In the wee hours of November 24, 1996, Martha Bayne found herself shivering in the back of a paddy wagon on Lake Street, facing misdemeanor charges of serving alcohol without a license, serving alcohol to minors, and operating a business without a license. Earlier an army of patrolmen with flashlights had raided a loft party and fund-raiser for Maxine, the zine she publishes with Zoe Zolbrod and Anne Bruns. The police also confiscated a kitty that contained over $400 in at-the-door “donations” for the combination bake sale, raffle, beer bash, dance party, and concert. “I think they thought it was a rave or something,” Bayne says. “But they didn’t find any drugs.”
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She wasn’t fingerprinted and put in the pokey, but Bayne cooled her heels on a bench in the squad room at Monroe and Racine for four hours while the arresting officers “kicked back and filled out reports and shot the shit with the other cops.” At 5 AM she was finally let go. In her pocket she had three tickets, a court date, and a receipt for the seized money.
Indeed, the upcoming crime and punishment issue, due out (“hopefully”) in May, will include an essay by Bayne that examines the pros and cons of bad-girl culture, a piece by Jennifer Reeder about violent women and the myth of innocence, and a response by Erin Hogan to the slew of letters generated by her October 1995 Reader cover story, “Jerked Around,” about pressing charges against a public masturbator.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): Marthy Bayne, Zoe Zolbrod, Anne Bruns photo by Nathan Mandell.
