Over the past few days,
reports have started to appear -- in print and online -- of escalating tensions that have
recently risen to the level of actual violent conflict between the
Rainbow Family of the Living Light and Forest Service law enforcement officers posted in Routt National Forest, near Steamboat, CO. Reports from the site suggest that Mark Rey, the Department of Agriculture's Undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment, has personally decided to obstruct this year's national
Rainbow Gathering for peace.
After two previous attempts that were found by courts to be unconstitutional, the Forest Service implemented in 1995 a rule requiring government oversight of all gatherings of above 75 people, often seen as directly aimed at impeding the activities of the politically-counterculture Rainbow Family. The Forest Service, under orders from the Department of Agriculture, is right now using the new rule to persecute one of the United States' largest groups of political dissidents.
The Rainbow Family's week-long
annual National Gathering doesn't begin until July 1st, but some Rainbows have arrived early in order to prepare the infrastructure required to support the Gathering's anticipated peak population of between 15 and 20,000 people. The Gathering's location changes annually, but it is always held in a National Forest.
The conflict is a culmination of recent years' growing tension between the Rainbow Family and the US Department of Agriculture and Forest Service, who in 1995 established a rule requiring "Group Use" permits for any assembly of more than 75 people on public lands.
The Rainbow Family, an international disorganization started in California in the 1970s, objects to this rule mainly on Constitutional grounds, refusing to recognize the government's right to oversee its use of publically-owned lands. The Forest Service's aggressive action against our freedom to assemble on public lands has culminated this year in a showdown between peaceful campers and the Federal Government, ironically to take place during the week of Independance Day.
Rainbows recognize no hierarchy of authority in their community. This means that no one can be authorized to sign a permit for the group. In the years since the new "Group Use" permit rules went into effect, individuals not duly authorized have taken it upon themselves to sign Forest Service gathering permits on behalf of the Rainbow Family, in order to relieve pressure placed on Rainbows -- pressure that comes in the form of expensive citations for trespass and illegal searches and seizures.
In the past, these permits have been granted, although in 2005 the Forest service flexed their muscle by demanding that the Rainbow Family move their West Virginia gathering from its original site -- decided by internal consensus -- to another nearby location. (The move was justified on environmental grounds, so the Gathering did move, in a rare collective decision to yield to government authority.)
Permits signed by individuals ostensibly representing the Rainbows are still regarded as illegitimate by the bulk of the Rainbow community.
This year, the situation has gotten worse than ever. The Forest Service has responded to the gathering Family by issuing, as in previous years, citations. However, this year they have gotten more aggressive, setting up roadblocks and attempting to ticket any person entering the gathering. The latest news is that gatherers have responded to the Forest Service's main roadblock with a rock attack, forcing the Forest Service to dismantle their roadblock and retreat:
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS -- The Rainbow Family peace gathering turned hostile Tuesday when a group of attendees began hurling rocks and sticks at law enforcement officers, U.S. Forest Service officials said.
The incident forced the officers to abandon a checkpoint they had established near the entrance to the Rainbow gathering campsite in North Routt County, Forest Service spokeswoman Diann Ritschard said. Officers had not returned to the checkpoint as of Tuesday afternoon.
No retaliatory action has yet occured, but this violence is rather shocking evidence of the swiftly rising tension between the Federal Government and one of the United States' largest groups of political dissidents.
The Forest Service had initially begun to issue citations on Tuesday:
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) -- Federal land managers said Tuesday they
have issued citations to members of the Rainbow Family who are converging at
a Northern Colorado site for a weeklong gathering because they don't have
the required permit
....
Forest Service officials said in a press release that the campers who are
already there don't have a permit required for all groups of more than 75.
