5 arrested in Rainbow Family clash with feds

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hN-c-3eoJ10eVh0oueH7birn-AJAD91NA5A83

5 arrested in Rainbow Family clash with feds

By BEN NEARY – 1 hour ago
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — About 400 members of the Rainbow Family threw rocks and sticks at 10 federal officers as they tried to arrest a member of the group, the U.S. Forest Service said Friday.
Five members of the group were arrested and one officer was slightly injured. A government vehicle was also damaged.
About 7,000 members of the Rainbow Family are camping this year on Forest Service land near Big Piney. The Rainbow Family is a loose affiliation of eccentrics, young people and hippie types who choose a forest each year in which hold a weeklong national gathering.
Ten Forest Service officers were patrolling the main meadow of the Rainbow Family's camping area Thursday night and apprehended one person described as being uncooperative, Rita Vollmer, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service, said in a statement Friday.
"Officers began to leave the gathering site with the subject and were circled by more Rainbow participants that began to physically interfere," Vollmer said.
About 400 Rainbows surrounded the officers trying to leave, she said.
"The mob began to advance, throwing sticks and rocks at the officers," Vollmer said.
Mary Cernicek, spokeswoman for the Bridger-Teton National Forest, said Friday that more officers arrived to help. Officers fired "pepper balls" — similar to paint balls but containing a pepper solution — to control the crowd, she said.
State troopers have also arrested two people this week on felony drug charges for allegedly possessing 96 hits of LSD, said Sgt. Stephen Townsend of the Wyoming Highway Patrol.
The Rainbows and federal officers have clashed repeatedly in years past, and the Forest Service in 1998 established a national response team to deal with the group. Officials have complained that the gathering can ruin forests, with the group saying members clean up and reseed afterward.

 

oh boy...

 

Yeah I read that a few hours ago in the AP…wow

They marched down to main meadows and arrested someone on the 4th..

Trying to show the media they have the control? Are they prodding the defenses?

Boy I don’t know but it seems like a political move.

Edit: I reread it it was Thursday night not as dramatic.

 

Wow, not nearly as bad as we had thought. We left lastnight due to bad vibes, just got back to Babylon and went online to see what all happened...

Lastnight we went to get some gear from our car and suddenly had an intuition that we needed to leave. Immediately. Very strange thought but it came from our instinct, not our head. So we left. Picked up a couple other folk who also felt the instinct to leave. None of us had heard about anything happening, just felt odd.

On the way out saw about 20 to 30 police cars near the entrance/exit intersection, asked us where we intended to go, we said "Leaving" and the LEO said "Just keep moving". We saw a woman getting handcuffed as we drove past.

The LEOs had paintball guns or something that looked much like them, and the two folk we picked up said they had spotted a few cops skulking around, hiding behind bushes and trees and watching people, also with the paintball guns.

Wish we'd stayed now, but we have a feeling that our gut knew better, glad to know what happened, but would like a more complete story...

 

yes i would like to here families side,,from more than one source of course..

ive been to a lot of gatherings over the years and ive never saw family "attack" leos.
something tells me the "throwing rocks and sticks" was fabricated..

then again i would not be surprised if they pulled a false flag and had one of there own throw rocks at them as a excuse to play with there toys..

that is indeed something that has bothered me about the sherriffs son who has been missing.. what better way to infiltrate the gathering than to just become part of it?

 

sounds like a fucking mess..
heres a little more detail..
http://www.jacksonholestartrib.com/.../wyoming/b6f13c1e812604148725747d0005a3c0.txt

Arrest leads to Rainbow riot
By TOM MORTON
Star-Tribune staff writer Saturday, July 05, 2008


[oas:casperstartribune.net/news/wyoming:Middle1] 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.

 

This is The War we face Humans..This 40 yr war we have been in with the darkones is just as fierce as it was in the late 60s, tho they use real bullets and billy clubs on us and wanted our offspring DEAD!!

The hatered they hold of us is unfathomable as far as having NO GOOD REASON to hate us so and want our children to die with us, to kill off our LINE, to create our oblitheration.

It is pure NATZISUM!! It is the way of governement, CONTROL. I have had them, the natzi's point guns at my child and I been beat with clubs while walking out of a store minding my own biz.. It hasn't changed.

They somehow think we want what's theirs.. they do not realize we wnat nothing from them but to live our lives in peace..there are bad images that hid amoung us bringing negitivity to us.. spies and infiltrators that call themselves Brother/Sister that work for The Man.. they come and make disturbances within the flow of the circle of light and give cause for the raiding parties of the HOARD to decend upon us devourin the innocent in their quest for RULE/POWER. It's discrimination pure and simple bc we are not made of ticky tac and we are not all the same.

How long must we hold vigil.. There is no sancuary for us, we are not to be allowed to gather in peace bc they fear our numbers. They fear what we represent.. FREEDOM.. They think we are busy conspiring against them, while our only goal is to reunite with our FAMILY and celabrate LIFE and HONOR MOTHER.

