grams
Cocaine: 11.1 grams
Hashish: 164 grams
THC: 256.1 grams
Assorted prescription medicines: 120 pills
Nitrous oxide: One large tank, two cases of individual units
Read more: http://www.pjstar.com/news/x83401589/Police-make-hundreds-of-drug-arrests-at-Summer-Camp#ixzz2ZWsIRyZL
Friday, May 31, 2013
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Summer Camp festival has history of multiple arrests...
Well, if you read the article which will be posted following the conclusion of the Midwest's official start of the summer (or at least for those in the Midwest who proudly declare their allegiance to the "scene") - Summer Camp Music Festival in Chillicothe, IL over Memorial Day weekend - you will see just once again how much that area (Peoria County) counts on the Festival - whether they like/will admit it or not - relies on the Festival and the arrests which will inevitably come out of it to help (financially) support the local economy (see the ending of the article posted below!). By now, it's kind-of expected by the locals that they will see car after car after car of young people, many times - but not always - with out of state plates, pulled over along Rte. 29 (the main road leading to the Festival grounds that runs through the town there). But, to really get an idea of how this is "expected" by the town and the attendees alike at this point...read on!
By Matt Buedel
CHILLICOTHE - The sightings will be inevitable. Later this week, along the shoulder of Illinois Route 29, vehicles with out-of-state license plates will be stopped, the red and blue strobes of sirens behind them, their contents splayed along the roadside.
The scenario along the highway - the only route to Three Sisters Park and the tent city erected every year over the Memorial Day holiday weekend for tens of thousands of revelers who attend the Summer Camp Music Festival - has become as much of a ritual for the first weekend of summer as a backyard barbecue.
In some law enforcement circles, the event has earned the nickname "Felony Fest" for the sheer volume and variety of illegal substances it draws, and that reputation in part has led to the increased roadside attention. Yet the arrests that go along with the festival are only a small part of the overall atmosphere, those familiar with it are quick to point out.
"With those numbers, no matter what the event, you're always going to have a bad element coming in," said Chillicothe Police Chief Scott Mettille, who will be intricately involved in enforcement actions for his second year as chief in the host city.
In his previous role as assistant chief with the Peoria Heights Police Department, Mettille dealt mostly with Summer Camp in terms of those who passed through town on the way to the concerts.
Memorial Day weekend 2012 was his first as chief in Chillicothe and his first direct foray onto the festival grounds.
His initial reaction to the open drug use at the park was a desire to make more arrests, but reality soon tempered that idea. There simply isn't enough manpower to take all those people into custody for what most of the time would amount to an ordinance violation.
"I don't mean to say were accepting of it," Mettille said. "But we're making it the best workable situation that we can."
Still, there is no mistaking that Mettille and other law enforcement officials bolster their ranks for the weekend in anticipation of the public safety needs associated with such a large gathering of people and the amount of illicit chemicals that arrive along with them.
All Chillicothe officers will be on hand for the weekend, working the park grounds and extra patrols in the city. They will be assisted by deputies with the Peoria County Sheriff's Office, troopers from the Illinois State Police and agents with the Multi-County Narcotics Enforcement Group (MEG).
MEG Director Rene Sandoval said his agents will concentrate on covert operations on the parks grounds, searching out those who bring large quantities of controlled substances to sell.
"There's a lot of good people who attend Summer Camp, but there's some people out there to profit from illicit drug sales," he said. "That's why we're there."
Route 29, the one road that all Summer Campers must at some point drive, also will be heavily patrolled for traffic infractions and drug possession.
"We're not stereotyping or anything like that, but we do go by experience," said Peoria Heights Police Chief Dustin Sutton, whose territory includes a section of the highway that thousands of festival-goers must pass from the south to reach the park grounds.
"We're not that naive to believe we're out there just for traffic arrests," he added. "The fact is those traffic stops do evolve into more - not all the time, but a lot of the time."
