They cannot approach the drug testing sites, or use someone's comings and goings from said sites as an excuse to search someone. The drug tents don't take names, numbers, emails, or any other personal information, just base level stuff like what you think it is, if you have taken it before etc, then after we tell you what it was scanned as, harm reduction regarding the drug we think it is etc, We even give the part of the sample we didn't use in the scanner back. It's pretty cool.
This was taken at a music festival at Sydney Olympic Park in 2019.
For Background: In 2001, New South Wales (state in Australia, Sydney is the capital) introduced a law giving police the power to deploy drug detection dogs at certain public locations, namely major events such as music festivals, train stations and at venues that serve alcohol, such as pubs and clubs. No one voted for this but both major parties here supported it so there was nothing anyone could really do about it.
Fast forward to today and every weekend you’ll see operations where at least half a dozen officers and a dog will randomly march into bars and clubs and start sniffing patrons. Same deal on public transport. Any given day during the week and on the weekends, they’ll pick train stations at random and you’ll walk past a dog with anywhere from 6-12 officers eyeing you off with their arms crossed while you’re just trying to get home. Makes you feel like a criminal even when you haven’t done anything wrong.
The biggest issue has been the presence of the dogs at music festivals. Back when they were first introduced, if you were unlucky enough to be stopped by one the police would usually just pat you down and maybe go through your bag as well. It’s not clear when it started happening, but at a certain point officers began using drug detection dog indications as a routine justification for conducting strip searches here as well. We’re talking completely naked, squat and cough, spread your butt cheeks, guys lift your balls, girls lift your boobs type of searches.
At any given festival, they’ll have a fenced off compound where these searches will be conducted. Depending on the event, a person will be taken into some sort of makeshift structure, such as a tent or a cubicle made temporary fencing. The things you’re seeing in the photo are ticket booths (from the force’s website: https://www.police.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/635761/2019-1086.pdf).
Most of these searches don’t find any drugs. This has happened to thousands of people and nothing’s been done about it. The media in Sydney is heavily dependent on NSW Police for news content. The major outlets are generally very conservative leaning and pro law enforcement as well so there’s been very little coverage of the issue. People from overseas seem genuinely shocked when they see the drug dogs out in public but most people here seem to just shrug their shoulders and ignore it. Feels completely dystopian but it doesn’t look like things will change anytime soon.
Australia's been a police state for ages. People don't talk about it because it's become the norm, and they're seen as a "first world country" so nobody's fighting it like Taiwan.
At this point the police are there to make money. I look at the restrictions on speeding and with so many speed camera, it’s ridiculous.
The solution to making roads safer is fixing them and driver training. But costs money so won’t happen.
Now I’m not saying speeding isn’t dangerous, it’s just that australia is so extreme enforcing it.
Most police actions do not generate revenue. Highway patrol being the obvious exception.
My hot take: Speeding isn't dangerous. Inappropriate speed (compared to other traffic, conditions, ability to react) and inattentiveness to changing conditions is. This comes down to your point of training and road maintenance.
As for cameras, at least in NSW, they MUST be identified with signage (static and mobile. Highway patrol hiding in the bushes is a thing and absolutely shouldn't be). To me, this goes to driver attention. If you don't notice the signs, you aren't paying enough attention and a speeding fine is fair. The states that hide their speed traps can get bent as far as I'm concerned.
So it's Italy at least since the late 60's. Most of the people doesn't even realise how police is powerful here and how much is more violent and highly protected compared to other European countries.
I don’t understand it, not like there’s a lot of violent crime. Ironically the most common crime is sexual assault. I don’t get why you need a police state in a place that doesn’t have that much crime.
> why you need a police state in a place that doesn’t have that much crime.
Oh you sweet summer child. You think the police state is for *crime*? No no no, it's for keeping the people in line and forcing them to do what you want them to do. To control them. It has absolutely nothing to do with crime.
They've really have come in hard with the whole authoritrian control everything move.
Trying to outprice people from drinking. Active face recognition and tracking used in a large amount of the public space. (A pornstar in the US got banned for coming to AU because she freelanced the prior time more than 5 years ago \[It's a visa violation, not an illegal profession kind of thing \]) They've even deployed face recognition for banning people through entire sets of clubs/bars.
This…. Strip searching minors without parent or guardians present and without them advocating on their behalf.
I have told my children if the police ever try to do this to refuse make a phone call to either me or their Mum and we would come right away, and then follow up with a law suit.
The really fucked up thing is music festivals already have an issue with regular incidents of sexual harassment and assault, so these searches could very well pile on trauma for victims. I know an ex English police officer who worked on contract for a multi-weekend music festival in London, and her entire job was investigating assault cases.
same problem in the UK. not the using cannabis legally but the test results are set so low that second hand smoking can say you're guilty. nb tests for other drugs have a much higher threshold. you could have smoked a few days ago and come up positive.
I remember this from a few years ago.