Alt.gathering.rainbow newsgroup poster Pronoid Central reports from the site that the Forest Service is going to great lengths to obstruct this years' Gathering and to extract a high price for those who choose to attend:
SomeOne(s) applied for a permit. It will be officially denied tommorrow. I don't know who applied (it was someone on site). Apparently the denial went all the way to Undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment, Dept. of Agriculture, Mark Rey. ICT Fuhrer Tim Lynn says the permit was denied because of the rock throwing peace contest or threatening OM circle (depending on which story you choose to believe). Word is, no permit will be approved for the Red Park site. No way, no how and he is backed up in the agency all the way to the Big Chief hisself.
News reports confirm that the the Forest Service has indeed rejected the Rainbows' permit this year, citing factors that can only be called cantankerous at best: "fire danger, limited road access and other planned events nearby." The Rainbows do not allow any personal fires and are known for their conscientiousness with rare collective fires, do not make use of the roads during the gathering, and would have no difficulty keeping collective spaces away from other activities.
More troublingly, Pronoid discusses the legal trap that Rainbows will find themselves in when they arrive at Routt:
Rather than stopping all traffic from entering the site, Tim plans to ticket every person entering the gathering on the way in. (Which is easy, because there's only one way in and one way out!). All of these citations will carry a mandatory appearance. Court will be held daily at a nearby fire station.
Tim plans to ask the judge for 1 year probation for every person cited, the condition of which will be not attending any gatherings during the probation period. I'm not sure if that means all gatherings or just in violation of the regulation. If it means all gatherings, everyone attending this year will have a court order barring him/her from attending next year's gathering (and all gatherings in between). In this scenario, virtually every person attending next year's gathering will be in probation violation.
I hate to say it folks, but this is all completely doable. Harp on "clogging up the court system" if you'd like, but I've spent serious hours witnessing the efficiency and ever shorter learning curve for the portable FS courthouse for years. It's quite possible that they have it completely figured out.
So.....Rather than a peace and healing gathering, there will be some sort of civil disobedience action in support of gathering without permits in the Routt National Forest this July. Please plan your attendance based on this reality, assuming that things don't change dramatically in the coming days.
For example, YOU WILL be stopped and hassled at a very huge and serious roadblock on the way in, morning, noon, dusk, 3am, doesn't matter. They have plenty of cops in CO. You have little recourse under the law (as it is, not as we all wish it were) since your presence in the area has been deemed "illegal"--meaning the Freds have probable cause to do as they wish.
...
YOU WILL be cited for gathering without a permit at this very huge and serious roadblock. There will be no collateral amount to pay and make the ticket go away. YOU WILL either spend a day of your gathering in court or a bench warrant with $1000 bond will issue for failure to appear. If you choose to fight this ticket in court, the court will most likely (learning from last year) continue your case in the local federal district courthouse probably sometime in August or September.
If you fail to appear at this hearing, a bench warrant will be issued along with a $1000 bond meaning YOU could be picked up for spitting on the sidewalk in any location within the US and its territories and held until the local magistrate can hear your case or you can cough up $1000. Failure to appear will turn this pretty big hassle into a HUGE hassle.
This means YOU WILL leave the gathering either 1) on probation; 2) facing a court date back in CO in the coming months (and perhaps multiple appearances); or 3) saddled with a federal warrant for failure to appear. With certainty, YOU WILL BE CONVICTED and attendance at any
gatherings on National Forest System lands may place YOU in violation of your probation.
YOU WILL NOT beat this ticket. YOU COULD GET SIX MONTHS IN FEDERAL PRISON and/or a $5000 fine for this conviction. Do not take this lightly as many people have done jail time and paid some hefty fines for this violation. Keep this in mind if or when individuals attempt to convince you to fight your citation. Last year, anyone who challenged their citation received much higher fines (I think $500 was the highest). Only one beat the ticket (yeah Leo!). I'm in the land
of conjecture here, but I'd imagine anyone challenging this year will get jail time.
