Posted on 07/05/2008 3:50:27 AM PDT by SLB
U.S. Forest Service officers pointed weapons at children and fired rubber bullets and pepper spray balls at Rainbow Family members while making arrests Thursday evening, according to witnesses.
"They were so violent, like dogs," Robert Parker told reporter Deborah Stevens of the libertarian-oriented, Round Rock, Texas-based We the People Radio Network [www.wtprn.com] after the incident.
"People yelled at them, 'You're shooting children,'" Parker said during an interview on the network's "Rule of Law Show."
About 7,000 people have arrived at the gathering near Big Sandy in the Wind River Mountains for the annual Gathering of the Tribes, a seven-day event of fellowship, partying including illicit drug use, praying, and living on the land.
They camp on Forest Service land around the country every year, but the Rainbow family's nonhierarchical methods -- no one can speak for the Rainbows, much less sign a land use permit -- often have stymied their relationships.
But rarely do the tensions escalate into violence.
The Forest Service's Incident Command Team in Rock Springs issued a press release Friday morning, saying officers were patrolling the main meadow of the gathering Thursday evening when they contacted a man who fled and was later caught. Another Rainbow was detained for physically interfering.
Officers began to leave the area with the subjects and were circled by Rainbow participants, according to the news release from Rita Vollmer of the Incident Command Team.
Ten officers were escorting the detained subjects when about 400 Rainbows surrounded the squad, and more officers were requested, according to the news release.
"The mob began to advance, throwing sticks and rocks at the officers. Crowd control tactics were used to keep moving through the group of Rainbows," the news release said.
Other law enforcement agencies were called to the scene, the news release said.
Officers made five arrests; one officer suffered minor injuries and was cleared by a local hospital; and a government vehicle sustained damage, the news release said.
"This lawless behavior is unacceptable and we will not tolerate it," said John Twiss, Forest Service director of law enforcement. "The safety of our employees, public and Rainbow participants is our number one priority, and we will continue to protect everyone on the national forest."
Vollmer of the Forest Service Incident Management Team did not return calls requesting comment Friday.
Rainbow Family members' accounts told a different story.
One member who identified himself only as "Ryan" told Stevens he was with his two children in his tent at the Rainbows' Kid Village north of the main meadow where the major prayer circles and dinners are held.
One of the 10 officers pointed a pepper spray gun at him and his children, he said. His girlfriend was using the latrine outside when four officers came to her and asked if she was smoking marijuana.
The officers then ran through the Kid Village and through its kitchen, and chaos erupted, he said.
Other witnesses recounted seeing about 10 officers of the Forest Service's incident command team drag an older man from the woods near the Kid Village, according to interviews by Stevens.
A woman in the village told the officers to take their guns out of the Kid Village. An officer threw that woman to the ground and pulled her head back by her hair while she was being handcuffed, one Rainbow named Rick told Stevens.
"I got out and yelled, 'what the f--- are you doing?'" Rick said. "That got it started."
The officers backed up in a defensive position, and some used their Tasers on Rainbows, he said.
Rainbows called for their crisis management team, and Rainbow family elders urged the crowd to remain calm, he said. However, the crowd kept moving, and the Forest Service officers began randomly spraying the crowd with pepper spray bullets.
The officers, with their two suspects in custody, found an exit trail from the main meadow, and the peacekeepers urged the crowd to let them go, he said.
"These people deliberately, for hours, were aggressively working the camp over and working the people over," Ryan said. "They chose the kiddie village -- the one place, the kids, to take their stand and create a riot, and I bought into it. ... They were looking for an excuse to do some damage to us."
Ryan's partner, Feather, told Stevens she was pepper-sprayed, and saw another Rainbow with welts all over his body.
Feather also recounted seeing a couple with a young child and an infant who had just emerged from the woods and didn't know what was happening.
The couple asked the officers what was going on, and the officers pointed their guns at the children. The officers walked away, but one turned around and pointed his rifle at the baby, she told Stevens.
Robert Kinn of Afton told the Casper Star-Tribune in an interview Friday that he and his family had been camping and drove to Big Sandy because they'd never been to a gathering.
Forest Service officers gave Kinn a citation and a $175 ticket for allowing someone to ride on his vehicle's trailer, and said the officers weren't polite. "I was scared, was harassed."
Kinn and his family went to the main circle for dinner, when they heard people yelling about needing help to put out a fire in the Kid Village.
About 10 minutes later, people came back to tell the main circle the fire was over, and the crowd resumed eating, he said.