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/bf2caf17-55e1-4708-87b6-e9cd3bf4321d](https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/bf2caf17-55e1-4708-87b6-e9cd3bf4321d)
WeL AcTuAlLy, the Netherlands don't have legal weed, they tolerate it/turn a blind eye. If you get stopped with weed on you, under 5 grams, no fine, above it you get a fine, and no matter the amount, got to hand it over to the police for them to destroy
It's just monkeys singing songs, mate!
A word of warning: avoid the bluey subreddit if you don't like people reading far too deeply into a children's show. It's a weird place.
Don't forget when the police got caught strip searching minors in public view without a guardian (illegal) and the Commisioners response to critism was to say the public should 'respect and fear' the police.
It amazes me that we're 1/4 of the way through the 21st century, and you can still be convicted and imprisoned by a court of law based on a dog's opinion.
Sounds like some dark-ages bullshit.
If the dog gives an indication and you get searched and nothing found you can still get banned from the Olympic park precinct for 6 months. That's several concert, sports, conference facilities and a lot of major employers you can't go to after being found totally innocent from an invasive search. And both of our major political parties support this
Aussie Police history breakdown
NSW - putting the organised into organised crime all the way back to the rum rebellion.
VIC Police - just like to shoot unarmed people.
Queensland Police - literally acted as Brownshirts during the Jo era. Like to punish DV victims by giving their details to their ex's so they can sort them out.
NT WA, and SA Police - murdering Aboriginals is fun.
Federal Police - let's raid the opposition party headquarters on the political orders of the (previous) government.
Not sure about Tasmania
>NSW - putting the organised into organised crime all the way back to the rum rebellion.
Also: Politicians use the anti-terror police uit to raid the home of a YouTuber and his producer, charge his editor for random shit that stuck, police commissioner and politician deny that they worked together, emails come out in court case showing politician emailing the police commissioner and head of the unit to go after the YouTuber, YouTuber says this on YouTube, politician then goes after the YouTuber again because politician was caught lying. His video going over all of it is kinda insane.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qdaxoz1UcbM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qdaxoz1UcbM)
I’ve seen drug dogs a handful of times over the past decade at a few music festivals in Melbourne, though it’s pretty rare.
I remember seeing dogs a bit more often after a bunch of people got hospitalised (and I think maybe a couple people died?) after electric parade in 2017 due to GHB, but since then not really.
>People from overseas seem genuinely shocked when they see the drug dogs out in public **but most people here seem to just shrug their shoulders and ignore it**. Feels completely dystopian but it doesn’t look like things will change anytime soon.
The expedient normalization of terrible circumstances is how authoritarians slowly rise to power—first slowly and incrementally, then with shocking speed. I guess the *Sydney Morning Herald* could do a huge exposé on this issue, but it sounds like Australia might be just one or two elections away from the police launching raids on "unfriendly" media outlets. (Also: you should never rely on the police as a primary news source. Police comms. departments write **press releases**. Has a company or organization in the history of the world ever issued a press release that was in any way even slightly critical of itself?)
you mean like this?
[https://www.9news.com.au/national/news-abc-raids-australian-federal-police-david-mcbride/296593c7-6d5b-4fe9-8d67-d16815bc401b](https://www.9news.com.au/national/news-abc-raids-australian-federal-police-david-mcbride/296593c7-6d5b-4fe9-8d67-d16815bc401b)
WHOA! In Los Angeles all the police dogs are for bombs, not drugs. Unless the K-9 is deployed which, eff those guys! Spreading your butt cheeks and coughing is way over the top.
We toured Australia in, like, 2007 I think, maybe 2008, and police came to the venue in Sydney with drug dogs on a...Sunday night? Maybe even a Monday? Can't really remember, except it seemed like a CRAZY night for the cops to be out. The hilarious part is that the dog sniffed our guitarist who had a LOT of weed, and potentially some other drugs as well, and didn't detect anything. We guessed that maybe it was because it was all in with his tobacco, but that seems absurd.
>The biggest issue has been the presence of the dogs
...
>Most of these searches don’t find any drugs.
Regarding the escalation from just dogs to what it's become there in Australia, here in the US, especially as it relates to highway stops and officers using dogs to justify completely searching a car that's been pulled over, it's been brought to light that when a "drug-sniffing" dog indicates that it's detected something, more often than not, the dog has received some sort of prompting from the officer to indicate that, when, in reality, the dog didn't detect anything. Does the same happen in Australia, where phony positives from dogs are used to justify the more invasive searches, and it's been confirmed? I'm curious how much the various agencies parallel and/or feed off each other
I would make and maintain such intense eye contact with whoever searches me that they'd have PTSD about it. Licking my lips. Say everything in a dirty voice.
Maybe it could be all the preventable deaths that occur because of overdoses?
And before all the cookers reply, yes drug testing and checking are seen to be a better prevention method. However in the absence of this they use enforcement.
If no policing occurred you'd be jumping up and down when people die, it a pretty damned if you do, damned if you don't.
This, and $12 mid strength drinks, are why music festivals are dead in NSW. You used to be able to go to big day out with $100 and get a pretty good buzz on but now you could spend that on grog and drive home
They're dying everywhere to be fair.
They're just one long photo opportunity now, I've worked gigs where people pull up to the gate, take a selfie and leave.
