3-Day Funk Fest At Church Really A Drug Fest
By Seraphina L.
How do you get more people to go to church? Hold a a 3-day Funk Fest there and sell all the drugs anyone could ever want!
At least that’s what the Church of Universal Love and Music was set out to do. An elaborate festival that was held this past Saturday offered everything from “Ganja” treats (rice krispie treats laced with marijuana) to mushrooms to several pounds of hash and LSD. Head shops were basking in their glory as cocktail waitresses walked around offering concert-goers these lovely snacks as they waited for musical guests to perform.
However, according to Assistant District Attorney Mark D. Brook, things didn’t pan out as they event planners had hoped. A total of 22 people concert attendees and head shop owners were arrested when his task force were notified to raid the church which included a main stage, a few campgrounds, a vendor row, and a special VIP area. Right before Dumpstaphunk was about to go on stage, undercover cops recovered so much paraphernalia that they had to “use two trailers to haul it down the mountain.”
The operator of the church, Willie Pritts, was not charged however. In fact, his lawyer vehemently claimed that Brooks and his task force enforced “gross violations of Mr. Pritts’ and the church’s rights” and went to court with Brooks and his team stating that the county should be blamed for not giving Pritts a special exception permit which violated his First Amendment right to freedom of religion.
However, Brooks responded with the fact that Pritts and church had a permit only for 12 events a year that did NOT involve illegal drug use.
Those arrested on felony counts were given $25,000 straight cash bonds; those charged with misdemeanors had to make $10,000 cash bonds.
What do you think? Should Pritts have been held responsible for this event at his church? Or was it really the county’s fault for not issuing him a permit backed up his right to his First Amendment right to freedom of religion? It sounds like it was a good time… up until the raid.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009 12:09AM
Are there not more pressing issues in acme than some hippies getting together to get high on soft drugs? Like meth? what do they think goes on at a concert? buffons are all they are.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009 12:16PM
Don't break laws and use drugs and they wouldn't have a reason to raid it! Pot is not legal no matter what you people say.
Thursday, August 6, 2009 5:12PM
10,000 dollar bond for a misdemeanor pot charge? That is absurd. I know my bond when I got arrested for possession was only 50 bucks. So stupid. Good luck Willie…. "Free Willie." I do think he should be allowed the proper rights to hold music concerts on his huge, beautiful land. I don't know … Every music festival I've ever been to has had plenty of open drug use. And since when is it illegal to sell a pipe? (Don't answer that)
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 7:53AM
the Church of Love Music is a safe and family oriented place. I've gone to quite a few concerts there over the years and also lots of other venues including other music festivals. of all the places I've been the Church of Universal love and music is my favorite. CULM is a safe and beautiful campground (lots of wildflowers)which has great music. Plenty of me and my friends who went up their to camp enjoyed the food, and dancing. If someone up there had illegal substances, I had no idea, that is until I was there at this drug raid. Most of the concert goers are law-abiding hard-working weekenders and their families. When I saw the unnecessary and intimidating amount of gear (not your average 9mm, these things looked like M-16s and camo, some with full metal jackets and ski masks) roll out of the woods and point there guns at everyone, I went straight to one of the detainment areas they were herding people into. Then I came to witness the sort of behavior that I really don't believe is legal in America. Amongst being unnecessarily rough with people who were totally compliant and innocent. I mean we had no idea why this was happening. I took at least an hour for them to tell us about the search warrant and by then they already had begun searching. They broke peoples cameras who were filming the policeman who did that (Officer Kolowski or something that started with a K and sounded polish ? I dunno) said he wouldn't want his daughter to see him doing this and took someone's camera.( A bunch of the cops were promoted after this by the way) A bunch of people in our detainment circle were yelling then why are you doing this if you aren't proud enough for your daughter to see?
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 7:54AM
We were in the sun and hot for a long time and at some point they started taking people's water out of their campsites and drinking it and throwing the bottles on the ground. That was just plain rude. We didn't have water, we got thirsty. Also some lady couldn't find here kids and wanted help from the cops who just yelled at her 'you should have thought about that before you brought them up here" so she's running around crying and none of the cops are helping her and everyone else is held in deatining circles. (She did find them somehow thank God) Before this day I had never heard of a search warrant in America were every man woman in child regardless of suspicion was fair game for a total strip search just for being at a concert. One of the officers was putting on the latex gloves as they came up to us( i don't know if anyone was strip searched but I later talked to a lady whose bikini top was taken off) as for the propaganda you hear on the news about these trailers of drugs and paraphenilia, well there was a vender with glass pipes for tobacco use only, in most other states this is ok, and i don't even know how many people knew that it was illegal in PA. So i don't think people at the concert really thought of it as a head shop so much as a glass shop. I guess they seized the glass jewlery, paper weights and glass sculptures with the trailer too. Which stinks because I had wanted to buy my boyfriend one of those glass necklaces. the cops had begun to unload and then decided it would just be easier to haul the trailers and do inventory later. so the bag i saw the task force seize ( i imagine it was the alleged substances i keep hearing about on the news?? )was the size of a manilla envelope.Watch the news story carefully looking at how the shots were put together to make the bust look huge, wide angles and they say 'drugs and paraphernalia" and don't distinguish between the two and also don't mention all the glass jewlery and art that is filling most of the trailer.They hauled of some 22 people of whom many were nice middle-aged mom type women. When the raid was over and I went around talking to people and it seems that most of what was seized was small amounts of weed. The more I got around the more I heard horror stories.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 7:55AM
Kids had been riding on a quad in the woods and were held up at gun point and searched 3 times. One really little kid (like 4) came around the side of his familes trailer to have a gun pointed at him.
That kid was scarred speechless for a couple of hours. did i also mention that this was an african-american kid, and pretty much all the african-americans I talked to said they were treated way more forcefully. After talking to some locals I understand there is a large KKK influence in fayette county. Me and a friend went around talking to the kids who got harassed that night to try to get them to not be so scarred. one kid thought the Fayette county cops were going to come to his house in the middle of the night and shoot his whole family.Also I heard of people's tents getting searched who had no illegal substances that the police just took all their money anyway. They also took the money to pay the bands. So essentially this whole experience was a nightmare. They were armed and ready for some kind of like south American drug fortress and found a bunch of nice hippies and weekend campers. Very sloppy police work. so I come home to Pittsburgh, the south hills to find out about the shooting at the LA fitness. And I keep thinking why wasn't law enforcement there. I mean that guy was a nut job, with a website. I've heard the preacher at his church said that a serial killer can go to heaven.And they have a problem with our church. I guess it is easier and more profitable to rough up concert-goers than to actually protect people from violent crimes.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 7:57AM
i wonder who this mythical ganja treat cocktail waitress lady is. I never met her, and I don't know any one who has seen her..