One of the senior Rainbows gathered the crowd and explained the clash with the Forest Service, and another man showed where rubber bullets hit him in the stomach, Kinn said.
Kinn and his family drove home that night, he said.
Seen any “rainbows” over your way?
Reminds me of Kent State...the crowd provoked much of the violence.
And, it's not just the Forest Service. Every tin-pot local police and sheriffs department is now armed to the teeth. Watch what happens when they come after law-abiding citizens: http://www.nra.org/Multimedia/MMPlayer_Set.aspx?ID=105
I think if we just enforced every currently existing law we’d need prison space for another ~60 million.
It's all for our own safety, right?
For the children, right?
Note: The Rainbow hippies rioted when confronted with the law. It seems the SWAT tactics were justified.
The hippies made the Forest Service’s case for them.
Yea, that'll certainly do it........I learned at a young age to keep my mouth shut and do what I'm told. My dad was a cop......
You may be right.
THE CASPER STAR- TRIBUNERainbow Family members' accounts told a different story.
One member who identified himself only as "Ryan" told Stevens he was with his two children in his tent at the Rainbows' Kid Village north of the main meadow where the major prayer circles and dinners are held. One of the 10 officers pointed a pepper spray gun at him and his children, he said. His girlfriend was using the latrine outside when four officers came to her and asked if she was smoking marijuana.
The officers then ran through the Kid Village and through its kitchen, and chaos erupted, he said.
Other witnesses recounted seeing about 10 officers of the Forest Service's incident command team drag an older man from the woods near the Kid Village, according to interviews by Stevens. A woman in the village told the officers to take their guns out of the Kid Village. An officer threw that woman to the ground and pulled her head back by her hair while she was being handcuffed, one Rainbow named Rick told Stevens.
"I got out and yelled, 'what the f--- are you doing?'" Rick said. "That got it started."
The officers backed up in a defensive position, and some used their Tasers on Rainbows, he said.
Rainbows called for their crisis management team, and Rainbow family elders urged the crowd to remain calm, he said. However, the crowd kept moving, and the Forest Service officers began randomly spraying the crowd with pepper spray bullets.
The officers, with their two suspects in custody, found an exit trail from the main meadow, and the peacekeepers urged the crowd to let them go, he said.
"These people deliberately, for hours, were aggressively working the camp over and working the people over," Ryan said. "They chose the kiddie village -- the one place, the kids, to take their stand and create a riot, and I bought into it. ... They were looking for an excuse to do some damage to us."
It is a real shame that the government vehicle was damaged. I hope it does not cost the taxpayers too much to get it fixed.
Hippies play the victim card. “The children’s village”. Boo freaking hoo.
I click on thinking that a lesbian convention was rioting somewhere.
Move along folks, nothing to see here....
Get 'em boys!
Also, every statement in the previous paragraph is false. If they enviro-freaks were not utter hypocrites, they would agree that the Rainbow “tribes” are the worst menace to the planet. These are people who say they care, but constantly demonstrate that they do not.
Then move your kids, stupid!
Terrorists always seem to put their kids in the line of fire and then bitch like dogs when they're hit.
I remember when my old friend Ryan used to go to Rainbow Gatherings in the 80s, mainly to do drugs and get laid. They were always very peaceful, and the park service just knew to stay away from the area until they were done, and then send in the garbage patrol. They didn’t even have guns or anything. This seems like a post-9/11 overreaction. A real shame we have lost our innocence because of those diaperheads.
Here is the REAL cause of the "riot". WTF did they need to confront a pot smoker for? It's a park. FOUR officers? Talk about jackbooted thugs. I think they wanted a confrontation.
ahhh yes... the children of Vito Paulekas.
Maybe it’s just me, but I’m drawing a blank here...what’s a “pepper spray bullet”?
Jack-booted thugs, indeed. When hippies can’t smoke dope in the privacy of the forrest, there can’t be much civilization worth defending.
Ranger Rick came looking for a fight - and he wasn’t going to leave till he found one.
TOugh call, I don’t like hippies, but I really despise the “parking permit Nazis” of the FOrest Service.
A paintball gun, but instead of paintballs it fires balls filled with pepper spray.
Ten officers were escorting the detained subjects when about 400 Rainbows surrounded the squad, and more officers were requested, according to the news release.
"The mob began to advance, throwing sticks and rocks at the officers. Crowd control tactics were used to keep moving through the group of Rainbows," the news release said.
*********************
The crowd was lucky that real bullets weren't used.
The militarization of law enforcement continues...
