GB tries its best to arrange parties at various locations. But unfortunately, there is lot of carelessness by its community members in respecting these spaces.
After the party, the crowd moves onto the middle of the road in front of the venue which creates a nuisance to the traffic and the neighbours of the locality as the cars start honking away and generally the crowd is boisterous as well.
It’s troublesome for the neighbours as the noise created is disturbing; and it’s troublesome for the party venue as it comes under closer scrutiny of the cops.
We even had ugly incidences where people in their drunken stupor have argued with the cops in the middle of the night when they were asked to move and not create a bother in the night. Yes, the GB party is over and outside the venue, so technically it’s not our responsibility. Nonetheless, we don’t want such problems to happen to people who come to our parties, and what we feel some frustration about is that in this case all our regular warnings were simply disregarded. We clearly tell people:
1) To carry a drinking permit, since this is what the police can most easily book people on. Permits, either single day, annual, or even lifetime ones can be obtained from the Excise department in town, and people running bars and restaurants can usually arrange them for you. It’s a stupid, bureaucratic system, but it doesn’t look likely to go soon – too useful to the cops and the excise guys making money from it – so we do recommend you get one.
2) Not to smoke within the venue. Please respect other people’s space. We’ve almost given up on this. People do it so often and repeatedly and if you go up and tell them to stub it out or go out, they’ll point to someone an arm’s length away who’s doing it and say “but what about him” and then you have to go chase that guy, and the same thing happens… at one point Dee and I went spending most of our time acting as monitors inside, something we certainly take no pleasure in. The only silver lining is that some decent people are getting into the habit of going out to smoke, so do that automatically. Hopefully such good habits will spread.
3) Not to block the roads outside the party venue. We realise guys are disinclined to let the great party atmosphere disappear, and some practical needs of takings numbers and making dates must take place. But really this can happen inside the venue before the end, and definitely not on the roads. The cops are doing their job, whether necessary or not, and you’re simply asking for trouble if you come in their way.
4) Not to argue with the cops. We have had several workshops on Knowing Your Rights and how to deal with the police (and we can arrange more, if there’s a demand). The lawyers who conduct these workshops tell you what your rights are, but also recommend that the best strategy is not to argue with the police and to avoid confrontations.
GB’s parties are fun and much appreciated by the people who attend them. It’s no fun if this ends with unpleasant encounters with the cops, so please consider following the tips above to ensure you have a good time, both at the parties and after.
Compiled by Dee & Vikram
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