And the drug arrests do add up. Between a handful of police agencies in Peoria County patrolling around the festival grounds and covert drug agents working within the crowds, 235 people ostensibly connected to Summer Camp have been arrested and sent to jail on drug charges over the last five Memorial Day weekends.
A Journal Star analysis has found that 151 of those cases - or 64 percent of the total number arrested on drug charges ranging from misdemeanor marijuana possession to felony controlled substance possession and distribution - have resulted in convictions.
Most of those convictions produced sentences that combined terms of probation, usually about two years, with treatment, community service and fines. Some Summer Campers received as little as six months of supervision. One man received six years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Peoria County State's Attorney Jerry Brady called those outcomes the products of "adequate scrutiny in terms of charging."
Just as police agencies will call in extra officers to handle the crowds, Brady's office, too, will staff additional prosecutors over the weekend to review cases, including the chief of charging, Steve Patelli. Brady keeps a close eye on the festival, as well.
"I feel it's my responsibility to understand what activities are taking place in Peoria County so I'm aware when there is a basis for closer scrutiny of criminal charges," Brady said.
Of the 235 people arrested for drugs in or near Summer Camp in the last five years, 63 were never charged with a crime after being released from jail. Overall, that represents 27 percent of detainees who ended up on the booking sheet, though an indeterminate amount of additional minor drug arrests are not included in those figures.
Officers in Peoria Heights and Chillicothe have the discretion to write ordinance violation tickets for possession of drug paraphernalia and anything less than an ounce of marijuana, and those citations are not reflected in the totals gleaned from jail and courthouse records.
Mettille said he prefers that approach when possible because it leads to the best outcome under the circumstances.
"If you give people the opportunity (to be honest) and treat them with respect, a majority give it right back to the officers," Mettille said. "If you do it the right way, things can end good all the way around."
The cases examined by the Journal Star were limited to Peoria County, though Illinois State Police and other local agencies in neighboring counties also have seen an influx of Summer Camp-related drug arrests from traffic stops in their jurisdictions.
One trend in Peoria County did emerge. The ratio of arrests to charges exhibited a large swing from year to year and showed generally that the more drug arrests that were made, the higher the percentage that were not charged.
Over the course of the festival in 2008, for example, a total of 17 people were arrested for drug crimes and booked into Peoria County Jail. Four of those individuals were never charged. In 2012, police booked 65 people into the jail on drug charges, but 28 never faced formal charges in a courtroom. Brady said the 2012 figures were due in part to arrests related to synthetic materials that were later determined not to be controlled substances by lab tests.
Law enforcement officials appeared to have built the most successful cases in 2010, when only four people of the 50 booked into jail for drugs did not eventually face charges.
Of the 172 cases in the last five years that were charged, only 10 have been dismissed, while 11 more remain unresolved, some because the out-of-town defendants did not return for court proceedings.
Of the 151 people convicted in the last five years, 53 have received treatment as part of their
sentence. A total of 2,635 hours of community service have been ordered performed, and fines and fees worth $361,947 have been ordered paid.
While those figures do carry weight, law enforcement authorities said they represent only half the story and do not necessarily represent the main priority of police. Brady said the top objective is safety.
"My concerns are the large numbers of people and the potential for drug-related medical issues," he said. "That's my primary focus, and second is the enforcement."
By the numbers...
The Journal Star analyzed drug arrests from Thursday through Monday of the last five Memorial Day weekends to check the disposition of Summer Camp Music Festival drug arrests in Peoria County.
Out of more than 270 overall drug arrests, 235 appeared to have been related to the festival based on characteristics such as home addresses, the nature of the charges and the lack of local criminal histories. Below are other numbers related to the disposition of the arrests.
- 235: People booked into Peoria County Jail on drug charges ostensibly related to the festival.
- 172: Number arrested who were eventually charged with a drug crime.
- 151: Convictions from those charged.