I can't believe how many cop haters there are on Free Republic.
Today’s Forest Service: you can’t see the forest for the fees.
Speaking of which, might there be any Milwaukee-area Freepers with a law or law enforcement background who would be willing to advise on a matter that happened last night?
My 18 yr old daughter came home with the most unbelieveable story about a friend of hers who had a run in with the local police yesterday (suburb of Milwaukee, not Milwaukee proper).
“The crowd was lucky that real bullets weren’t used.”
They certainly were! Not like those punks in Lexington back in ‘76.
Just suppose they had tried to have their little “gathering” in Red China or North Korea - they’d have been beat down for sure!
Luckily, in America, if you mind your own business, you can avoid being treated like a slave or beast of burden.
Just stay indoors!
And pray that the SWAT boys don’t get a wrong address!
BTW, has noone ever told you that being a bootlicker is actually no real protection?
I cant believe how many boot-lickers there are.
“Thanks for the response. It was most illuminating.”
Excellent.
Although people say, “It’s better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness,” I personally prefer the cursing occasionally.
To each his own.
We are all now are aware of the group to which you belong.
Great episode, good take-off from “The Core”.
“Ill-mannered thugs” is precisely what we are talking about, princess.
So did most Republicans...which is probably why we have John McCain as our nominee. ;)
Thanks, and thanks again for confirming my observations.
“People yelled at them, ‘You’re shooting children,’”
We can’t help it, you’re hiding behind them!
I worked at Camp Pendleton at that time and spoke to a Marine EOD guy (disarms explosive devices) who handled some of the Kent State debris.
He said he found 78 rpm records (about 12" in diameter for the CD generation) that had double-edged razor blades taped around the edges. The disks were Frisbeed at the troops, so if any had hit in an unprotected spot, you'd have been hurting.
Are you joking? I love police. But this was ridiculous. This freaks have been smoking dope and having sex for decades and not hurting anyone. What was the point of sending FOUR "officers" (as if these Park shmoes are real cops anyway) to confront a woman smoking a joint? I prefer a nation where I can shoot in the woods, have sex in the woods, and even eat transfats if I want to, without some nanny-state pretend cop coming to harass me. Someone called these people "terrorists"! They are just stupid dirty hippies, and I am fine with them doing whatever they want as long as they don't hurt anyone else.
Nobday hates cops.
We are just lamenting the loss of our once free republic.
We hate how our policemen have become militarized and are called to enforce the millions of laws and regulations politicians have passed "and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance."
US Forest Service... aren’t those the guys who spot forest fires and do smoke jumping and the like? (silly foreigner question)
What are they doing with shock troops? Philosophically I have a great deal of difficulty accepting the idea of the cops having SWAT teams and pretending like they are marines. Now the Forest Rangers are doing the same???
I dunno about these Rainbow people, they sound like hippies. But I sure don’t like the sound of Forest Rangers playing at being soldiers.
Have I got it wrong maybe?
Taking lessons from the so-called Palestinians — using their kids as an excuse to riot. If the cops had done it right, a few of those sniveling cruds would have been shot the right way — ni rubber bulolets, either.
Here ya go, trish - someone who agrees with you!
And “ni rubber bulolets”, indeed!
I will not defend the Forest Service, but try to explain a little about how things have changed for them. When I was growing up in Wyoming (in the 1950's - 60's) the local game warden carried a rifle in his pickup, mainly for dispatching wounded animals or taking care of predators who were in the wrong place. I now have a cousin who is game warden in Wyoming who wears a bullet resistant vest daily, carries a Sig-Sauer (the last time I talked to him he was), and is a graduate of a law enforcement course along with the normal wildlife management courses.
Forest Rangers used to be only concerned with preserving the forest, plant replacement, range management, etc. Now their lives are changed. They chance walking into a meth lab whenever they are out, or a pot field that is protected by armed guards. The rangers can be minding their own business and simply stumble into theses places. Would you like to do so unarmed and unable to defend yourself?
Have you ever witnessed the destruction that 5,000 to 20,000 people can have on the environment when they camp on maybe 400 - 500 acres for a couple of weeks? Way too many folks in a small area. The small trees and shrubs are trampled into nothing, the wildlife take off for parts unknown and the whole area needs five to twenty years to return to the pre-rainbow state.
Bye.
People like cops who "protect and serve", who arrest those who harm others
Cops who hassle people who are not harming others can expect to accumulate some resentment
I may be mistaken, but I always thought that was what police were supposed to do -- enforce the law.
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