When the law meets alternative culture - The Malaysian Story

PAUL'S PLACE - THE CASE WILL BE HEARD NEXT WEEK

On 31st December last year at about 10.30 pm, the police raided Paul's
Place, a small music venue for the independent music community, and arrested
over 300 people who had come to attend a hardcore gig including David Wong,
an employee who was helping out that night, and subsequently charged as the
owner with four offences.

The case is coming up next week at the Central Magistrate's Court 6
(opposite Dataran Merdeka) at 9:00 am on Monday 31st July.

Do turn up in large numbers and occupy pews in the public gallery - and guys
from the press, do come yourselves or send your reporters to cover this
important landmark in legal history - and hopefully whatever the outcome
will be given space in the media, so that the truth shall be laid bare, and
whoever is righteous will be vindicated (we hope).

To jog your memory:
********************
a) A raid was conducted on Paul's Place by the Brickfields Police Station,
31 December 2005. Over 300 people were detained. Those detained were inside
Paul's Place, in public places and food stalls within a 100 m radius of the
venue. Several police officers we spoke to that night informed us that it
was a "Black Metal" raid.

b) David and 3 other individuals were remanded for 2 days and released
following a press conference and some assistance from Mr Ronnie Lui. During
this time, the reason for the raids was shifted from "Black Metal" to
"Unlawful gathering", "public indecency" and back to "Black Metal".

c) Finally, after several weeks, the police department decided why they had
conducted the raid. David was charged on 4 counts, operating a pub without a
license, selling liquor without a license, not having customs/import permits
for the liquor (I think) and displaying the "Paul's Place" banner without
getting a DBKL permit. In addition to that, the others were charged under
the printing presses act for distributing printed 'zines and t-shirts
without the approriate permits.

For more details, please go to http://media-blackmetal-msia.blogspirit.com/
, a web repository on media coverage of this event set up by our friends at
the Center of Independent Journalism www.cijmalaysia.org.