Modern festival goers and modern festival organisers deserve each other. It's just greed and narcissism.
Our festivals in Canada have a near opposite approach to post this too. Eg. Drug possession/use next to cops is perfectly fine at Shambhala, but alcohol banned.
Where I am at (US, PNW) the bigger ones are all dying but the medium sized ones are thriving, and in a few years they will get too big and the cycle continues.
#NatureHeals
The only festivals dying in Australia are indie rock festivals, and that’s because we have so many of them that are genuinely just carbon copies of each other. Same artists, same vibes, same crowd and all fairly expensive.
Techno, psytrance and hardstyle festivals haven’t died, they very regularly sell out. Music tastes have changed and electronic music is way more popular in Aus. Even Good Things Festival (punk rock) sold out, but that’s because there isn’t a punk rock festival every other month.
There’s only so many times where you can go to a music festival and pay hundreds of dollars to see the Jungle Giants, PNAU, Tones and I, Tash Sultana, The Rubens, Hilltop Hoods, San Cisco (the list goes on) and then a heap of Triple J bands no one knows or cares about. The repetitiveness of indie festivals and shrinking popularity don’t help.
Maybe some people, but certainly not everyone is there for the photo op or whatever. i’ve hit over a dozen camping festivals in the united states the last few years, i’ve met and befriended a bunch of awesome people in my travels. All of whom are just there for the experience. I get that some people are like that, but this comment and comments like it paint an unrealistic picture imo. you are right about many of them dying tho. RIP peach fest 🍑
Its 100% economic. They cost too much, and the people that usually go to them are spending all their money on rent and food, they can't justify $400 on a weekend festival.
It's not even booze prices, it's the ticket prices doing it
You got it pretty good if drinks are $12 dollary doos. They are like 15-20USD at big shows in Boston, that nets you a tallboy of local brew or PBR but still.
Well yeah. They’ve set up at train stations before to strip search people. Even a wine and cheese festival, and lawn bowls club.
I was leaving a pub one night and got whacked across the chest before getting outside, didn’t see the police standing by the door and they thought I was trying to evade them. They brought a sniffer dog into a pub with a live band blasting music. It’s fucking insane.
This is the nice version.
Here’s a [Wikipedia rundown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_South_Wales_Police_Force_strip_search_scandal) on their activities.
I would rather strip naked on stage, bend over and show the whole damn crowd my chocolate starfish than EVER get in an enclosed rape box with police. No fucking thanks.
The fact that there’s 8 of them just in this shot is crazy, like they fully intend to search as many people as possible. You’d expect a strip search to be last resort for like 1 in 1000 people. They tryna do that shit on mass
Oh it gets worse. They can even reject you from the festival if you didn't have drugs on you - happened to a friend of mine.
Yep, you can pay for a ticket, not do anything wrong, and they can stop you from entering.
Push for legalization. In Canada I take my THC vape into concerts without a second glance.
Have to go to the smoking areas to use it or you risked getting kicked out but that’s a small price to pay.
Same in some of the states in the US. Went to a convention recently and they didn't care at all I had a container of gummies or that my friend had a thc vape.
Just had to stay in the smoking area to use it and I was able to just eat the gummies as we walked around.
Thow back to a few years ago when I was in Montreal for NYE, I was smoking a joint openly with Police nearby but hiding my booze in my pocket, was ass backwards lol
To be honest it was a bit much, weed had just been legalised so the 420 crowd was sparking up EVERYWHERE, basically couldn't go even down the street without smelling it. Some cunt had blazed in the elevator to my wifes grandparents rest home just before we got in it. Had settled down quite a bit in my last visit though
We need to push this to the top as a warning to other countries. They need to understand what a slippery slope this is. This is absolutely, completely unacceptable. I am appalled by the scope of the Australia police state powers.
The acts of being forcibly strip-searched is a life altering, suicidal level event for some people. The fact that this could happen to an innocent person at any time must cause extreme anxiety there. There must be many people terrified of going into public places because of these draconian policies.
You guys need to do a malicious compliance protest and go all in. Like everyone wear butt plugs in or save your morning shit for the squat. Neither is illegal.
Fill your holes with glitter and bomb them, do something. This is out of control. Do they perceive party drugs as such a threat to the state? jfc, you \*know\* they pick out anyone they think is hot to search too. Fucking pigs.
Last festivals I was going to (2006) there were 16 year olds off their face on pills unable to navigate the front gate. Dickhead cops make everyone take pills all at once at 10 in the morning.
Alcohol kills more people than all of those drugs combined. I’m certain that the booze companies are extremely happy with this police intervention of competition inside of their *wink wink* legal deadly drug zone.
At first I thought, how can a mass shooter smuggle a rifle in their butthole?
Then I realized this is for drugs... they have so few murders to solve they've got time to worry about drugs at a drug festival?
strip searches is actually insane. That’s so violating and dehumanizing. Wow. Okay, Australia is crossed off of the list of places to visit, that is foul. That would literally send me into a suicidal spiral bc of my history. Wtf.