- 11: Cases still unresolved.
- 10: Cases dismissed.
- 53: Number of those convicted who have been ordered to undergo treatment as part of their sentence.
- 2,635: Hours of community service ordered as part of sentences.
- $361,947: Fines and fees ordered to be paid by those convicted.
Read more: http://www.pjstar.com/news/x1160895783/Summer-Camp-festival-has-history-of-multiple-arrests#ixzz2ZWztzDOV
By Matt Buedel
CHILLICOTHE - The sightings will be inevitable. Later this week, along the shoulder of Illinois Route 29, vehicles with out-of-state license plates will be stopped, the red and blue strobes of sirens behind them, their contents splayed along the roadside.
The scenario along the highway - the only route to Three Sisters Park and the tent city erected every year over the Memorial Day holiday weekend for tens of thousands of revelers who attend the Summer Camp Music Festival - has become as much of a ritual for the first weekend of summer as a backyard barbecue.
In some law enforcement circles, the event has earned the nickname "Felony Fest" for the sheer volume and variety of illegal substances it draws, and that reputation in part has led to the increased roadside attention. Yet the arrests that go along with the festival are only a small part of the overall atmosphere, those familiar with it are quick to point out.
"With those numbers, no matter what the event, you're always going to have a bad element coming in," said Chillicothe Police Chief Scott Mettille, who will be intricately involved in enforcement actions for his second year as chief in the host city.
In his previous role as assistant chief with the Peoria Heights Police Department, Mettille dealt mostly with Summer Camp in terms of those who passed through town on the way to the concerts.
Memorial Day weekend 2012 was his first as chief in Chillicothe and his first direct foray onto the festival grounds.
His initial reaction to the open drug use at the park was a desire to make more arrests, but reality soon tempered that idea. There simply isn't enough manpower to take all those people into custody for what most of the time would amount to an ordinance violation.
"I don't mean to say were accepting of it," Mettille said. "But we're making it the best workable situation that we can."
Still, there is no mistaking that Mettille and other law enforcement officials bolster their ranks for the weekend in anticipation of the public safety needs associated with such a large gathering of people and the amount of illicit chemicals that arrive along with them.
All Chillicothe officers will be on hand for the weekend, working the park grounds and extra patrols in the city. They will be assisted by deputies with the Peoria County Sheriff's Office, troopers from the Illinois State Police and agents with the Multi-County Narcotics Enforcement Group (MEG).
MEG Director Rene Sandoval said his agents will concentrate on covert operations on the parks grounds, searching out those who bring large quantities of controlled substances to sell.
"There's a lot of good people who attend Summer Camp, but there's some people out there to profit from illicit drug sales," he said. "That's why we're there."
Route 29, the one road that all Summer Campers must at some point drive, also will be heavily patrolled for traffic infractions and drug possession.
"We're not stereotyping or anything like that, but we do go by experience," said Peoria Heights Police Chief Dustin Sutton, whose territory includes a section of the highway that thousands of festival-goers must pass from the south to reach the park grounds.
"We're not that naive to believe we're out there just for traffic arrests," he added. "The fact is those traffic stops do evolve into more - not all the time, but a lot of the time."
And the drug arrests do add up. Between a handful of police agencies in Peoria County patrolling around the festival grounds and covert drug agents working within the crowds, 235 people ostensibly connected to Summer Camp have been arrested and sent to jail on drug charges over the last five Memorial Day weekends.
A Journal Star analysis has found that 151 of those cases - or 64 percent of the total number arrested on drug charges ranging from misdemeanor marijuana possession to felony controlled substance possession and distribution - have resulted in convictions.
Most of those convictions produced sentences that combined terms of probation, usually about two years, with treatment, community service and fines. Some Summer Campers received as little as six months of supervision. One man received six years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Peoria County State's Attorney Jerry Brady called those outcomes the products of "adequate scrutiny in terms of charging."
