Group Promoting Peace and Love Labeled As Terrorists, Surveilled by DHS and Police [Archive]

Suzanimal

02-02-2015, 07:28 AM

Group Promoting Peace and Love Labeled As Terrorists, Surveilled by DHS and Police

Missoula, Montana – According to the Missoula Police Department, peace and love are extremist views, and promoting these ideas could be a possible sign of terrorist activity.

The police department received a Department of Homeland Security grant of $254,930 last week, to assist them in fighting the terrorist threat. That threat was apparently posed by “the Rainbow Family,” a large hippy gathering that promotes peace and love.

In the application documents where the agency requested the grant, the Rainbow Family was listed as an “extremist organization” that requires constant surveillance.

Police Chief Scott Hoffman said that the department needed a “mobile command unit” to deal with the Rainbow Family threat.

“It’s a mobile command unit. It’s just like a motor home with communications and computers and radios and things like that. I don’t know what the hazards of the Rainbow people are,” Hoffman said.

After the story went public, representatives from the police department have played damage control with the media, claiming that the operation is only to help with cleaning up and keeping the area safe.

When reporters with the Missoulian called the police department for a comment, they were told by Missoula Police Lt. Scott Brodie that the mobile command unit would be primarily for the clean up effort.:rolleyes:

“When they have their gatherings, they historically have created a mess that needs to be cleaned up. The command center could just coordinate and speed things up, get it done faster. It’s a coordination tool is what it is,” Brodie said.

It becomes apparent how ridiculous the accusations of “extremism” are when doing some research into what the Rainbow Family stands for. They are a decentralized, loose-knit group of people who want to promote ideas of peace, freedom, equality, and love.

The group takes their name from the ancient Native American proverb that says “When the earth is ravaged and the animals are dying, a new tribe of people shall come unto the earth from many colors, classes, creeds, and who by their actions and deeds shall make the earth green again. They will be known as the warriors of the rainbow.“

Back in 2013, the U.S. Forest Service spent over $500,000 in efforts to police the event and only made two arrests. Otherwise, there were no issues or problems at the event.

Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/hippy-rainbow-gathering-labeled-terrorists-watched-department-homeland-security/#H1FTQ1akhevqb4F8.99

tangent4ronpaul

02-02-2015, 11:55 AM

After the story went public, representatives from the police department have played damage control with the media, claiming that the operation is only to help with cleaning up and keeping the area safe.

When reporters with the Missoulian called the police department for a comment, they were told by Missoula Police Lt. Scott Brodie that the mobile command unit would be primarily for the clean up effort.

“When they have their gatherings, they historically have created a mess that needs to be cleaned up. The command center could just coordinate and speed things up, get it done faster. It’s a coordination tool is what it is,” Brodie said.

OMG! someone might sell a hippie an unauthorized NFL jersey or something. Must protect them from being scammed! :rolleyes:

http://www.welcomehome.org/rainbow/tech/cleanup/index.html

Cleanup and Restoration

The Rainbow Family has long prided itself on the cleanup done after a gathering. This page is my attempt to cover the basic ways a site can be made to disappear. The number one way to make it easy to clean up a site is to not make a mess! As I tell people, cleanup starts the day we arrive, and we are all cleanup crew, because we should all disappear our own campsites, and haul our our own trash.
What You Can Do To Help

A lot of the cleanup at Rainbow Gatherings is done by the individual people as they leave. The best cleanup is where there is no need for a cleanup crew. On the individual level, there are many things one can do starting with preparing the site for cleanup when you arrive. When clearing a site for a tent, collect the pine cones, sticks, etc... and use them later to restore the site. I try to make sure there are no large plants ir or rocks to remove, cause this leaves wholes.
Start with disappearing a fire, if there is one. I personally only cook on a backpacking stove by my tent, and I usually eat at one of kitchens anyway. First make sure the fire is good and out. Spread the rocks throughout the local area, with the sotty sides down. Fill in the hole with dirt and small rocks. Cover the dirt with pine needles, sticks, moss, whatever is appropriate for that spot. You can make make this easier by preserving the brush and topsoil when you make your fire pit. Don't forget to preserve the soil for the several weeks you may be at the gathering, you should pile it and/or cover it with a tarp, otherwise it'll get compacted or wash away before you can use it to restore the site.

Brush up flattened grass where the tent or tarp was. Brush up the dirt, and spread needles, sticks, etc... to make the site look as undisturbed as possible. Do the same to any trails that you've made while in camp. Soil compactation is the number one impact of any persons presence.

Recycling Camp

The recycling camp is where all the trash goes that is collected from the site. What looks like a pile of unorganized trash, are sorted piles. The piles are sorted into burnables, glass, metal, plastic, etc. As little as possible is taken to a landfill.
In some years, like at the North Carolina Rainbow Gathering, the Forest Service took videos of the recycling piles, and have since used this video in many court cases since, claiming it is the trash left onsite. They forget to mention that the reason the recycling piles were still there, was because they had arrestd the cleanup crew for exceeding the 14 day camping rule. Obviously a manufactured incident. We know that all good Rainbows never leave trash behind.

Look good at this picture too, cause this is where everything winds up that anyone doesn't carry out. If you leave any trash behind, here is where it winds up. Then after sorting through this mess to produce nicely organized piles, it has to be driven to the recycling center, or the landfill, both of which cost money, which is usually in short supply.

