A-Camp was the only place at the Gathering where alcohol was widely accepted. Rainbows discourage its use but established the enclave because some members are alcoholics and can’t go long without a drink. It was also, we were told, the only place where money was seen as an acceptable marker of value.
So off we trudged, but only grudgingly. On the way into the Gathering, we had walked by A-Camp at about 6 a.m. The serious alcoholics on hand were either still or already drunk. A fight had broken out over an offensive remark one Rainbow had made about Guatemala: Someone sent his pit bull after the offender, and the entire encampment, including at least 50 people, was in an uproar for 20 minutes. The ubiquitous fighting made it clear that America’s only legal intoxicant is probably its most disruptive.
Still, we persevered. We made our way back to the bus and fetched a 12-pack of beer and a bottle of single malt we had in reserve. That and a few good old American dollars landed us a sizable sack of decent-looking marijuana.
We then hiked a mile back to the trading circle, where we finally had some acceptable bait for trading. I had no problem landing myself a handmade hippie purse and a few other trinkets for the folks back home. While the ladder of transactions worked and the notion of smokable currency did appeal to my deviant nature, the inefficiency of the process was a lesson in the value and convenience of paper money.
The Rainbows also had occasional problems dealing with the mass of people crowding the paths. One night at dinner, the concentric circles simply failed to materialize. With no one in charge, it was impossible to effectively direct the largely drug-muddled crowd into compliance. Sitting in an unfortunate spot, we watched as the food reached everyone but those of us stuck on the outside.
But for the most part, the Rainbows’ nonsystem worked. No one starved, and no one died of exposure in the chilly Montana nights. That is an admirable accomplishment for 23,000 hippies who strike fear and loathing in the hearts of the National Forest Service.
The Forest Service’s National Incident Management Team usually deals with large-scale emergencies, such as raging forest fires. It is also the entity responsible for dealing with the Rainbow Gathering, which the federal government obviously views as a national incident.
Based at the Dillon Middle School about an hour away from the
Gathering, the team of about 40 officers coordinated law
enforcement’s response to the event. Its tactics included aerial
flyovers, mounted patrols through the Gathering, increased state
and local patrols on area roads, and, as mentioned, citing a few
Rainbows for failing to sign
the required permit. According to Sharon Sweeney, an information
officer stationed temporarily in Dillon, the federal government
allocated $400,000 to the Rainbow policing effort.
Kevin Kennedy, another officer on the scene, said the event went off with few major incidents. "It’s actually been pretty smooth," he said. "We’ve had a pretty strong law enforcement presence because of the permit issue." The biggest offenses Kennedy reported were a man caught with 500 hits of LSD and a drunken A-Camper who attempted to run over his girlfriend with his truck during a fight.
According to National Forest Service statistics, there were a total of 42 felony arrests, 136 misdemeanor arrests, 23 warrants served, 580 citations, and 931 warnings at the Rainbow site between June 6 and July 7. Of those, 162 were drug-related, while 881 involved traffic and vehicles; 21 related to "nudity." Authorities also handled five natal incidents (births or labor), 13 ambulance transports, and 52 hospital visits.
Sweeney stressed that the Forest Service’s major concern is environmental impact. "The site is a mess," she said. "We don’t know what long-term impacts the slit trenches will have. There are 23,000 people out there trampling a delicate meadow area. We’re talking about a really short growing season here. We don’t know how long it will take the area to recover."
Lurking behind those concerns, though, is another issue: the Rainbows’ refusal to sign the required permit. "If they had a permit we could work with them to select a site that could handle that many people," said Buck Feist, another information officer based temporarily in Dillon for the Gathering. The permit procedure is free, Feist said, and the decision to grant it or not is in no way based on the cultural or religious views of the people applying—indeed, Feist adds, the Forest Service considers large groups such as the Rainbows an "appropriate use." Asked if there was a National Forest site anywhere in the country that would be acceptable for a crowd as large as the Rainbow Family, Feist said he didn’t know. "They haven’t applied for a permit, so we haven’t entered into that discussion."
Feist denied the Rainbows’ claim that the permit requirement
violates their constitutional right to assemble. He also rejected
the possibility that
the Rainbows could work with the Forest Service to select a more
environmentally acceptable site but still refuse to sign a permit
on constitutional grounds. "There is a process," he said. "We can’t
work with them until they sign the permit."
So on what grounds were some people picked out for citations while most were not? "These were folks who seemed to be in more of a leadership role," Sweeney said. "Granted, there is no one leader."
And if there were, he or she wouldn’t necessarily be facing charges. "I went to the main council at the gathering for the first time since 1992 this year," said Barry "Plunker" Adams, a 55-year-old migrant ranch hand and one of the three Rainbows charged this year for gathering without a permit. "I haven’t been that involved in the gathering for years and years. I did a little this year, and I did help clean up like I do every year. What the government did was hand a ticket to a volunteer janitor."
Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of Reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment for any reason at any time.
All Failure|10.24.11 @ 10:50AM|#
Great, Great,