Peace, love and anarchy
CHEYENNE, WY - The American Civil Liberties Union said Saturday that it plans to investigate the actions of federal law enforcers who arrested five Rainbow Family members in western Wyoming during their annual gathering.
The U.S. Forest Service says a mob of about 400 members of the Rainbow Family, a group of hippie types and eccentrics who camp on public land every year, threw rocks and sticks at Forest Service officers who tried to arrest a member of the group.
Up to 60 federal and local law enforcers responded, Forest Service officials say, and fired "pepper balls"—similar to paint balls but containing a pepper solution—at the crowd to control it.
As many as 7,000 members of the Rainbow Family camped out this year on Forest Service land near the Big Sandy Reservoir. The group holds a weeklong gathering on public land in a different area each year.
The Rainbows and federal officers have clashed before, and in 1998, the Forest Service established a national response team to deal with the group. Read the rest - it's rich
You might find this hard to believe, but I have a lot of friends who are 'Rainbows'. They travel from Grateful Dead gaterings to the Country Faire outside Eugene to Rainbow gaterings to Burning Man. They are okay. Stoners. I like stoners. I don't like idjits.
I was in the area when they converged on Prineville Oregon in 1998. Uninvited. They would go into that little town, beg, panhandle and shoplift. They pissed wherever they wanted. They didn't wear clothes. They smelled. They were NOT shoplifting soap. They were rude.
Most of the people who get branded as 'Rainbows' aren't really. They are hangers-on and bozos. I know some 'Rainbows' who are now third generation. Hippies having kids having kids. Volkswagon vans and tie dye. Really, they're okay.
This story pisses me off. The Rainbow Family is not into throwing stones - they are into getting stoned and having a helluva good time out in the middle of nowhere. Because they are having so much fun - all the assholes want to join in. Free love! Free dope! Free food! Free!
Assholes. Wannabes. Jerks. Pretenders. Rainbow people are not that. They're real, kind and easy going. They bathe regularly and usually work damned hard for a living to support their lifestyle. Last Rainbow human I had contact with was a 'mover'. Twenty years old and moved furniture. Worked like a dog as long as he had a buzz on and his work was perfect.
The Rainbow Family has been infiltrated by assholes. Their gatherings get more contentious every year. More and more assholes show up, want to participate and give the whole concept a bad name.
When the "hippie movement" (I visited now and then!) started in San Francisco it was all "drugs, sex & rockin roll"--and then the crap started moving in--major drug dealers, criminals, etc. and then the MOVEMENT collapsed.
Some assholes can't leave a good thing alone......
Interesting that you posted this today, as I started an OLD FARTS
STUFF......You Tube without INTRO to things way back then!
Posted by: Oldcatman | 07/06/2008 at 11:47 AM
"The ACLU plans to accept collect calls from Rainbow Family members for the next two weeks to hear their version of events, Linda Burt, executive director of Wyoming's ACLU, said Saturday." I have known a few myself, Steel. They are usually very easy going but there is a fatal flaw in their reasoning. Here is an example; I refuse to participate in Capitalism but can I bum a smoke?
Posted by: David | 07/08/2008 at 02:01 PM
Law enforcement infiltrated white supremacist groups that are really just beer drinking complaining clubs and I understand they work up the dumbest guy in the group untill he suggests violence and them hand him the means.
Apparently if you infiltrate a group and find out that they are really a bunch of pretty good people that does not advance your career.
I guess it is the same with Hippies but apparently they could not make them mad enough to burn something in protest.
Posted by: Jim Mcfalls | 07/12/2008 at 05:24 AM