This. YOU should know the ordinance and YOU should be testing the dB levels.
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It finally happened…shut down by the cops!
- Thread starter Bullitt5135
- Start date
This. YOU should know the ordinance and YOU should be testing the dB levels.
I learned years ago that if you want to have a big outside party, then invite all of your neighbors. Those who choose not to come are not as likely to call the police or complain unless it does run really late or is excessively loud.
I don't even have to read through this post to tell you that this is the reason a lot of people are starting to not be on the side of the cops. It's not that all cops are terrible human beings. It's just that the ones like you encountered in the original post lie to get their way.
I just find it hilarious and obnoxious to find out that you can't even play music anymore without the cops telling you that they're going to take your gear away from you. To be honest, that is worse than the Karen or Kevin calling the cops in the first place.
I just find it hilarious and obnoxious to find out that you can't even play music anymore without the cops telling you that they're going to take your gear away from you. To be honest, that is worse than the Karen or Kevin calling the cops in the first place.
I'll take the opposite side. When I'm at home I want peace and quiet. There have also been times in the past where I have worked night shifts and needed to sleep during the day. There was a period in my wife's and my life when we had a baby. And we have owned pets that are made anxious by loud music and noises.
Regardless of the reason, when I'm at home I don't want to be forced to listen to someone's favorite hip-hop song thumping through their car stereo and I don't want to be forced to listen to somebody's band playing outdoors in my neighborhood. In my opinion it's very inconsiderate of someone to essentially force others to listen to their music or endure their fireworks. I live in a city that has pretty strict noise ordinances, at any time of day, and I have on occasion reported excessive and prolonged loud music or fireworks. I own a dB meter and I'm not afraid to use it.
And yeah, I'll remain anonymous when I make the call (that is an option), because I don't want to be hassled by someone who takes offense because I didn't want to be forced to listen to their music (or fireworks).
Now, get off my lawn!
Regardless of the reason, when I'm at home I don't want to be forced to listen to someone's favorite hip-hop song thumping through their car stereo and I don't want to be forced to listen to somebody's band playing outdoors in my neighborhood. In my opinion it's very inconsiderate of someone to essentially force others to listen to their music or endure their fireworks. I live in a city that has pretty strict noise ordinances, at any time of day, and I have on occasion reported excessive and prolonged loud music or fireworks. I own a dB meter and I'm not afraid to use it.
And yeah, I'll remain anonymous when I make the call (that is an option), because I don't want to be hassled by someone who takes offense because I didn't want to be forced to listen to their music (or fireworks).Now, get off my lawn!
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One of our local clubs had neighbours complain and was forced under threat of closure, to install a decibel meter connected to the mains so that any venture into the red zone shut off the power. Sooooo frustrating! We quit playing their after a couple of gigs where mid song - usually the guitar solo - it became a drum solo instead. No fun anymore.
This afternoon riding deck lawnmower, gas powered trimmer and blower at the same time. 2 yards over
LOUD AF for an hour.
But try and file a noise complaint for that. Good luck! They’ll never shut that down, and that actually is real noise pollution.
“Well sir, as you can see here we have a permit and are operating in compliance with its terms. Would you please be so good as to spell out your name and badge number and wait just one moment while I call to confirm that you have the city’s authority to withdraw a duly authorized permit without notice or cause, and to assume liability on behalf of the city for the resulting lost revenue and costs.”
Hrmm, I think I'd go with something like
"I don't understand, officer. I'm sorry what was your name? Officer Smith. We have a permit for our event from the City. Here it is. When I picked it up I asked the person if there was anything else I should know. They said have the permit with you, and don't go over the allowed sound limits. We're being real careful about that, we've got a meter that one of the band is always checking. I'm confused."
Let the officer be helpful, instead of pushing him into a corner.
"I don't understand, officer. I'm sorry what was your name? Officer Smith. We have a permit for our event from the City. Here it is. When I picked it up I asked the person if there was anything else I should know. They said have the permit with you, and don't go over the allowed sound limits. We're being real careful about that, we've got a meter that one of the band is always checking. I'm confused."
Let the officer be helpful, instead of pushing him into a corner.
I think a lot of this depends on where you are and who you are. Obviously inviting the mayor and half of city council to is going to help. But there could be some other subplots as well, and you'll likely never know what they are.
For 20 years I lived in a neighborhood that was very quiet in spite of being adjacent to a university parking lot. The students hated that lot and we did too, because it was difficult to access, out of the way, and all kinds of stuff went down there. But other than that, all well. Most people in the neighborhood had been there forever.
Then some new folks moved in. They had tons of money and built, among other things, a structure we called The Garage Mahal. They turned out to be terrible neighbors, including having a dog who barked 24/7 somehow, and another who got out of the yard and bit passerby on the regular but was somehow immune from ordinances and the humane society. For reasons we never figured out, these people were somehow Very Important (read: untouchable). When the kids got to be teenagers, things got louder. This was no big deal. But when the kids got to be early twenties and were home from college at Christmas, it was a big deal.
One year all three of them came over and said that they were having a party and it was going to involve a loud band and they'd stop at midnight. I said that I trusted that I would still be able to carry on a conversation in my own house and they laughed and said haha not that loud. Reader, I'm here to tell you it was that loud. Pictures were vibrating on the walls, and things that had never rattled were rattling. We were a couple hundred feet away from them, too. I walked over about 11:00 to ask them to turn it down a bit, and the neighbor kid was impaired and extremely impolite. About midnight I went back, and the situation had deteriorated significantly. It appeared that an uninvited cohort had arrived.
