Camden police have banned reggae music played by Black selectors / MCs / DJs in Camden Town venues. Camden's [if not London's] best known reggae venue was closed after the police blamed the reggae nights for causing drug dealing. The police have since gone around Camden Town venues warning managers and proprietors that they will be shut down if they allow reggae nights in Camden Town.
Local reggae music vendors in Camden Lock have said that it is unfair to criminalise an entire genre of music and a whole community beacause of the behaviour or perceived behaviour of a small handful of people who might have caused trouble. Racism is a more likley culprit however than genuine troublemaking. Humiliating conditions were given to managers to enforce on reggae nights.
First it was the hats....the police went to the Oh Bar and told the managers that no hats were to be worn on reggae nights and demanded that a "Police Warning : No Hats" sign be displayed in each window of the Oh Bar which erm..meant that HATS ARE ILLEGAL IF WORN BY BLACK PEOPLE. The signs went up as a compromise to save the nights which were becoming popular. Police started turning up with truncheons out, maniacal expressions on their faces as the increasingly popular reggae nights un-nerved them. Then there were the Stop Dealing Drugs signs. Then there were the scanners and searches....eventually there was a suddden closure and all sorts of accusations thrown at the night and the cusatomers. Funnily enough there was in fact LESS trouble at the reggae nights, less fights ending in bloodshed etc than at other popular Camden bars. As local reggae fans have pointed out : "Reggae isn't about Class A drugs like the techno clubs in London, we don't deal with Class A". In fact class A drugs are frowned on at reggea nights.
After the reggea nights were closed the police went around Camden Town warning venues that if they play reggae they will be closed down.
What's very indicative of the racism involved is that reggea played by WHITE DJs with mostly European customers at the nights have been allowed. It is reggae played by Black people, attended by mostly Black people that Camden police do not like.
If you think this racist stance against reggae in Camden is terrible then leave a comment.
We are in the process of making some petitions and a myspace page but we welcome any comments left here.
First it was the hats....the police went to the Oh Bar and told the managers that no hats were to be worn on reggae nights and demanded that a "Police Warning : No Hats" sign be displayed in each window of the Oh Bar which erm..meant that HATS ARE ILLEGAL IF WORN BY BLACK PEOPLE. The signs went up as a compromise to save the nights which were becoming popular. Police started turning up with truncheons out, maniacal expressions on their faces as the increasingly popular reggae nights un-nerved them. Then there were the Stop Dealing Drugs signs. Then there were the scanners and searches....eventually there was a suddden closure and all sorts of accusations thrown at the night and the cusatomers. Funnily enough there was in fact LESS trouble at the reggae nights, less fights ending in bloodshed etc than at other popular Camden bars. As local reggae fans have pointed out : "Reggae isn't about Class A drugs like the techno clubs in London, we don't deal with Class A". In fact class A drugs are frowned on at reggea nights.
After the reggea nights were closed the police went around Camden Town warning venues that if they play reggae they will be closed down.
What's very indicative of the racism involved is that reggea played by WHITE DJs with mostly European customers at the nights have been allowed. It is reggae played by Black people, attended by mostly Black people that Camden police do not like.
If you think this racist stance against reggae in Camden is terrible then leave a comment.
We are in the process of making some petitions and a myspace page but we welcome any comments left here.
Comments
Hide the following 13 comments
time for an outdoor venue
13.08.2009 21:31
anon
outrageous
13.08.2009 23:13
I'd like to thank the person or group of people who wrote this for bringing it to my attention.
I don't live in London but this is so outrageous it is really important that we all know about it. This kind of behaviour is really not ok. I think that maybe a problem that might exist at the moment is that if the people who go to 'black' reggae nights and those who go to 'white' reggae night do not know each other well enough to talk about this happening then it's difficult for us to all get together and fight this. I'm sure other reggae fans of all backgrounds would be concerned about this and want to be involved in action against it.
We need some tactics to fight this kind of police bullshit!
nika
Source?
14.08.2009 01:09
Bob Marley
What about this then......
14.08.2009 05:40
I work in Camden and I fucking hate it. The pigs do NOTHING about the drug dealers, despite the fact that everyone knows who they are, they are violent, they beat up women, intimidate the traders while the police stand around doing nothing. Closing down reggue nights won't help the problem, stupid lazy pigs.
Chola
Two separate issues here I think:-
14.08.2009 09:33
But concurrently, the police are probably using this as an excuse to crack down on any music which is not mainstream:-
Anon
expendiency business and property
14.08.2009 11:07
BTW. Not many people came out to support the homeless being targeted. ( one leaflet citing developnet removal of comforting hot air vents ) The removal of many street people led to an increase in attacks arround Camden.
theres a fair few fucking areshole scumbag property speculating politicians living around the area too....
camden down
Reggae was not all about the drug dealers....And yes it's true about the 5 0
14.08.2009 20:05
You can't say that "all black men or all drug dealers are violent or rapists" that's just stupid.