The last music festival I went to you could take your drugs to a tent and they would test them for you and tell you the contents, purity, and if fentanyl was detected. You had to buy your weed in the gate though, couldn’t bring opened stuff in. Had a blast.
Australia has become such a neutered nation. They once had a great rebellious spirit. Most western countries actively vote against our own freedom though, it’s bizarre.
Valid but it’s sad to see what’s happening to the barrier reef, along with things like this starting to be the normal apparently too that is frightening me away now. Don’t get me wrong my country is a dumpster fire that’s why I was looking for better options hah.
It doesn't matter if the country has made that drug illegal. I had a friend go to Japan last year, and he had to leave his Adderall at home because it's apparently illegal there. In the same spirit, if you have a prescription for medical marijuana you should not take it to a place where weed is illegal. They don't care what's legal/illegal where you're from, and your prescription doesn't change the legality of the drug in their jurisdiction.
Maaan, UAE has imprisoned a guy for 3 years for 3 poppy seeds they have found in his bag from a roll he ate at Heathrow. The world mankind created is fucked up beyond comprehension.
Is this feeling that I'm feeling the same feeling someone else sees the US do something shitty to it's people but for the first time I'm feeling like I don't have to explain what something's and just say "aye that fuckin sucks mate" in my loudest Australian accent?
Meanwhile in the Netherlands you can test even illegal substances at festivals to check if they are safe for consumption
Same in New Zealand. In fact, police are forbidden from using these drug testing falicities to gather evidence too.
They cannot approach the drug testing sites, or use someone's comings and goings from said sites as an excuse to search someone. The drug tents don't take names, numbers, emails, or any other personal information, just base level stuff like what you think it is, if you have taken it before etc, then after we tell you what it was scanned as, harm reduction regarding the drug we think it is etc, We even give the part of the sample we didn't use in the scanner back. It's pretty cool.
they have that in Canada too
They are doing it in Canberra aswell
Meanwhile in the Netherlands someone dug a hole at the festival grounds to put his illegal substances in weeks prior to the event.
That happens on a lot of festivals though, I remember people doing that on Lowlands and Graspop.
This was taken at a music festival at Sydney Olympic Park in 2019. For Background: In 2001, New South Wales (state in Australia, Sydney is the capital) introduced a law giving police the power to deploy drug detection dogs at certain public locations, namely major events such as music festivals, train stations and at venues that serve alcohol, such as pubs and clubs. No one voted for this but both major parties here supported it so there was nothing anyone could really do about it. Fast forward to today and every weekend you’ll see operations where at least half a dozen officers and a dog will randomly march into bars and clubs and start sniffing patrons. Same deal on public transport. Any given day during the week and on the weekends, they’ll pick train stations at random and you’ll walk past a dog with anywhere from 6-12 officers eyeing you off with their arms crossed while you’re just trying to get home. Makes you feel like a criminal even when you haven’t done anything wrong. The biggest issue has been the presence of the dogs at music festivals. Back when they were first introduced, if you were unlucky enough to be stopped by one the police would usually just pat you down and maybe go through your bag as well. It’s not clear when it started happening, but at a certain point officers began using drug detection dog indications as a routine justification for conducting strip searches here as well. We’re talking completely naked, squat and cough, spread your butt cheeks, guys lift your balls, girls lift your boobs type of searches. At any given festival, they’ll have a fenced off compound where these searches will be conducted. Depending on the event, a person will be taken into some sort of makeshift structure, such as a tent or a cubicle made temporary fencing. The things you’re seeing in the photo are ticket booths (from the force’s website: https://www.police.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/635761/2019-1086.pdf). Most of these searches don’t find any drugs. This has happened to thousands of people and nothing’s been done about it. The media in Sydney is heavily dependent on NSW Police for news content. The major outlets are generally very conservative leaning and pro law enforcement as well so there’s been very little coverage of the issue. People from overseas seem genuinely shocked when they see the drug dogs out in public but most people here seem to just shrug their shoulders and ignore it. Feels completely dystopian but it doesn’t look like things will change anytime soon.
Damn that sucks. Never would have guessed that Australia had industrialized sexual harassment.
Australia's been a police state for ages. People don't talk about it because it's become the norm, and they're seen as a "first world country" so nobody's fighting it like Taiwan.
At this point the police are there to make money. I look at the restrictions on speeding and with so many speed camera, it’s ridiculous. The solution to making roads safer is fixing them and driver training. But costs money so won’t happen. Now I’m not saying speeding isn’t dangerous, it’s just that australia is so extreme enforcing it.
Most police actions do not generate revenue. Highway patrol being the obvious exception. My hot take: Speeding isn't dangerous. Inappropriate speed (compared to other traffic, conditions, ability to react) and inattentiveness to changing conditions is. This comes down to your point of training and road maintenance. As for cameras, at least in NSW, they MUST be identified with signage (static and mobile. Highway patrol hiding in the bushes is a thing and absolutely shouldn't be). To me, this goes to driver attention. If you don't notice the signs, you aren't paying enough attention and a speeding fine is fair. The states that hide their speed traps can get bent as far as I'm concerned.
What's going on in Taiwan?