I called the cops. They didn't show up. An hour later, when cars were being vandalized, I called again. They didn't show up. Half an hour later I called again, and dispatch said they could not do anything because the party was on campus. I informed her that this was not correct, and anyway, there was such a thing as statewide jurisdiction.
It was clear at this point that there was no way the cops were going to intervene almost no matter what happened. And things were really out of control. By then we'd had landscaping and rockery destroyed by a marauding mob. At about 3, I heard some loud sharp noises and decided it wasn't up to me to determine the source. I simply called 911 back, gave the address, said "shots fired" and hung up. Cops showed up pretty quick at that point, but nobody got busted for anything. The damage to the neighborhood was substantial, and somehow the neighbors were not responsible for it.
The next time you want to have a loud party, please do it on this neighbor's parking strip.
For 20 years I lived in a neighborhood that was very quiet in spite of being adjacent to a university parking lot. The students hated that lot and we did too, because it was difficult to access, out of the way, and all kinds of stuff went down there. But other than that, all well. Most people in the neighborhood had been there forever.
Then some new folks moved in. They had tons of money and built, among other things, a structure we called The Garage Mahal. They turned out to be terrible neighbors, including having a dog who barked 24/7 somehow, and another who got out of the yard and bit passerby on the regular but was somehow immune from ordinances and the humane society. For reasons we never figured out, these people were somehow Very Important (read: untouchable). When the kids got to be teenagers, things got louder. This was no big deal. But when the kids got to be early twenties and were home from college at Christmas, it was a big deal.
One year all three of them came over and said that they were having a party and it was going to involve a loud band and they'd stop at midnight. I said that I trusted that I would still be able to carry on a conversation in my own house and they laughed and said haha not that loud. Reader, I'm here to tell you it was that loud. Pictures were vibrating on the walls, and things that had never rattled were rattling. We were a couple hundred feet away from them, too. I walked over about 11:00 to ask them to turn it down a bit, and the neighbor kid was impaired and extremely impolite. About midnight I went back, and the situation had deteriorated significantly. It appeared that an uninvited cohort had arrived.
I called the cops. They didn't show up. An hour later, when cars were being vandalized, I called again. They didn't show up. Half an hour later I called again, and dispatch said they could not do anything because the party was on campus. I informed her that this was not correct, and anyway, there was such a thing as statewide jurisdiction.
It was clear at this point that there was no way the cops were going to intervene almost no matter what happened. And things were really out of control. By then we'd had landscaping and rockery destroyed by a marauding mob. At about 3, I heard some loud sharp noises and decided it wasn't up to me to determine the source. I simply called 911 back, gave the address, said "shots fired" and hung up. Cops showed up pretty quick at that point, but nobody got busted for anything. The damage to the neighborhood was substantial, and somehow the neighbors were not responsible for it.
The next time you want to have a loud party, please do it on this neighbor's parking strip.
This is more or less what happened. When the cops showed up, we asked questions and tried to understand what we needed to do to comply.
Cops: We received a complaint.
Us: A complaint about what? The street being blocked off? The music? We have a permit for 2-5pm...here it is, how are we not complying with the permit?
Cops: All we know is that we received a complaint.
Us: You received a complaint, what does that mean? We feel the complaint is not reasonable. We do not agree that we are too loud or disturbing the peace. As you can see, there are 100 people from the neighborhood here enjoying themselves. And we will be done in an hour. What do we need to do to comply? What if we turn it down a bit? What is the maximum decibel level allowed under the city ordinance? What can we do to make this work?
Cops: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Us: What happens if we keep playing.
Cop #1: If we receive another complaint, we can start writing tickets.
Cop #2: (less friendly, more impatient) And we can confiscate your gear.
Us: (Getting incredulous) Show us in the ordinance or on the permit that says you can confiscate our gear.
Cops: Uhh, we don't have the ordinance. (After 5 minutes of fumbling with their phones trying to find the ordinance, they admitted the confiscation part was "not accurate," but they could write tickets.)
Cop #2 cop decided that 61 dB was the limit. (For the record, 61 dB is the sound of a squirrel farting, 4 blocks away).
Us: So, because of one complaint, despite the fact that we have a permit and it's 3:45 in the afternoon on Halloween, we have to stop even though you can't tell us how we are in violation or how to comply?
Cops: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
After 10+ minutes of this circle jerk, we just decided to bag it. By now there were 5 cops there, and not a single one was showing any inclination of advising us how we could continue. Had there been fewer kids around, maybe we would have made more of a stink – or just started playing again despite the warning/threats.
Very well said!
Replacing all the words 'dog' with 'human' would still work.
Properly socialized humans! What a wonderful world that would be. Then threads like this would not exist.
This really is a crappy situation and I hate that happened to you. I am wondering if you have or do now plan to go back to the city (whichever dept issued the permit) and let them know what happened and ask if you get your money back or what to do different next time. Maybe a visit to a city council session to let everyone know what happened? Maybe a visit to the police station to speak with the chief and at least get clarity of what they couldn't answer and/or an apology from them and a training session to follow with the dept to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else. Who knows; you may be able to make a positive impact down the road for someone else.
The guitar player - no longer a musical associate - had trouble turning knobs anti-clockwise. He wasn’t young or inexperienced but he couldn’t read a room in that regard. It was a small club and the room was very live. Stomping your foot hard on the floor caused the meter to go into the amber zone. It didn’t take much more to go into the red. The rest of the band wasn’t loud I can assure you. I gave up trying to pin the audience to the back wall a very long time ago. I’ve been told by several musicians that I’m the only bass player they know who they ask to turn up.
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If you're worried about expensive equipment being confiscated may I point you at the Official Exquisite/Glarry/Burning Fire Bass Club?
