Michael Roberts
The fiftieth anniversary gathering of the Rainbow Family in the Adams Park area of Routt County's Hahns Peak/Bears Ears Ranger District is just ending, so the final numbers aren't in yet. But according to the latest count from the U.S. Forest Service, 451 so-called "law-enforcement actions" have been racked up by an estimated 9,100 attendees.
Most of the offenses appear to have been minor, and many were handled on site by Michael E. Hegarty, a Denver-based U.S. District Court magistrate judge for the District of Colorado. According to the Washington Post, Hegarty processed dozens of people ticketed for misdemeanors at "a makeshift federal courtroom in a dirt lot" — a setup some members of the Family saw as harassment.The national coverage underscored the unusual nature of the event, as well as the preparatory efforts of the U.S. Forest Service, which last month issued a primer describing the Rainbow Family as "a loose-knit group of people from throughout the United States and other countries who gather annually on a national forest."
...Last week, Hilary Markin, the unit's public-information officer, calculated that around 3,400 attendees had already shown up as of June 29, with 191 enforcement actions to that point, including "incident reports, written warnings, violation notices and arrests." Among the activities of concern cited by Markin were "illegal or socially unacceptable behaviors" that might include "public nudity, civil disobedience, drug and alcohol abuse, confrontations between Rainbows and locals, abandoned or disabled vehicles, and traffic congestion and parking several hundred to several thousand vehicles."
"The Forest Service requires a special use permit for every public group of 75 or more people conducting a meeting or event on National Forest System lands," Markin said. "The Rainbow Family has consistently refused to comply with the permit process during national gatherings, since they claim to have no leaders and no one member who can speak for the group or sign a permit on behalf of the Family."
...The Post story noted confusion about marijuana use, which is legal in most of Colorado, but not on federal land; it quoted attendees complaining that such citations were often preceded by tiny offenses such as "an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror" or "a bike rack blocking the license plate."...MORE
Here are my comments a year ago on a similar incident on the Carson National Forest:
Leave it up to the dunces in the Forest Service to abuse their authority when the populace is celebrating the freedoms declared on the Fourth of July. Smokey doesn't like the word "Independence".Many are not aware the Forest Service claims jurisdiction over cracked windshields, as well as tail lights, head lights, turn signals, etc.What a sad picture this paints. During our modern day celebration of Independence, the Forest Service is handing out tickets for cracked windshields.What do you think would have happened if a federal agent had tried to ticket Samuel Adams for having a cracked wagon seat?
3 comments:
I think you would complain if the FS didn’t issue tickets.
No, what I object to is any law enforcement, not just the FS, who use such a minor issue as a cracked windshield, as the legal rationale to pull you over and then search your vehicle. Usually this is to meet some quota of tickets as established by supervisprs. Meanwhile, timber is being illegally harvested, ancient graves decimated, etc. Their priority is to protect their budget rather than to protect our natural resources.
Good points. Thank you for clarifying.
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