5 arrested in Rainbow Family clash with feds

I was thinking that maybe if the media continues to report this around the world, those who know what the Rainbow Family is about will stand up and do something. The media might not make it sound exactly what it is but there's millions of open minded people who know what this family is about once they hear reporters say hippie or anything related to it.

Who knows maybe something good will come out of this tragedy.

And we can't forget about karma for those officials that tried to hurt all those innocent beautiful people.

 

I understand that, as this was right at supper time, the heavy hitters were off at circle.

 

The problem with that theory is that if he was hanging out in kid village all day, 'flagrant' in his actions, then he is 100% responsible for it happening in kid village.

Either these gatherings are anti-establishment in nature, with the express purpose of getting into conflicts, or they or not. If they are not, when people do things to attract the attention of the authorities, they should be told in no uncertain terms to leave. Any parent with a kid there, should be 'educating' him on why it was such an asshole thing for him to do, putting their kids at risk by doing his thing there.

If it is meant to be an anti-establishment gathering, then people should not be endangering their kids by taking them there.

but thats just my opinions based on what has been posted here...

 

I think I must respectfully disagree.. These gatherings are VERY anti-establishment, but are expressly NON-violent; We wish to change the powers that be, to remake this world into something worth being proud of. To do this we must show the authorities that we can gather peacefully, in great numbers, with or without thier permission. This of course is a threat to thier strangle-hold on our lives, so they inevitably turn to violence & intimidation to reign us in.. The Brother in question should certainly have taken his buisness elsewhere, but it was up to the family to tell him so, NOT the LEO's. We have to show them that we are truly capable of governing our own lives with no help from them. This means it's up to all of us to do our part. I see this situation as being as much the fault of each brother & sister there who didn't politely sway this brother to move on down the trail as it was the brother himself, as well as the LEO's for so carefully choosing thier battles. It was as someone else said, 'the perfect storm' so to speak. Everything seemed to come together in just the wrong way this time around. We know they will always attempt to stop us, so it's up to us to make sure they have as little chance & opportunity to thwart us as possible.

 

I agree 100%...

The family should have taken care of it, before the authorities did....

The fact that the family didn't, gave them the authorities the reason they were looking for to come in and cause a disturbance...

 

I don't think either side should feel compelled to prove anything to the other... thats where ego's get in the way...

Perhaps its not so much about showing "the man" what "we" can do... but simply living peacefully among the madness, which will hopefully convert the mad to the glad.... :cheers2:

These gatherings sound like a great idea (good vibes around the thought of it! )... this post will start my research

 

Please, Family, rumors get out of hand because people pass along what they heard rather than facts.

As someone who has known Fonty for 20 yrs, here are some facts about the brother...he loves to share at gatherings, but he would never intentially do anything stupid enough to get the feds to swoop in like that. He has a flambouyant nature. He doesn't usually stay in any one place for long at a Gathering; he's one of those 'gotta lotta folks to see today' always movin' type folks. It would have been very easy for the feds to tail him & arrest him in a safer place.

One thing people are forgetting is that things used to be different at Gatherings. Partaking of herbal sacrament at a Gathering wasn't worth the trouble of arrest in many states during the 90's (car searches were the main harrassment then). I remember the 4th of July at the Montana Gathering...the local sheriff hung out by our kitchen all day & I know he had to have been catching whiffs... I saw an fs bro hand a doob back to a bro at trade circle once, a dog had sent it flying accidently while catching a frisbee & it landed right at the ranger's feet.

Lots of folks who were there believe that this incident was a set-up. I am of the opinion that the feds decided to use Rainbow as a general testing ground many years ago....'bout the same time they figured out that not only were Fam not going away, we were drawing a more diverse non-group every year.

 

I was going by the basis of this, not rumor, unless Mycelium wasn't really there?


As for, it used to be this or that, here it is in a nutshell... well before the gathering warnings went out to not do anything to cause a scene... as it began, more detailed warning were being put out. To the point of making sure you use your blinkers when coming in, because the feds were looking for ANY excuse to harass the family.

To me, I would say smoking in and around kid village would be considered a little more attention grabbing then not using your blinkers...

Not once did I say anything about it not being at the gathering, it is a part many peoples lifestyle choices... But it sure as hell should not have been at kid village, at all. Nothing to do with whether or not someone was laid back or be flagrant, it shouldn't have been brought in there. Nothing that can be said will change that simple little fact.

