Footloose: California Tries To Ban Raves
Just as it's a myth that Republicans are the "party of Wall Street," it's also a myth that every GOP politician is a prissy-faced blue stocking who wants to "ban" things like rock'n'roll and raves. It was Tipper Gore who founded the notorious PMRC back in the Reagan-Bush era. And it's Democrats Fiona Ma and Jerry Brown who are trying to ban raves in California. Amazing stuff:
Can you ban a style of music? California Assemblywoman Fiona Ma learned the hard way that doing so might not be so easy when she tried to ban electronic rave music.
"We found out later on that, Constitutionally, you can not ban a type of music," said Ma. "Plus, I, like my opponents said, I didn't really know what was going on."
Despite the inability to ban rave music outright, Ma was able to squelch aspects of rave culture like LED gloves and pacifiers by keeping the pressure on event organizers with Assembly Bill 74 (formerly the "Anti-Raves Act" ), which became law on Oct. 9, 2011 when CA Governor Jerry Brown signed it.
The Assemblywoman first became concerned with raves when a 15-year-old girl named Sasha Rodriguez died at the popular Los Angeles rave, The Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC).
Ma's bill only bans some of the accoutrements of raves, although it's hard for me to see how you can "ban" pacifiers. As she discovered to her barely suppressed regret, Ma could not ban music or mass dancing because of the First Amendment. Hmmm. Sounds like some Constitution shredding, not that you'd ever hear about it when speech is suppressed by people with a "D" after their name.
Ma, btw, represents a neighborhood in the supposed hipster haven San Francisco, not that this will do anything to hurt her career. As long as she voted the progressive line, she can legislate in the manner of a "movie Republican" without bearing the consequences that would be visited on a real life Republican who tried to legislate this sort of nonsense.
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