Rainbow Family is 'extremist' hazard, Missoula police say in requesting Homeland Security grant

[Newsjock]

Source: Missoulian

The Missoula Police Department got the nod Wednesday to have the mayor sign off on a Homeland Security grant proposal – one that names the Rainbow Family as an "extremist" hazard in western Montana.

The $254,930 grant will purchase a mobile communications vehicle the Missoula police will share with other law enforcement and emergency responders in seven western Montana counties, according to Assistant Police Chief Scott Hoffman. The city's contribution is $29,200.

... The draft letter from Mayor John Engen is addressed to the state Department of Military Affairs in Helena, and the proposal names natural, technological and man-made hazards. Among other specifics, the list cites avalanches, train derailments and extremist groups, naming the Hells Angels and Rainbow Family in particular.

The Rainbow Family of Living Light describes itself as a nonviolent group spreading the message of peace and love. It gathered in Montana in 2000 and 2013. The U.S. Forest Service has said the 2013 camp west of Dillon was rowdy and required a strong law enforcement presence, but some participants said the number of officers was excessive.

Read more: http://missoulian.com/news/local/missoula-police-seek-homeland-security-grant-cite-rainbow-family-as/article_dd23a072-c72a-5d4f-bb26-f19fc4af82ac.html

[hunter]

2. Extremists?

There's a much worse class of "extremists" in Montana.

The well armed white racist "Christian" militia sort are among the most frightening.

[Drahthaardogs]

3. No one wants the Rainbows in their area

Despite what they profess, when they leave, it is a frigging mess to clean up. You simply cannot have that many people in one place and not harm the forest.

[ND-Dem]

5. That's not what I heard. I heard they do the clean-up themselves.

[Drahthaardogs]

7. Well of course they say that

They are not going to tell you they dig latrines for hundreds of people. Stomp out their peace circles. Leave their broken vehicles abandoned on federal lands. I have seen their handiwork first hand. They are not bad people,but you cannot have five thousand people in a campsite and not make a damned mess.

[ND-Dem]

8. ...

The thousands of Rainbow Family members are long gone. The prayers for peace have been chanted, the drums pounded and the dope smoked. Now all that remains in Skookum Meadow, a remote area east of Mount St. Helens, are a few dozen of the group's members, who have promised to restore the forestland to something resembling its original state.

Gifford Pinchot National Forest officials said this week they are cautiously optimistic that the Rainbow Family of Living Light will keep that promise.

"All in all, I think we're very pleased with the way things are coming off," U.S. Forest Service spokesman Ken Sandusky said of the group's cleanup effort. "They've committed to stay in the area until they're done..."

Rainbow members have covered all of the cleanup costs, Freeman said.

He said it will take about three seasons before nature erases all trace of the Rainbow gathering. Still, he said, "to the casual observer, if they went up there next summer, they might not notice as much."

http://tdn.com/news/local/forest-service-cleanup-for-rainbow-family-gathering-going-well/article_c31a749a-b8be-11e0-b333-001cc4c03286.html

[Drahthaardogs]

9. So, you think three or four year for the wilderness to recover from a camping excursion is okay?

I guess you and I have a real different view of "Leave no Trace"...

[ND-Dem]

11. No human being 'leaves no trace'. Rainbow family doesn't leave broken vehicles (they don't

take vehicles into the national parks and forests, for starters) and they don't leave the big messes you claimed they did.

Way to move the goalposts; now you're talking about leaving no trace.

Even the forest service guy said the cleanup was good and that the average person wouldn't notice they'd been there. I guess the forest service didn't see the junked cars and piles of junk you did.

[Drahthaardogs]

12. I have SEEN IT with MY OWN EYES

Where I live we had them about six years ago. And yes, they LEFT vehicles. They left dogs too. 20,000 people in a wilderness is fucking irresponsible. Sorry if it offends you hippy love or your deep passion for wikipedia articles.

[ND-Dem]

13. right. they left dogs. i didn't post a wikipedia article. to put it bluntly, i don't believe you,

and neither does the other duer who's gone to RF gatherings.

[Drahthaardogs]

14. I don't care what you believe

You have never seen one of these things. I have. Like I said, they are not bad people, but they are a drain on the small communities and they leave the places scared for years. And on edit, since you do not think they take vehicles, do you want me to copy and paste the article where they give fellow rainbows driving directions and tell them where to park, how steep the road is, how rough teh road is, etc.?