Even if he wasn't an 'elder' and was just an adult, he should have known better... If he wanted to go visit poeple in kids village, fine, then he should have left his stash somewhere else and went and visited and then left. Not only didn't he do that, but he was also partaking take?? Come on...

He did this, he owns it... simple as that...

 

The problem with Mycelium's comment is that there was no specific action cited.

Bro, it sounds like you are willing to give the us governement card blanche on making arrests. There are laws in this country which prohibit law officers from placing the general public in danger to make an arrest when the offense is not placing the public in danger...in other words, leos may fire a weapon into a crowd if the offender is firing a weapon BUT they may not fire a weapon into a crowd because of a non-violent offense...and firing weapons in an area clearly populated children for an offense which is only a misdemenor in most states is simply unacceptable in my opinion.

 

so ive yet to really ask anyone or bother looking..
am i to assume this dude was arrested for pot and nothing else?

what exactly was he charged with?

 

I am doing no such thing... I am saying that if you do something stupid and you get nailed for it, its your own fault, if you endanger other people while doing it, it is your fault...

but thats fine... believe he did nothing wrong, yell and scream about how bad the cops are, go through it again next year and the year after... and the next time or the time after, when somebodies kid dies because an idiot doesn't have enough sense to not do stupid shit like that, you remember this conversation...

 

I'm not saying that Fonty doesn't need to deal with his end of the Karma. Nowhere did I post a fuss about the fact that he was arrested. Please reread my posts if your understanding differs from my meaning.

I am saying that the LEOs purposely endangered children. If you cannot understand or respect my view-point then you have never dealt with an LEO confrontation directly...I have. And quite honestly, it is persons like myself, who question the actions of leos, that keep all us citizens a little safer from abuse of authority. Abuse of Authority isn't something that just happens at Rainbow, it happens at peace demonstrations & at activist events. It happens in the poor ends of many cities and it happens all over the planet to differing degrees.

 

Is exactly what you said. Which is not even close to what I said, perhaps you should...

What I said, quite clearly was that he should not have endangered the kid village by going in there, carrying, and especially not smoking there... if thats what it was he was doing.

Should in a world that is wonderful, peaceful and happy, the cops do something to endanger kids or other innocents, of course not...

We don't live in that world do we? We live in a world where they do the bidding of those above them, and do it with aggression and little common sense... WE know this... that isn't (or really shouldn't be) a surprise to anyone.

If you put a steak on the floor in front of a dog and he ate it, would you think it was all his fault? Or would you perhaps stop to think that maybe you shouldn't have put that steak on the floor in the first place, knowing that it is in his nature to eat it???

 

Obviously Chronic Tom, you just want to argue. I'm a hemp activist, have been for 20 years and I just don't see the point in LEOs endangering children and using pot as an excuse...and that is what happened whether or not you choose to believe this. Several people have reported armed leos tramping around in the forest before the incident happened. Do you know the history of LEO actions over the many years Gatherings have been happening? What are your views on the incident at main circle last year? LEOs drove into main circle to serve a warrant. Was that an action meant to serve & protect?

 

No, actually I don't... you are 100% right... it was all them... I apologize for being so dense so as not to see it from the start...

 

The issue is not whether Fonty broke the law. The issue is that the LEO's intentionally endangered children and bystanders. Even city police will break off a chase if it begins to endanger the general public. The LEO actions on that day border on provocateuring and started a chain of events that could have led to much more tragic results had the family been any less peaceful. Imagine what would have happened if Family really had been throwing rocks and sticks! That would have made the perfect excuse for them to really bust some ass! (pardon the expletive)

At any rate, a simple arrest could have been made by standard, run-of-the-mill LEO's. Entering KV en masse with crowd control equipment like that is clearly an act of intimidation.

 

Ok, ok, let's diffuse this a bit... So the brother was smoking pot in or near Kid Village, in thier eyes this is a crime worthy of arrest; but can we all at least agree that regardless of what the brother was doing Pepper balls fired into a crowd was a bit excessive of an action? I understand that his actions could have warranted action on the part of the LEO's under thier legal structure, but under the same legal structure the use of excessive force is also a crime & was clearly in play here on thier part. Riot tactics were hardly necissary at a Peaceful Gathering!
Lovin You All Family!

 

Precisely! Lovin you Bro!

 

What it sounds like to me is this guy wasn’t hurting anyone.
So why did a gang of thugs need to come haul him off?

"Oh he was smoking pot so it's ok they did that"
I wouldn’t want to trust some of you guys to ever watch my back.

Next year?? "Oh they didn’t have a permit it was ok they did that."??

 

wrong thread