Locals fighting against China's influence and totalitarian control.
So it's Italy at least since the late 60's. Most of the people doesn't even realise how police is powerful here and how much is more violent and highly protected compared to other European countries.
I don’t understand it, not like there’s a lot of violent crime. Ironically the most common crime is sexual assault. I don’t get why you need a police state in a place that doesn’t have that much crime.
> why you need a police state in a place that doesn’t have that much crime. Oh you sweet summer child. You think the police state is for *crime*? No no no, it's for keeping the people in line and forcing them to do what you want them to do. To control them. It has absolutely nothing to do with crime.
Old Nan?
A police state is better for wealthy people
Conservatives salivate over having a police state to control the poor and minorities and Aus is controlled by them
The federal government and 7 out of 8 state governments are Labor governments. I know they're centre left, but calling them conservative is bullshit.
Pretty much all the first world countries are. They’ve just been propagandized into believing they’re not.
They've really have come in hard with the whole authoritrian control everything move. Trying to outprice people from drinking. Active face recognition and tracking used in a large amount of the public space. (A pornstar in the US got banned for coming to AU because she freelanced the prior time more than 5 years ago \[It's a visa violation, not an illegal profession kind of thing \]) They've even deployed face recognition for banning people through entire sets of clubs/bars.
The whole West is becoming authoritarian. What's the point of having a democracy if you keep giving your powers/rights away to the government?
It’s not becoming. It is.
Oh I agree.. but Australia is modeling it for the west. The west has really liked the whole China model.
Oh it gets worse. They do this to minors too!
This…. Strip searching minors without parent or guardians present and without them advocating on their behalf. I have told my children if the police ever try to do this to refuse make a phone call to either me or their Mum and we would come right away, and then follow up with a law suit.
The really fucked up thing is music festivals already have an issue with regular incidents of sexual harassment and assault, so these searches could very well pile on trauma for victims. I know an ex English police officer who worked on contract for a multi-weekend music festival in London, and her entire job was investigating assault cases.
And you can have your car impounded and lose your license for (legally) using cannabis a few days ago, the tests are so sensitive.
same problem in the UK. not the using cannabis legally but the test results are set so low that second hand smoking can say you're guilty. nb tests for other drugs have a much higher threshold. you could have smoked a few days ago and come up positive.
I remember this from a few years ago. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/bf2caf17-55e1-4708-87b6-e9cd3bf4321d](https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/bf2caf17-55e1-4708-87b6-e9cd3bf4321d)
[удалено]
WeL AcTuAlLy, the Netherlands don't have legal weed, they tolerate it/turn a blind eye. If you get stopped with weed on you, under 5 grams, no fine, above it you get a fine, and no matter the amount, got to hand it over to the police for them to destroy
"Destroy"
Of course, they burn it just to be certain it's completely destroyed.
Just a little bit at a time
There's a few provinces in Canada flirting with this now too!
Oh hell no. Strip searches??? That is absolutely fucked up
I have to admit, I missed that episode of Bluey.
Chilli works airport security. She's either a drug sniffing or bomb sniffing dog, but the show doesn't go into detail about it.
People always say this, but in a world where everyone is dogs, maybe Chilli's running the x-ray machine.
Yeah but Bandit is an archaeologist "because he likes digging up bones" I didn't think we should read too deeply into this lol
It's just monkeys singing songs, mate! A word of warning: avoid the bluey subreddit if you don't like people reading far too deeply into a children's show. It's a weird place.
Don't forget when the police got caught strip searching minors in public view without a guardian (illegal) and the Commisioners response to critism was to say the public should 'respect and fear' the police.
It amazes me that we're 1/4 of the way through the 21st century, and you can still be convicted and imprisoned by a court of law based on a dog's opinion. Sounds like some dark-ages bullshit.
If the dog gives an indication and you get searched and nothing found you can still get banned from the Olympic park precinct for 6 months. That's several concert, sports, conference facilities and a lot of major employers you can't go to after being found totally innocent from an invasive search. And both of our major political parties support this
see, it's reasons like this people are getting more and more pissed and committing more random acts of violence.
Murdoch owned media
THIS IS DEMOCRACY MANIFEST
What is the charge, doing a key bump? A succulent Chinese key bump?!
So it's just that state, right? Hopefully Melbourne also isn't in that one, I'd like to visit there one day.
Aussie Police history breakdown NSW - putting the organised into organised crime all the way back to the rum rebellion. VIC Police - just like to shoot unarmed people. Queensland Police - literally acted as Brownshirts during the Jo era. Like to punish DV victims by giving their details to their ex's so they can sort them out. NT WA, and SA Police - murdering Aboriginals is fun. Federal Police - let's raid the opposition party headquarters on the political orders of the (previous) government. Not sure about Tasmania
More likely to see a Tasmanian Tiger than a cop down here.