Trash And Recycling Rap

Take it with you! Rather than burden the "cleanup crew", all trash (other than compost) should be taken offsite and recyled or disposed of properly. You can reduce your trash by recycling, and being more concious of the products you buy and bring to a gathering. A common source of trash is food packaging. Buy in bulk. Reuse containers rather than disposing of them.
These two brothers are helping carry out more than than what they brought in. Note how the plastic, etc.. is already sorted.
Several miles of PVC water pipe is used to help supply clean water to the gathering. The water comes from springs that are tapped, and the water is distributed by gravity feed.
This is a good example of a camp's own recycling station. Any sorting and recycling done by each camp and kitchen makes less work for the folks that stay for cleanup. Cleaning up ones own camp to where there is no more cleanup and restoration is the Rainbow ideal.

Other sites of General Interest

Plunker's Article
This is an article Plunker wrote for the 1999 All Ways Free. Plunker has done many, many cleanups, and restorations as a member the Wounded Earth Environmental Project (WEEP) and at Rainbow Gatherings.
Treading Softly On the Earth:The Rainbow Tribe's Impact on Forest Lands.
This article is an indepth look at the cleanup side of the Rainbow Gatherings done by a Taos, NM college student. It goes into detail covering the process of cleanup, and the comments of the various Forest Service's District Rangers years later.
Mini Manual
For another opinion on cleanup, here's what the unofficial Rainbow document, has to say.
Mini Manual
For another opinion on recycling, here's what the unofficial Rainbow document, has to say.
Forest Service Reports
This is a collection of official Forest Service documents, and includes a section about the annual cleanup from their point of view.

http://www.welcomehome.org/rainbow/sites/fsreports.html

Forest Service Reports

1999 Gathering in Pennsylvania
1998 Gathering in Arizona
1997 Gathering in Oregon
1992 Gathering in Colorado
1991 Gathering in Vermont
Cleanup Reports

Cleanup is a huge task, especially for a non-organized group of people. There truly is no "Rainbow Family Cleanup Crew" to come and cleanup after a gathering. Cleanup is always done by the dedicated individuals that stay till the end, many times under harsh conditions.
1999 Final Impact Study
This is the official Forest Service report on the cleanup at the 1999 Pennsylvania gathering.
Cleanup Testimonial
This is a nice article posted to AGR from a local reporter in PA, who has revisited the site over the following year.
Rainbows Repairs Restores Meadow
This is an interesting article that came out a year after the Oregon gathering when the Forest Service rangers from the previous year, along with some media visited the site to see how it had regrown.
1997 Cleanup Letter
This is the official Forest Service letter written at the end of cleanup signifying that they are satisfied with the cleanup of the Oregon Gathering..
1996 Cleanup Letter
This is the official Forest Service letter written at the end of cleanup signifying that they are satisfied with the cleanup of the Missouri Gathering..
1995 Cleanup Letter
This is the official Forest Service letter written at the end of cleanup signifying that they are satisfied with the cleanup of the New Mexico Gathering.
1994 Cleanup Letter
This is the official Forest Service letter written at the end of cleanup signifying that they are satisfied with the cleanup of the Wyoming Gathering.
1993 Cleanup Letter
This is the official Forest Service letter written at the end of cleanup signifying that they are satisfied with the cleanup of the Alabama Gathering.
1992 Final Impact Study
This is the official Forest Service report on the cleanup at the 1992 Colorado gathering.
1991 Gathering in Vermont
I don't have the official Forest Service report about the cleanup, but here's one by one of the folks that stayed through cleanup.
Other Reports

1999 Pennsylvania Health Report
This is the official health report on this gathering from the Center for Disease Control.

Rainbow Family gathering costs U.S. Forest Service $573,000
http://missoulian.com/news/local/rainbow-family-gathering-costs-u-s-forest-service/article_8840ecca-23e0-11e3-a0e4-001a4bcf887a.html

BUTTE -- Despite making only two arrests at the Rainbow Family gathering near Jackson this summer, the U.S. Forest Service spent nearly $400,000 on law enforcement and more than $500,000 overall.

Along with an expenditure of $395,540 for law enforcement, the Forest Service spent $177,821 on the administration side of managing the event. The total cost for the U.S. Forest Service relating to the Rainbow gathering was $573,361.

The gathering near Saginaw Creek in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest about 10 miles southwest of Jackson drew about 10,000 people.

(So the Forest service spent $57 per participant so they could play jack booted thugs and "keep order")

...

Forest Service spokeswoman Cass Cairns told The Montana Standard during the gathering that the Forest Service had about two dozen law enforcement officers at the site who patrolled the event on a rotating basis.

The Forest Service also paid Beaverhead County $10,000 for extra support from its sheriff’s department. Along with arresting two individuals, the Forest Service detained and turned over four people who were arrested by the sheriff’s department and one person who was arrested by the Montana Highway Patrol.

And even though there were few arrests, there were hundreds of incidents that involving law enforcement, according to the Forest Service. Walther said 405 incident reports were written up for Rainbow people not following the operational plan agreed upon by the Rainbows and the Forest Service. There were also 399 warning notices for people not following Forest Service regulation for public land and 49 tickets.

...

In a long interview conducted during the gathering at the site near Saginaw Creek, Gordon said the Forest Service police presence was excessive and intrusive.

-t