Just as police agencies will call in extra officers to handle the crowds, Brady's office, too, will staff additional prosecutors over the weekend to review cases, including the chief of charging, Steve Patelli. Brady keeps a close eye on the festival, as well.
"I feel it's my responsibility to understand what activities are taking place in Peoria County so I'm aware when there is a basis for closer scrutiny of criminal charges," Brady said.
Of the 235 people arrested for drugs in or near Summer Camp in the last five years, 63 were never charged with a crime after being released from jail. Overall, that represents 27 percent of detainees who ended up on the booking sheet, though an indeterminate amount of additional minor drug arrests are not included in those figures.
Officers in Peoria Heights and Chillicothe have the discretion to write ordinance violation tickets for possession of drug paraphernalia and anything less than an ounce of marijuana, and those citations are not reflected in the totals gleaned from jail and courthouse records.
Mettille said he prefers that approach when possible because it leads to the best outcome under the circumstances.
"If you give people the opportunity (to be honest) and treat them with respect, a majority give it right back to the officers," Mettille said. "If you do it the right way, things can end good all the way around."
The cases examined by the Journal Star were limited to Peoria County, though Illinois State Police and other local agencies in neighboring counties also have seen an influx of Summer Camp-related drug arrests from traffic stops in their jurisdictions.
One trend in Peoria County did emerge. The ratio of arrests to charges exhibited a large swing from year to year and showed generally that the more drug arrests that were made, the higher the percentage that were not charged.
Over the course of the festival in 2008, for example, a total of 17 people were arrested for drug crimes and booked into Peoria County Jail. Four of those individuals were never charged. In 2012, police booked 65 people into the jail on drug charges, but 28 never faced formal charges in a courtroom. Brady said the 2012 figures were due in part to arrests related to synthetic materials that were later determined not to be controlled substances by lab tests.
Law enforcement officials appeared to have built the most successful cases in 2010, when only four people of the 50 booked into jail for drugs did not eventually face charges.
Of the 172 cases in the last five years that were charged, only 10 have been dismissed, while 11 more remain unresolved, some because the out-of-town defendants did not return for court proceedings.
Of the 151 people convicted in the last five years, 53 have received treatment as part of their
sentence. A total of 2,635 hours of community service have been ordered performed, and fines and fees worth $361,947 have been ordered paid.
While those figures do carry weight, law enforcement authorities said they represent only half the story and do not necessarily represent the main priority of police. Brady said the top objective is safety.
"My concerns are the large numbers of people and the potential for drug-related medical issues," he said. "That's my primary focus, and second is the enforcement."
By the numbers...
The Journal Star analyzed drug arrests from Thursday through Monday of the last five Memorial Day weekends to check the disposition of Summer Camp Music Festival drug arrests in Peoria County.
Out of more than 270 overall drug arrests, 235 appeared to have been related to the festival based on characteristics such as home addresses, the nature of the charges and the lack of local criminal histories. Below are other numbers related to the disposition of the arrests.
- 235: People booked into Peoria County Jail on drug charges ostensibly related to the festival.
- 172: Number arrested who were eventually charged with a drug crime.
- 151: Convictions from those charged.
- 11: Cases still unresolved.
- 10: Cases dismissed.
- 53: Number of those convicted who have been ordered to undergo treatment as part of their sentence.
- 2,635: Hours of community service ordered as part of sentences.
- $361,947: Fines and fees ordered to be paid by those convicted.
Read more: http://www.pjstar.com/news/x1160895783/Summer-Camp-festival-has-history-of-multiple-arrests#ixzz2ZWztzDOV
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Survey Says: Today's Music Festivals Are For Squares
Note: the "festivals" described below don't really include some of the major ones in the U.S. ... that have't become over-commercialized and outrzagously prices/difficult to get tickets... just ... read below and see what I mean...