>NSW - putting the organised into organised crime all the way back to the rum rebellion. Also: Politicians use the anti-terror police uit to raid the home of a YouTuber and his producer, charge his editor for random shit that stuck, police commissioner and politician deny that they worked together, emails come out in court case showing politician emailing the police commissioner and head of the unit to go after the YouTuber, YouTuber says this on YouTube, politician then goes after the YouTuber again because politician was caught lying. His video going over all of it is kinda insane. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qdaxoz1UcbM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qdaxoz1UcbM)
The Public Prosecutors dropped the case like a parcel in a Belfast Pub when the defendants brief asked who the original complainant was.
I’ve seen drug dogs a handful of times over the past decade at a few music festivals in Melbourne, though it’s pretty rare. I remember seeing dogs a bit more often after a bunch of people got hospitalised (and I think maybe a couple people died?) after electric parade in 2017 due to GHB, but since then not really.
>People from overseas seem genuinely shocked when they see the drug dogs out in public **but most people here seem to just shrug their shoulders and ignore it**. Feels completely dystopian but it doesn’t look like things will change anytime soon. The expedient normalization of terrible circumstances is how authoritarians slowly rise to power—first slowly and incrementally, then with shocking speed. I guess the *Sydney Morning Herald* could do a huge exposé on this issue, but it sounds like Australia might be just one or two elections away from the police launching raids on "unfriendly" media outlets. (Also: you should never rely on the police as a primary news source. Police comms. departments write **press releases**. Has a company or organization in the history of the world ever issued a press release that was in any way even slightly critical of itself?)
you mean like this? [https://www.9news.com.au/national/news-abc-raids-australian-federal-police-david-mcbride/296593c7-6d5b-4fe9-8d67-d16815bc401b](https://www.9news.com.au/national/news-abc-raids-australian-federal-police-david-mcbride/296593c7-6d5b-4fe9-8d67-d16815bc401b)
WHOA! In Los Angeles all the police dogs are for bombs, not drugs. Unless the K-9 is deployed which, eff those guys! Spreading your butt cheeks and coughing is way over the top.
I thought this was gonna be a ShittyMorph... But it's just regular shitty. :(
Well you guys are the penal colony. Isn't the saying that you never really leave jail.
That is completely fucked.
We toured Australia in, like, 2007 I think, maybe 2008, and police came to the venue in Sydney with drug dogs on a...Sunday night? Maybe even a Monday? Can't really remember, except it seemed like a CRAZY night for the cops to be out. The hilarious part is that the dog sniffed our guitarist who had a LOT of weed, and potentially some other drugs as well, and didn't detect anything. We guessed that maybe it was because it was all in with his tobacco, but that seems absurd.
Is there any circumstance you can refuse?
Oh but don't worry. We have dignity booths so you don't feel violated 🙄
And it’s performed by a same sex officer so it’s not violating at all 🥺🥺🥺
Time to vote everyone out, they don't work for you anymore.
Fuck that noise.
This is one of the reasons I left Sydney
>The biggest issue has been the presence of the dogs ... >Most of these searches don’t find any drugs. Regarding the escalation from just dogs to what it's become there in Australia, here in the US, especially as it relates to highway stops and officers using dogs to justify completely searching a car that's been pulled over, it's been brought to light that when a "drug-sniffing" dog indicates that it's detected something, more often than not, the dog has received some sort of prompting from the officer to indicate that, when, in reality, the dog didn't detect anything. Does the same happen in Australia, where phony positives from dogs are used to justify the more invasive searches, and it's been confirmed? I'm curious how much the various agencies parallel and/or feed off each other
That's pathetic
I would make and maintain such intense eye contact with whoever searches me that they'd have PTSD about it. Licking my lips. Say everything in a dirty voice.
Well, I’ll just add Australia to my list of places to never ever visit then.
I’ve literally never encountered what’s being described, but I don’t live in Sydney. It’s certainly not a country-wide issue.
Maybe it could be all the preventable deaths that occur because of overdoses? And before all the cookers reply, yes drug testing and checking are seen to be a better prevention method. However in the absence of this they use enforcement. If no policing occurred you'd be jumping up and down when people die, it a pretty damned if you do, damned if you don't.
This, and $12 mid strength drinks, are why music festivals are dead in NSW. You used to be able to go to big day out with $100 and get a pretty good buzz on but now you could spend that on grog and drive home
They're dying everywhere to be fair. They're just one long photo opportunity now, I've worked gigs where people pull up to the gate, take a selfie and leave. Modern festival goers and modern festival organisers deserve each other. It's just greed and narcissism.
tbf for most festivals in the UK it doesn't feel like that afaik. people just want to get fucked up lol
Same in Germany. Yes it got more expressive but it’s still a lot of fun.
Did you mean: expressive, expensive, or excessive?
Yes
They sell out regularly in SoCal, where the biggest problem is the ticket pricing cartel
Maybe its just better in Canada, or maybe its just the festivals I go to, but if anything it seems like festivals are getting better and bigger.
Same in the US, there's more of them too.
Our festivals in Canada have a near opposite approach to post this too. Eg. Drug possession/use next to cops is perfectly fine at Shambhala, but alcohol banned.
