Police Crashed a rave in UTAH, Many people beleive that the police were using excessibve force and that they took illegal actiosn to shut it down.

About 90 law enforcement officers from multiple agencies broke up what they said was a rave party on public and private property in the Diamond Fork area of Spanish Fork canyon, an hour outside of Salt Lake City, Utah, at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday (5:30 Sunday UTC).

According to the county, the Sheriff's Office had been investigating similar parties since the beginning of the season. In a press release from the Sheriff's Office in Utah County, the department states that previous allegations of sexual abuse at other raves, as well as various firearm and theft violations, were reasons for the investigation. The release continues on to state that the proper permit was not obtained before the event started. The promoters deny this allegation and insist that all permits were legally obtained before the event. Listen to this report · (info) Icon of loudspeaker This audio file was created from the text revision dated 2005-08-23, and does not reflect subsequent text edits to this report. (audio help) More audio reports

Armed with semi-automatic assault rifles and tear gas, the police used dogs to sweep the crowd for narcotics. At least one helicopter was used in the operation, which served as a large spotlight for the ground teams. Prior to raiding the show, several unnamed police informants had reportedly told police that they had observed some "illegal activities".

The promoter says the party took place on private property, named Child's Ranch, with express permission from the owner. The property owner has apparently had at least one previous lawsuit with police over a similar event. Utah County requires a permit, bond and county commission approval for all gatherings with more than 250 people present. According to a DJ at the event, "They presold 700 tickets and they expected up to 3,000 people total." He added that by the time police arrived "the crowd was about 1500".