I live in Camden, I used to go to the Oh Bar, I went to the reggae nights most weeks, I know most of the drug dealers [just from walking past and saying hello] NONE of them have ever raped me, hit me or tried to do either of these. While some of the nights in the Oh Bar were a bit much that was the venue's fault and not the drug dealers, and absolutely certainly NOT the whole reggae crowd.
Do other styles of music have drug dealers? Violence sometimes?
If the dealers have become violent occasionally then it's hardly surprising given this kind of racism going on in Camden Town.
Bring back the reggae nights.
And no it's not far fetched...ask any of the reggae people and they will tell you that the police have indeed done this, it's common knowledge in Camden and it's bang out of order.
Camden Woman
Licensing Laws
14.08.2009 22:25
The Big Green Gathering was closed down by Police action in Somerset, as a political move. This is fact.
Controlling Camdens so-called street 'drug' scene is a political act, as the movement of drugs world wide is without doubt facillitated by Governments AND Serious Organised Gangsters who have always worked together.... In Iraq the US funded the local gangsters, made them into the police force and paramilitaries, as they have done in South America and Afghanistan. Afghani Hash is now easliy available.... so is Heroin.... and Cocaine....
Hitler did the same in Germany. It's an old story.....
Find scapegoats, set them up, punish them publicly, pretend that the police are doing their best.....
conor cruise O'brien
Controlling drugs
15.08.2009 10:38
Secondly, there appears to be two objectives. 1. reduce the numbers of black people coming into Camden; 2. controlling the Camden drugs trade. There is clearly tactic agreements between police and drug dealers handing around venues. Everyone in Camden knows about drug dealing in venues apart from the police, apparently. But black events are events the police feel they can't control. Not that there aren't relationships between black gangster and the police, but the police feel they don't have sufficient control of black events.
insidejob
wow
15.08.2009 19:21
WOW, this is world breaking news, this should be being covered by the media. If the police are doing nothing or as you say are complicit then call the IPCC and demand a public enquiry, there are several lawyers who specialise in enquiries into the police.
so whos first?.....
well?
anon
To camden woman...
17.08.2009 04:27
Well I was beaten up by a drug dealer after I confronted him for sexually harassing me. The other drug dealers laughed and jeered me as the ambulance came to take me to hospital. Needless to say, the police did nothing.
"If the dealers have become violent occasionally then it's hardly surprising given this kind of racism going on in Camden Town"
Bullshit. Nothing can justify the violence that I have experienced from these bastards. There are other areas that are far more racist where black people experience far worse racism but that doesn't turn them violent. My best friend has experienced the most appalling racism living in a certain London/Kent suburb, but she doesn't go around dealing drugs and beating people up.
You have a typical nieve attitude that almost romanticises Camden's drug scene. I used to be the same - I thought that it was great that people could sell drugs openly in the street until I began to see the ugly reality. Wake up and start living in the real world.
Chola
To Chola, Re : my naievety
17.08.2009 20:07
2. My ..er ..naivety prevents me from divulging how well I know the rest of them or writing any names..
3. White men / non drug dealers have attacked ME in the past and I think that you might well find that this is a MAN thing and NOT something that is confined to black men or drug dealers or black drug dealers etc.
4. You say that you "confronted" one of them for "sexually harassing" you and that he "beat you up"....When you say he "sexually harrassed you" what EXACTLY did he DO? If the rest of them jeered at you then you must have said or done something pretty bad to provoke that.
5. You say that I live in a naive romanticised world where these guys are concerned....well I've confronted these guys more than a few times myself over various things and haven't been beaten up....in fact I've chased them all up the road on one occasion after a row [this gives me away if they read this ; ) ] and I've had a fair few rows with the guys so I'm under no illusions about any of them. They are men, like any men. I wonder what you said or did to antagonise them so much? I KNOW them....OK?
6. If the "bastard drug dealers" had been non drug dealers or white would you're complaints about them be different?
7. Last weekend I saw a Camden police officer grab one of them [Pappass] and handcuff his hands behind his back when he had done nothing wrong then he slammed him up against the back of a police van, then shoved his elbow against his spine at the back of his neck and then nearly choked him by applying pressure. He wasn't arrested as he had done nothing wrong and it was only when someone esle intervened that the copper let him go. Pappass isn't a massive guy [a bit tall but lean] and didn't struggle. wasn't being violent, had not done anything wrong and was violently assaulted. My boyfriend has had his arm broken by those same police...so don't accuse me of naivety about any of it.
Camden Woman
there's more to reggae than the drug dealers...
02.09.2009 02:24
anon