Rave at L.A. Sports Arena results in 80 arrests and numerous medical calls [Updated]

A rave held at the Los Angeles Sports Arena has resulted in the arrests of 80 people and numerous medical calls, according to city police and fire officials.

The Love Festival, organized by Go Ventures, based in West Hills, featured various DJs on two stages and began at 4 p.m. Saturday. The event was scheduled to end at 2 a.m. Sunday.

Los Angeles Fire Department officials said they treated numerous individuals at the scene for unspecified difficulties, while police said most of the arrests involved drugs and the use of fake IDs.

[Updated at 1:22 p.m.: Fire officials reported that paramedics treated 16 people and that three concertgoers were taken to hospitals by private ambulance.]

In July, after the death of a 15-year-old girl from an apparent drug overdose at the Electric Daisy Carnival, the panel overseeing the coliseum and sports arena decided to allow Saturday's scheduled rave, but with additional restrictions including banning minors from attending.

The LAFD was also on standby at the event. Fire officials said they would release more detailed information on the number and type of calls they responded to later Sunday.

-- Raja Abdulrahim

Comments

[West Valley Dave]

Why are these events even legal? Every time we hear of one it involves arrests, injuries or deaths.

[BDub]

Just because something is dangerous doesn't mean it should be illegal.

[Sal]

Kind of like guns- every time we hear about one of those it seems to involve arrests, injuries or deaths.

[John]

Yeah, we should ban raves, genius. Meanwhile, check the stats on all the fights, crime, rapes, traffic accidents and deaths caused by booze every day (the most deadly drug out there). Give up the stupid war on drugs, hypocrites!

[Craig]

Drugs don't kill people, people kill people

[Zach]

Of course "every time we hear of one it involves arrests, injuries or deaths." If they didn't, we wouldn't hear about them. Do you see a headline up there that says, "No Deaths at Rave at L.A. Sports Arena?" No, because while it's true, it reflects how unremarkable the real story is.

Why make raves illegal? With 80 people arrested it seems like police were quite capable of enforcing existing laws. Why criminalize what everyone else was doing?

[nls73m]

raves are nothing more than drugs and loud music. been there, done that...

[Tirau]

What goes into an adult's own body should be up to that person, not the government. It is a matter of personal liberty, and I sure as hell did not sign away my inalienable rights to the police, DEA, or Congress. Arresting these people on "drug" charges does far more harm to the individual than any of the substances in question. How does that makes sense when these laws are ostensibly designed to protect people from themselves? The answer is: it doesn't make any sense at all.

The Drug War is a war on the American people and their rights, and should be stopped immediately.

[Johan Baumeister]

Yet we regularly hold sporting event championships in such places and no one talks of banning NBA events, despite the carnage they caused.

[TommyT]

Just like car crashes, every time we hear about those it seems to involve arrests, injuries or deaths. We should outlaw driving too. Why not take it a step further and make free will illegal as well, seeing as I don't agree withe the majority of people. I figure they must be inept.

[joel]

because the city easily makes a couple $100,000 off of each of them. seriously they do, i know.

[Vitaly]

Go Ventures, thanks for providing LA with live entertainment and safe environment. If you attend such event, you are safe unless you chose to do drugs, which is your choice. People who got arrested possessed drugs or fake IDs, which in no way endangered people that chose to party safely. There were no assaults fueled by alcohol. If you are considering outlawing events, lets start with outdoor races that just killed 8 people. When you are done, lets ban all comic conventions. After all, you do not want to get stabbed in your eye by some nerd. That just happened. Electronic festivals do provide an environment that can be as safe as you chose to make it.

P.S. Got to go to one of those events soon. The energy of thousands of people partying is a great experience.

[PeterSB]

"Why are these events even legal? Every time we hear of one it involves arrests, injuries or deaths."

Oh, give me a break. Like we never heard of any of those things happening at rock concerts.

[bob cuomo]

Perhaps if they raised the fines and lengthened jail time there wouldn't be as many people breaking the law (fake IDs, dealing and/or taking drugs, etc.).

[moon]

I hope that the local enforcement agencies send the cost to the promoters for the LAPD showing up due to the actions of the people attending. The city of Los Angeles and CHP already assess additional fees for running red lights and DUIs on its local residents so why not these types of events.

[Lana]

Thousands of guests attend these events, and just because a few people out of those thousands are irresponsible should not ruin it for everyone else.

[Bob]

Grown up people don't know how to behave. Events like this are sometimes dangerous for innocent people.

[kuruc]

these events should be just as lagal as drinking at a bar.

[Adam]

"Why are these events even legal? Every time we hear of one it involves arrests, injuries or deaths."

That's because the ones without arrests, injuries, or deaths don't make the news. There are literally hundreds more raves in the Los Angeles area than are reported, but why mention it if it all goes smoothly and there's nothing to report?

[PT1]

Old people: You know what the difference is between a "rave" and a concert?

Nothing. Zip. Nada. It's a media construct. They each see an artist (a DJ vs. a band) and dance. If there's any difference, it's that the police are cracking down on drugs at "raves", which they aren't doing at rock shows.

[ThinkOutsideTheBox]

If they weren't legal, everyone would just find a way to go to one that is illegal, where there are no security, no age restraints, no restrictions of any kind...these events are going to happen regardless, and they have been going on for much longer than you probably think...these events just started picking up very quickly in the past few years. In my opinion, I would much rather have them legal and hosted, where all the attendees are supervised. Otherwise, there are going to be a bunch more of these events, which a lot more drug-related injuries/deaths because there won't be anybody watching over the event.

[julie]

I can't honestly believe we allow this garbage to happen. Of course it's making money for some but corrupting the young. What a mess our culture is, there's no excuse for allowing this to continue only greed,making money off youth gone bad.

[Cathy]

EDC is not a rave, it's an electronic music festival. The kids who OD at events like this literally go into it knowing that they're going to take a ton of drugs and throw all caution to the wind. It's like a rite of passage for them.

I've been to a hundred rave parties and I've never in my life seen someone OD at one. These types of events attract some of the dumbest kids on the planet.

[MidKnight Dragon]

Wow, to think that the love festival only had 4,500 people attend. That's not even a massive anymore, and its the 18th annual. I remember when the Love Fest was 15,000 strong, well we can blame this on all the negative media attention that EDC brought onto the world of raves, at least here in Cali. I heard that there were K-9 units posted outside the rave to sniff out the drugs.

[mhkp716]

If its true that only 4,000 people attended then this was a major failure for the promoters. The cops were of course ready to be strcit about every nuance of the law and probably arrested people just to make a point. The point, 'we will make it difficult for you to go to these events.' Thats fine. What you will now have is kids driving out to the desert and doing dangerous things where they do not have access to help. And if you are okay with the 'out of sight, out of mind' approach, you should be satisfied.