The Forest Service's "Talking Points" for the new "Group Use" rule specifically state that the Rainbow Family -- the only group mentioned by name in the document -- are not being singled out by the new rule. Other "Talking Points" include the importance of environmental oversight and guaranteeing public safety. Many people are as skeptical of these reasons as of the Forest Services' insistence that the Rainbow Family is not being specifically targeted; the Forest Service allows logging and hunting on land under their jurisdiction and has a poor record on prosecuting polluters. The Rainbow Family has a strong reputation for being conscientious, calm, and environmentally conscious; just as ubiquitous as pre-gathering negative hype has become in recent years are the inevitable post-gathering local press reports on how astounded locals are at the small size of each Gathering's footprint -- as well as how unfounded the government's anti-Rainbow propaganda seemed after the fact:
[Ridgeway, PA Police Chief Burton Shaver] said many things surprised him about last year's Rainbow gathering. But when the word came that the Rainbow Family was going to set up camp nearby, Shaver said the townspeople were forewarned there would be rapists, child molesters, wanted felons and whatever else you could imagine lurking about. And people were nervous even scared. By the time it was all over, Shaver said the town hadn't been ravaged or plundered. Of the 119 arrests, about 50 percent of those were local talent, he said.
We just really didn't have any hardcore problems, Shaver said. I know some people aren't going to like me saying it, but we didn't have a single citizen raped or pillaged by the Rainbows. It just wasn't that bad.
The Rainbow commnity has a strong community justice/dispute resolution process and national Rainbow Gatherings are very safe overall. The 1999 Pennsylvania Gathering was attended by an estimated 20,000 people; that there were only 119 arrests the more than 6 weeks that Rainbows were in the area is evidence of both the safety of the Rainbow community and the relatively good relationship once enjoyed between the Rainbow family and law enforcement. Many Rainbows remain on the site of a National Gathering for more than 3 weeks working to ensure that the site is preserved and that all temporary changes made are restored.
The legal argument that the Forest Service uses to justify why the new "Group Use" rule, unlike its two predecessors, is constitutional, hinges on its uniform application to all groups above 75 regardless of their purpose or expression, as well as the supposed need for government interest in restricting the activities of groups assembled on public land.
This rule does not single out expressive conduct or treat it differently from other types of activity. The evaluation criteria in this rule do not give an authorized officer discretion to deny an application based on the content of speech. Specifically, this rule:
o Establishes a single category called "noncommercial group uses."
o Restricts the content of an application for noncommercial group uses to information concerning time, place, and manner.
o Applies the same evaluation criteria to all applications for noncommercial group uses, regardless of whether they involve the expression of views.
o Establishes specific, content-neutral evaluation criteria.
o Provides that applications for noncommercial group uses will be granted or denied within a short, specific time frame.
o Provides that if an application is denied and an alternative time, place, or manner will allow the applicant to meet all the evaluation criteria, the authorized officer will offer that alternative.
o Requires an authorized officer to explain in writing the reason for denial of an application for a noncommercial group use.
o Provides that a denial of an application for a noncommercial group use is immediately subject to judicial review.
However, normally activities engaged in in public are regulated by legislation, not unaccountable government policy. Laws for violating a specific situation -- lighting fires during a particularly dry period, for example -- would be appropriate, non-issue related rules, with a due process consequence. But the Forest Services' rules are predicated on the size of the gathering itself, serving as a de facto limitation on the right to peaceably assemble in conscientious and safe ways. The size of a gathering should rightly be considered a component of its content when part of a group's expression is its call to establish the largest possible collective disorganization for the purpose of living with, and praying for, peace.
All Americans interested in preserving their civil liberties should stand up and oppose the persecution of the Rainbow Family. PLEASE recommend this diary so that this often little-known, but large and principled organization, will recieve the support it must in its efforts to resist the infringement of our Constitutional rights. Please, contact your Senators and Representatives and demand that the Federal Government allow the Rainbows to peaceably and lawfully gather according to our Constitutional right to assembly.
Images taken from Marlene Bruce's 2005 West Virginia Gathering Travelogue.
Update: Here is a complete accounting of the legal battles the Rainbows have undergone in their attempts to protect our Constitutional freedoms.