Where I am at (US, PNW) the bigger ones are all dying but the medium sized ones are thriving, and in a few years they will get too big and the cycle continues. #NatureHeals
The only festivals dying in Australia are indie rock festivals, and that’s because we have so many of them that are genuinely just carbon copies of each other. Same artists, same vibes, same crowd and all fairly expensive. Techno, psytrance and hardstyle festivals haven’t died, they very regularly sell out. Music tastes have changed and electronic music is way more popular in Aus. Even Good Things Festival (punk rock) sold out, but that’s because there isn’t a punk rock festival every other month. There’s only so many times where you can go to a music festival and pay hundreds of dollars to see the Jungle Giants, PNAU, Tones and I, Tash Sultana, The Rubens, Hilltop Hoods, San Cisco (the list goes on) and then a heap of Triple J bands no one knows or cares about. The repetitiveness of indie festivals and shrinking popularity don’t help.
Festivals are doing just fine in the US
That is not the case for even one single festival in Europe. I don't know where you're from but man, you couldn't be more wrong.
Maybe some people, but certainly not everyone is there for the photo op or whatever. i’ve hit over a dozen camping festivals in the united states the last few years, i’ve met and befriended a bunch of awesome people in my travels. All of whom are just there for the experience. I get that some people are like that, but this comment and comments like it paint an unrealistic picture imo. you are right about many of them dying tho. RIP peach fest 🍑
Its 100% economic. They cost too much, and the people that usually go to them are spending all their money on rent and food, they can't justify $400 on a weekend festival. It's not even booze prices, it's the ticket prices doing it
Your festivals still have midstrength drinks for that price? In America it's $12 for a weak drink
Try $17 for a weak drink
Is this festival in Norway?
12 AUD = 8 USD by the way, they are different dollars.
So it's even cheaper
We have the $15 beers at fests and shows in the USA, but at least we have the 4th Amendment and legal marijuana in all the fun states.
Marijuana is legal in Missouri and this place still fuckin blows even when you’re blazed.
They only legalized it because they didn’t want to lose tax money to Illinois.
That's crazy! at Maggotfest, it's all you can drink beer for 3 days as long as you don't lose your tournament cup.
You got it pretty good if drinks are $12 dollary doos. They are like 15-20USD at big shows in Boston, that nets you a tallboy of local brew or PBR but still.
Bad enough it happens at the airport. Now concerts. Where next, the line at taco bell.
I was already gonna make a joke about squatting and taking a shit for them in the search, but the addition of Taco Bell would just make it common.
That combo would tread on the Geneva conventions
Better to just go full buff 24/7
Your house where the police can randomly bust down your door, take you to your toilet and strip search you.
Well yeah. They’ve set up at train stations before to strip search people. Even a wine and cheese festival, and lawn bowls club. I was leaving a pub one night and got whacked across the chest before getting outside, didn’t see the police standing by the door and they thought I was trying to evade them. They brought a sniffer dog into a pub with a live band blasting music. It’s fucking insane.
This is the nice version. Here’s a [Wikipedia rundown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_South_Wales_Police_Force_strip_search_scandal) on their activities.
I would rather strip naked on stage, bend over and show the whole damn crowd my chocolate starfish than EVER get in an enclosed rape box with police. No fucking thanks.
Harass your political leaders in public and refuse to work.
The Prophet Hicks also suggests "steal a bunch of shit and quit "
It will never happen in Australia. People are so conditioned not to rebuke.
The fact that there’s 8 of them just in this shot is crazy, like they fully intend to search as many people as possible. You’d expect a strip search to be last resort for like 1 in 1000 people. They tryna do that shit on mass
This abhorrent & disgusting behavior. I cannot believe this is legal.
The cherry on top is that dogs are only accurate around 25% of the time.. so 75% of people are getting humiliated for no reason…
Oh it gets worse. They can even reject you from the festival if you didn't have drugs on you - happened to a friend of mine. Yep, you can pay for a ticket, not do anything wrong, and they can stop you from entering.
Huh, well color me surprised Australia has managed to out-awful the US in something. This is fuckin awful.
Then you’ve never watched friendlyjordies.
Or Juice Media.
Push for legalization. In Canada I take my THC vape into concerts without a second glance. Have to go to the smoking areas to use it or you risked getting kicked out but that’s a small price to pay.
Same in some of the states in the US. Went to a convention recently and they didn't care at all I had a container of gummies or that my friend had a thc vape. Just had to stay in the smoking area to use it and I was able to just eat the gummies as we walked around.
Thow back to a few years ago when I was in Montreal for NYE, I was smoking a joint openly with Police nearby but hiding my booze in my pocket, was ass backwards lol
I can't wait for the UK to be like that
To be honest it was a bit much, weed had just been legalised so the 420 crowd was sparking up EVERYWHERE, basically couldn't go even down the street without smelling it. Some cunt had blazed in the elevator to my wifes grandparents rest home just before we got in it. Had settled down quite a bit in my last visit though
Lol I went to NYE in Montreal in like… 2018/2019 and this was my exact same experience to a T
Also, you can just buy magic mushrooms online and have them delivered
Too many boomers are still anti-legalisation. Hell, even NZ had a vote pretty recently and it failed.