April 10, 2013
By Nathan Reese
With music-festival season in full effect, we decided to get to the bottom of what actually goes down amidst the chaos of Coachella, the bars of South by, and the tent cities of Bonnaroo. Using data from the kind folks at Poshly, which we partnered with for a festival-centric beauty giveaway, we got answers to those burning questions festivalsgoers need to know: What festivals do fans like best? Are people actually hooking up? And, perhaps most interestingly, are you guys all on drugs?!
As it turns out, the results didn't always pan out as we expected. Lollapalooza was the most desired festival to attend, with 36% of those polled saying they wanted to head to Chicago. This was followed closely by Coachella (30%), with SXSW (16%) and Bonnaroo (13%) neck in neck. Pitchfork, also in Chicago, ended up dead last with 5% — a big surprise, considering the lineup this year is so awesome.
When asked if they would "ever hook up with a cute stranger?" 80% of those polled said they hadn't, 14% said "just once," and 6% said "all the time!" Maybe it's just us, but from the amount of sloppy make-out sessions we've witnessed in Austin alone, that number seems drastically low. (It could be because just 39% of respondents said that they don't drink at music festivals.) When asked about drugs, the stats were similarly tame, with 79% saying that they keep it sober at music festivals, 12% smoking pot, 1% dabbling with cocaine and hallucinogens, 3% using Ecstasy, and the remaining 4% mixing a "hodgepodge of substances" (be careful out there, you guys!). Woodstock, apparently, Lollapalooza is not.
So, what do folks actually do at music festivals? Well, "the music" is still the biggest reason people attend, followed by "kicking back and relaxing." That's pretty heartening to hear, considering what seems like the current emphasis on parties and celebrities over the last few years. (Although, in a different category, 26% said that "celeb spotting gives me a jolt.") If anything can be gleaned from Poshly's survey, it may be that music festivalgoers put music first, and leave their vices to other venues. So, tell us: Do you fit in with these demographics? What's your favorite way to experience a music festival?
and comments...such as...
April 10, 2013
By Nathan Reese
With music-festival season in full effect, we decided to get to the bottom of what actually goes down amidst the chaos of Coachella, the bars of South by, and the tent cities of Bonnaroo. Using data from the kind folks at Poshly, which we partnered with for a festival-centric beauty giveaway, we got answers to those burning questions festivalsgoers need to know: What festivals do fans like best? Are people actually hooking up? And, perhaps most interestingly, are you guys all on drugs?!
As it turns out, the results didn't always pan out as we expected. Lollapalooza was the most desired festival to attend, with 36% of those polled saying they wanted to head to Chicago. This was followed closely by Coachella (30%), with SXSW (16%) and Bonnaroo (13%) neck in neck. Pitchfork, also in Chicago, ended up dead last with 5% — a big surprise, considering the lineup this year is so awesome.
When asked if they would "ever hook up with a cute stranger?" 80% of those polled said they hadn't, 14% said "just once," and 6% said "all the time!" Maybe it's just us, but from the amount of sloppy make-out sessions we've witnessed in Austin alone, that number seems drastically low. (It could be because just 39% of respondents said that they don't drink at music festivals.) When asked about drugs, the stats were similarly tame, with 79% saying that they keep it sober at music festivals, 12% smoking pot, 1% dabbling with cocaine and hallucinogens, 3% using Ecstasy, and the remaining 4% mixing a "hodgepodge of substances" (be careful out there, you guys!). Woodstock, apparently, Lollapalooza is not.
So, what do folks actually do at music festivals? Well, "the music" is still the biggest reason people attend, followed by "kicking back and relaxing." That's pretty heartening to hear, considering what seems like the current emphasis on parties and celebrities over the last few years. (Although, in a different category, 26% said that "celeb spotting gives me a jolt.") If anything can be gleaned from Poshly's survey, it may be that music festivalgoers put music first, and leave their vices to other venues. So, tell us: Do you fit in with these demographics? What's your favorite way to experience a music festival?
and comments...such as...
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