You know nothing.

[ND-Dem]

15. i *have* seen one though. more than one. if there's a road, then they're driving on a road --

not through the wilderness or the uncharted forest. I didn't say they didn't take vehicles; I said they didn't leave junked vehicles in the middle of the wilderness.

But the area around that site doesn't have too many roads.

We selected an area for base camp that was directly west of an area known as Skookum Meadow, which is approximately 20 miles east-southeast of Mt. St. Helens. The Skookum Meadow area was chosen due to its remoteness and many square miles of roadless areas. Directly to the north of Skookum Meadow is the Lewis River, which forms the southern boundary of the area known as the Dark Divide, a roadless area spanning over 100 square miles. Directly south of Skookum Meadow is the Indian Heaven Wilderness, another roadless area covering in excess of 30 square miles.

http://www.bfro.net/news/pnw_newsletter003/thermalexpedmain.asp

The 'parking lot' for the skookum meadow site




the meadows


and the satellite photo. those are logging roads, btw.

http://www.satelliteviews.net/cgi-bin/g.cgi?fid=1525878&state=WA&ftype=flat

[Zorra]

16. You're right. Not a word about the devastation of logging clearcuts,

cuz, like, you know, money, but peaceful, relatively somewhat unusual people gathering in the forest for a week isn't profitable, and therefore, they are dangerous, destructive hippies extremists who are destroying the forest.


If you've been to Rainbow Gatherings in the West, then you've seen what real forest destruction is, entire natural systems destroyed by greedy corporations. And you won't ever see the cops trying to stop them cuz, like, ya know, money. The cops are primarily there to keep the forests safe for corporations to destroy.

It's just more garbage propaganda, got to keep the people in line, go to keep them from thinking outside of their box.

The propaganda reminds me a lot of this ~

[Tsiyu]

20. I was waiting for someone to state the obvious

and you did not disappoint!


People who say "Dirty hippies!" often are the same ones saying "Bring on the Pipeline!"

People who hate hippies couldn't give two f's about the environment. Who are they trying to fool?

[Zorra]

10. We do clean up after ourselves, and after we leave the land goes back to how it was

before we camped there.

Large bands of migrating humans have been camping on this continent and moving on for tens of thousands of years.

Cops lie, conservatives lie; it's a fact of life. They're just afraid of anything that is different from them.

The cops will complain that it cost them $500,000 to police a rainbow gathering. But nobody wants them there, it's their choice to be there, because they feel they need to be in control of everything.

If they didn't bother us at Rainbow Gatherings, it wouldn't cost them anything, and everything would be better andmore peaceful if they just stayed away. We don't need them there; they are infinitely more dangerous and destructive than we could ever be.

Nothing is perfect, Rainbow Gatherings have some issues, and there is some environmental impact, but the negative perception of Rainbow Gatherings is pretty much totally fueled by hippie punchers and other people who have difficulty accepting anything or anyone who is different from them.

After a Rainbow Gathering, cleanup crew spends a week or so thoroughly combing the site, making sure there is no trash or anything else left in the forest. It's actually pretty amazing how so many people can camp in one area for a week and leave it so undamaged. And he forest heals itself quickly, in a few years you can hardly tell anyone was ever there.

If we really did cause such mass destruction, there would be photos of it all over the internet. But the only photos you are likely to find are photos of the generated trash that we take out of the forest when we leave. The Powers That Be use these photos for purposes of deception, in an effort to make people believe that we leave them behind.

There are no piles of trash, etc., left behind at a Rainbow Gathering site. Ever.

[gopiscrap]

17. Excellent

[jwirr]

19. The police and the RB people made a deal that the police would leave them along but when they

came into town they would have to obey the rules. Also they were asked to keep any minors from the area out. There were a few incidents in town but most of them were actually funny.

Mostly it was one of the most interesting events of the season. Interesting vehicles, interesting clothing and nice people.

As to the idea that this gathering does not bring anything to the community - they spend money just like any other gathering that comes to town. They do the tourism thing, they eat out occasionally and they buy necessities.

[Zorra]

4. I've been going to Rainbow Gatherings since the 70's. We are extremists.

We are extremely committed to peace and non-violence.

We're a powerful group. Living Light is a good description. Naturally, cops, who live in a constant state of erratic fear, don't know how to cope with us, Even though we wish them no harm, we scare the shit out of them just by being.

[jwirr]

18. When they were in NE MN some years ago they were not that bad.