Goatgate Revisited

From Rafil

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 2006.

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:

1. 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.

2. 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”.

3. Finally, after several weeks, the police department decided *WHY* they had conducted the raid. There was no evidence of Devil Worship and no Black Goat was found on or near the premises. Hence, 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 appropriate permits.