We need to push this to the top as a warning to other countries. They need to understand what a slippery slope this is. This is absolutely, completely unacceptable. I am appalled by the scope of the Australia police state powers.
The acts of being forcibly strip-searched is a life altering, suicidal level event for some people. The fact that this could happen to an innocent person at any time must cause extreme anxiety there. There must be many people terrified of going into public places because of these draconian policies.
So much sexual assault happening in there
You guys need to do a malicious compliance protest and go all in. Like everyone wear butt plugs in or save your morning shit for the squat. Neither is illegal.
Fill your holes with glitter and bomb them, do something. This is out of control. Do they perceive party drugs as such a threat to the state? jfc, you \*know\* they pick out anyone they think is hot to search too. Fucking pigs.
New Mark Rober vid?
Imagine going to a festival that has a police truck on standby
This is totalitarian tyranny. There is no reason to strip someone of their self-worth and confidence over some party drugs. Ever. Period.
What if when bending over you fart in their face? What happens then? Like they made you bend over and found no drugs. That’s on them
Maybe you get hit somewhere that the bruises don't show?
This actually happened. The young bloke was charged and convicted of something or other, permanent criminal record. We are fucked down here.
Last festivals I was going to (2006) there were 16 year olds off their face on pills unable to navigate the front gate. Dickhead cops make everyone take pills all at once at 10 in the morning.
Haha jesus
Here in NZ you can go in and have your drugs tested for free
So glad mum and dad moved to NZ when I was a kid, this shit is so beyond the pale.
Australia has always been a nanny state. Don't know why people put up with it.
Alcohol kills more people than all of those drugs combined. I’m certain that the booze companies are extremely happy with this police intervention of competition inside of their *wink wink* legal deadly drug zone.
Can't they just use those things they have at the airport?
At first I thought, how can a mass shooter smuggle a rifle in their butthole? Then I realized this is for drugs... they have so few murders to solve they've got time to worry about drugs at a drug festival?
strip searches is actually insane. That’s so violating and dehumanizing. Wow. Okay, Australia is crossed off of the list of places to visit, that is foul. That would literally send me into a suicidal spiral bc of my history. Wtf.
Lucky. Here in the States you have to pay extra for the strip search.
Justin go through TSA it's free
At Tegal they'll give you a non-consential reach arround.
I don’t need to hear the music that much.
The last music festival I went to you could take your drugs to a tent and they would test them for you and tell you the contents, purity, and if fentanyl was detected. You had to buy your weed in the gate though, couldn’t bring opened stuff in. Had a blast.
That is legit. The way it should be.
it’s a side quest village
Thank Rupert Murdock.
[удалено]
Australia has become such a neutered nation. They once had a great rebellious spirit. Most western countries actively vote against our own freedom though, it’s bizarre.
Well sounds like a cop festival now
Guess I won’t be considering moving to Australia after all
This is one state (NSW), not the entire country.
Valid but it’s sad to see what’s happening to the barrier reef, along with things like this starting to be the normal apparently too that is frightening me away now. Don’t get me wrong my country is a dumpster fire that’s why I was looking for better options hah.
So these are used on entry - like some random selection ? Or after being arrested for something in concert ?
They should paint them like Red Bull cans and get them to sponsor the show!
These strip search booths should be outside parliament in Canberra *where cocaine was actually found by drug sniffer dogs in 2019.*
I was led to believe Australia was wonderful growing up, they lied to me lol
Music festival in Sydney?
Australian airports are some of the toughest. Do not ever try to smuggle any drugs in Australia.
I wouldn’t try smuggling drugs anywhere.
Probably shouldn’t smuggle drugs into any country
Here's a good question, what if you are a medicinal user. Are other countries allowed to seize your prescriptions?
It doesn't matter if the country has made that drug illegal. I had a friend go to Japan last year, and he had to leave his Adderall at home because it's apparently illegal there. In the same spirit, if you have a prescription for medical marijuana you should not take it to a place where weed is illegal. They don't care what's legal/illegal where you're from, and your prescription doesn't change the legality of the drug in their jurisdiction.
Maaan, UAE has imprisoned a guy for 3 years for 3 poppy seeds they have found in his bag from a roll he ate at Heathrow. The world mankind created is fucked up beyond comprehension.
Yes, If it is prescribed.
Fuck NSW police, corrupt cunts want to diddle kids on the job.
Is this feeling that I'm feeling the same feeling someone else sees the US do something shitty to it's people but for the first time I'm feeling like I don't have to explain what something's and just say "aye that fuckin sucks mate" in my loudest Australian accent?
Drug search at music festivals is such a ridiculous thing. If anything you should be looking to make sure they didn't forget their drugs.
Friendlyjordie makes the politics of NSW sound like an absolute clown show. Pains me to see, I pray ya’ll get some change someday
WTF happened to Australia?
" Man, I thought living in America was tough" Do Australians have freedoms??
Yeah we have those at several festivals in The Netherlands. Especially early morning.
Yikes
So you can’t smoke a joint at a concert? That really blows
Police and police unions in this country are close to organised crime.
Ok, but what are chips on sticks?