I think what ordinary folks 'see' through the medias 'eyes' is the METH problem and the OVER use of alcohol and not the LOVE that is in most of the Gatherers. There is too much publicity on the gatherings and the media focuses only on the unpleastries of what some do.. not all Rainbow either, just some that do not understand the real purpose for the gatherings or the way.

Our Way will never die, we will survive the holicost bc it is out of love that we continue and we shall always be who were are. They cannot take our mind yet, we can still think freely.

Bless us all
sh

sorry if I took it off topic, I was compelled to respond. It brought back such recollection, my gut twisted.

I Love You

 

well not knowing but what ive read from those two articles,it seems it was indeed a premeditated event by the LEO'S designed to stir as much fear and outrage in family as possible so that they could play with there new toys..

the simple fact that it seems to have started in and around kiddie village leads me to believe so..
i would not be surprised if some family did indeed throw rocks or stones knowing that the children were in harms way..

its just sad to think they had total disregard for the children..

 

I am still in the process of shaking my head in disbelief and feeling appalled at such a behaviour - especially the neglegence of respect and caring for small children...
And that coming from the "authorities" of the "Land of the Free". Yeah, right. You can be as free as they allow you to be... Another prime example of what the "normal" world is developing into.

Sending lots of love to the ones who suffered from this fascist attack and also to those who still follow the Path.

Light and Love,

~*Ganesha*~

 

This makes me sad especially reading that it took place around Kiddie Village..
The 4th of July holiday to celebrate American freedom and some fucking Nazis have to try to ruin it?

Why were they there in the first place?
Was there violence that need stopped? Were they helping people?
I wasn’t there but I'm sure the answer is No..

It is more the just an attack on the rainbow gathering it is an attack on all Americans trying to live in a free society.

 

Somehow to me, The Sand Creek Massacre comes to mind.
144 years have passed and the US is still using the same tactics.
Bringing full military might to bear on unarmed peaceful men, women and children, why do police guys beat on peace guys?

 

This is an attack on a way of life. Period. The Rainbows did nothing to instigate any of the violence, why else would an officer point a weapon at a small child?

They are behaving this way because of what Rainbows represent: the death of central authoritarianism. It's one way of life versus another. Our numbers need to grow, and our tactics need to diversify. Bringing shields and other objects of defense might become inevitable at this point.

Remember, they are doing this because of what is inside our minds.

Someone brought up Sand Creek. Well, most of those victims were innocent women and children. The same cavalry that attacked those people are the same who are attacking the Rainbows now. This is about central authority attempting to retain its power over us. My guess is that they in fact FEAR us and what we represent. I suppose they should fear us.

 

The leos didn't care back in '96 when my 6 yr old saw them hold a gun to his Daddy's nose & they don't care now. Way to go, leos, break the children's trust in those who are supposed to 'serve & protect' & make sure they will have that distrust for life

(we all know that the feddies are reading all the reactions from cyberland...wouldn't surprise me to find that there are audio/video taping from several places with-in the Gathering)

 

anyone gets any info from family on this,please do post it here ASAP..

thanks...

 

:sad::cuss:

 

I was very sad to hear about all that happened. I left Kid Village only the day before. The LEO's had been increasing their patrols daily but typically avoided the Village. When I left, I counted 7 Forest Service LEO vehicles on the gravel roads plus another 3 at their Communication Center. Near the blacktop were 6 State Trooper vehicles and a BLM car. This was all on the way to Boulder. I also noted at least two different Army Blackhawk helicopter flyovers not to mention the Forest Service helicopter and light aircraft flyovers. This amount of presence along a narrow and crowded corridor is bound to lead to further tension. The Department of Agriculture needs to "back off" and de-escalate this situation immediately before it gets worse. I feel very worried over all these developments. This story is now all over the web, the TV media and now the world media. Everyone is now watching and wondering. Cool heads need to prevail. Peace and nonviolence are the only solution. We must avoid anger and fear. Please spread the word of Peace and forgiveness...Please.

 

I've never been to the gatherings but in my heart I knew you folks were out there keeping it alive.This seems disgusting,un-necessary and a harbinger of things to come.As usual,real freedom scares the hell out of the zombies.I'm sorry.I'm really sorry.

 

interesting about the blackhawk helicopters,,as i stated a couple weeks ago they were in denver training for martial law and many "black helicopters" were sighted..





http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/june2008/180608_b_helicopters.htm

http://pacificfreepress.com/content/view/2774/81/

the above article indicates that training just ended june 30..

im just sayin,,its the feds show and they have really been ratcheting up there training in the event of (the inevitable coming of)martial law,so perhaps they were hoping to incite a large enough protest to get some on the job training for the boys in black..

sounds like they got some for some of the boys in green anyway..

i agree calm heads need to prevail unless everyone wishes to see a bad bad scene...

 

I find this comment telling,

"Lawlessness" is cited as an unacceptable threat to "safety".

In my interactions with college students, I see the attitude that laws and rules are nessesary for safety. Leading to a confusion between the two.

This old grump's take on the younger folks is that they measure everything against some preexisting standard rather than seeing what is before their eyes.

Hence, the need to point a gun at lawbreakers without seeing that the lawbreakers are babies in diapers. Hence, 0-tolerance policies that produce 0-wisdom results.