Exodus Raves

The Trials of Exodus

On New Year¹s eve 1992/3 Exodus held its largest party with ten thousand people present. Two weeks later it supported the squatted occupation of a derelict hotel and started channelling money from the collections and soft drink stalls at the dances into squat renovation. Exodus is a force for the good, bringing hope, joy and community where before there was desolation. But some police officers saw a different picture. Chief Inspector Mike Brown cooperated with Exodus in helping make venues safe and trying to locate legal venues, until his superiors at force headquarters blew the whistle.

A series of massive police operations ensued, costing over £103,000, on the squatted hotel, on Exodus' Long Meadow Community Farm, and on the pre-dance assembly point. Thirty one criminal charges arose out of these operations for which there was just one conviction, itself highly dubious. The charges served to paint a devilish picture of Exodus.

After the hotel eviction police officers are alleged to have copied into their notebooks crucial information written on a blackboard by a sergeant at Luton Police Station. This was used as evidence in order to procure public order convictions and convictions against collective members arrested for alleged violence and abuse. In another trial arising out of an earlier raid on the hotel, at least 13 police officers failed to produce their pocket notebooks after being ordered to do so by the trial judge, causing cases to be dismissed. Could it have been because they contained lies?

Then there was an alleged drugs find. During a raid by more than 100 officers on the Exodus farm, Ecstasy worth £2,200 was found in Paul Taylor's bag. Taylor is a prominent black member of the collective, one of those responsible for forging the black/white union which is the bedrock of Exodus' power for the good. The house had already been searched once by Luton Drugs Squad who had failed to find drugs in an obvious place for which Taylor could be held personally responsible. Police admit Taylor had ample forewarning of the raid, so could easily have removed the drugs if they were his. After Luton Drugs Squad had finished their search, an officer from force headquarters entered the darkened house, spent thirteen minutes inside it, then called in another officer and took two minutes to lead him to the drugs in the bag. At Taylor's trial, the defence barrister summed up, "This case stinks, it stinks of a plot." Taylor was found not guilty.

During the trial the head of Luton drugs squad admitted to a serious disciplinary complaint, involving mishandling of the drugs. It was also alleged that there was a rogue cache of drugs at Luton police station, origin and destiny unknown. The Bedfordshire Deputy Chief Constable, despite his reputation as a strict disciplinarian, failed to take action after any of the Exodus cases. Nobody has been disciplined, not for the 'missing' notebooks, not for the blackboard incident, not for the drugs.

All three political parties on Bedfordshire County Council, as well as the Police Authority have now voted for a public enquiry to be chaired by Michael Mansfield QC into "Bedfordshire Police and others' activities" against Exodus. A retired police inspector told me before he was gagged from talking to the press: "Licensed premises were experiencing a fair amount of loss of trade, loss of customers. Some licensees were starting to get into real financial trouble." He added not only that alcohol-related offences dropped when Exodus put on dances, but also that political pressure was being brought to bear on the police by local members of Parliament to get on the case.

Luton is a brewery town. Whitbread have dominated it for many years. Hopefully Mansfield's public inquiry will find out who was really responsible for trying to destroy this movement, a movement which is transforming the lives of thousands of Bedfordshire's youth.