Police in helicopter - them search for marijuana

At first I thought we hadn't sent enough troops to Iraq. Obviously I was wrong. Things over there are going swimmingly. Plus, if we had sent more soldiers who would be left behind in Utah to bust up raves?

Watch footage of the raid here. Read newspaper coverage here. Now get the "you couldn't make this shit up if you tried" story directly from the promoters here.

There's plenty of mindboggling shit to go around here, but my personal favorite might be the comment from Utah County Sheriff James Tracy who asserted that, ""[Security guards] have no legal statutory authority to take and hold controlled substances. It's against the law for them to have them." Let's buy into this half assed logic for a quick second. If there's not meaningfull security at the party to confiscate drugs then it's lawless and out of control, if there is security there confiscating drugs then they're in illegal posession of drugs. That's quite a nifty way to abridge the right to free assembly…great job asshole.

But maybe I should be fair, this was an illegal party right? Utah County Sheriff's Sgt. Darren Gilbert was quick to note that the party promoters hadn't secured a mass gathering permit. That must mean the party was illegal right? After all county law states,

No person shall permit, maintain, promote, conduct, advertise, act as entrepreneur, undertake, organize, manage, or sell or give tickets to an actual or reasonably anticipated assembly of two hundred fifty (250) or more people which continues or can reasonably be expected to continue for twelve (12) or more consecutive hours, whether on public or private property unless a license to hold the assembly has
first been issued by the County Commissioners." (Ord.No. 1971-4, Section 2, 7-7-71)

Well it would be a compelling case if the party were scheduled to last more than 12 hours which it wasn't. Now they could have asked the party promoters how long the party was scheduled to last or even reccomended that they apply for the security permit they thought was required. But I guess that's too much to ask of Utah's finest. Besides if they did that they wouldn't be able to play with their helicopters assault rifles, stun guns, full body armor, night vision cameras and canine units which were going unused anyway. It's not like they had anything else to do with all that gear. We're not fighting a war overseas are we?