In recent weeks, much has been said about the government’s seizure of Camp Zoe, a campground and concert venue in south central Missouri owned by Jimmy Tebeau, frontman for Grateful Dead tribute band The Schwag. Those with the loudest voices protest that said seizure threatens the very nature of concerts and festivals; if this precedent is set, they claim, the fate of every single music festival in the country could be in danger.

But let’s take a step back. The government’s seizure application was based on rampant drug sales, use and abuse during Camp Zoe events—something about which anyone with even a remote knowledge of Camp Zoe was aware. Personally, I’m surprised it took the government this long to take action.

The November 1, 2010, raid was a big one. As the camp’s “Save Camp Zoe” press release states, “officers from the Internal Revenue Service, Drug Enforcement Agency, Department of Homeland Security, Missouri State Highway patrol, and local and regional police departments converged on the property, raided the campground, confiscating gate revenue from Camp Zoe’s Spookstock 9 Halloween concert event, as well as financial records. Later that day, the DEA seized the funds in the Camp Zoe bank account, nearly $200,000.”

Here’s where it gets really interesting. Again from the press release: “[Campground owner] Jimmy Tebeau has recently been charged with six felony counts of tax evasion for delinquent payment of sales tax—money which was taken when the government seized the Camp Zoe bank account. Faced with the camp’s assets being taken, Tebeau has been unable to pay the taxes owed or pay the camp’s mortgage, which is now falling behind, putting it at risk of foreclosure.”

Um, so…the claim is that Tebeau can’t pay his delinquent taxes because the money that he was not using to pay said delinquent taxes has been seized? In other words, we are to ignore the fact that he was cheating the Internal Revenue Service—and, by extension, we voters of Missouri—out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes, and instead commiserate the fact that money that he in all likelihood would not have used to pay those taxes has been seized? Does anyone else see the utter inanity of such a claim?

It gets even better when Emmett McAuliffe, one of Tebeau’s attorneys, speaks up. “There are problems that exist in society at large such as drug use, violence or drunken driving. When you assemble large numbers of people for a recreational event, those problems are not going to disappear. Should a property owner be punished because he can’t make those larger problems go away, even when he is operating an otherwise legitimate public event? If so, the very legitimacy of outdoor rock concerts is threatened.”

Let’s see. I ran a festival for four years. I run a venue. I know countless other venue owners. And I can tell you that every single one of them cracks down on patron drug sales/use and underage drinking the very second it is discovered. Hell, yes, we venues can be held responsible for illegal behavior that occurs on our property; anybody heard of clubs getting cited for allowing underage drinking? If we choose to ignore such illicit drug and alcohol activity, we are then breaking the law. Who among us doesn’t know this?

A final bit of symmetry. Says the press release, “Camp Zoe has hosted more than 40 successful events in the past seven years with very few incidents, generating more than $200,000 in tax revenue.” Hmm…would that be the $200,000 that was seized and delinquent?

Oh dear, dear St. Louis—surely we know right from wrong, even when a campaign is mounted to convince us otherwise. Sure, the case is important, but not for the reasons Camp Zoe’s owner, attorneys and publicity team would have you believe. Rather, it’s a prime example of our need—as individuals, corporations and society at large—to own up to the truth and take responsibility for our own actions. | Laura Hamlett