Raves At Cow Palace, Other State Properties May Be Banned

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- On the heels of deaths at raves at the Cow Palace and at the Los Angeles Coliseum, Assemblywoman Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco) has introduced legislation to ban raves on state owned property.

But civil rights attorneys are already promising to challenge such legislation.

KCBS' Margie Shafer Reports:

"It would place an outright ban on state property," said Ma. "It would not ban raves on private property where there is a business license to conduct them, such as bars, clubs, or theaters."

Ma applauds the recent move by the director of the Cow Palace to ban raves there.

"The facility signs a contract with promoters, and in theory the promoters are responsible, but they're not responsible past a certain level of expectation," said Ma.

Governments had to pick up the tab for police overtime and medical personnel. In June of this year, a teen died of a drug overdose at a rave at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Another rave is now scheduled there for New Years Eve.

"You get into some interesting issues when the state is acting as a private party and what it can do with its property, but I think that you're still going to have equal protection problems if the state is going to say, well we're going to have these people use it, but not those people because we don't like the kind of music they have," said civil rights attorney Matt Kumin.

Ma is soliciting input on the legislation as it works its way through the expected nine month process.

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