Hippies Score a Win v. The Pigs, Rainbow Gathering 2006

PATRIOTIC AMERICAN COMIN' THRU!  You fuckin' cocksucker.  Boy I'd like to hang every one of you motherfuckers.  We Love You.  Fuckin' Brownshirts.  Weeeeee Loooove Yoooooou!  Fuckin' Terrorist.  CIRCLE! CIRCLE!  CIRCLE!  WE!! LOVE!! YOU!!!!!

Download the pretty big video right here (43m mpeg), or youtube it here.

Bryce is Lord for hooking us up with this.

UPDATE  8/10/06: by special request here's an mp3 of the audio (6.6m) alone.

Comments

[djhojo]

Cartman: Only three more hours, sea people. Only three more hours and you can take me away from this crappy goddamn planet full of hippies.

[Doug Harvey]

Wow! Do you think you could post the soundtrack separately? It is a masterpiece of collective improvisational text-sound composition.

[Elert]

Sorry to sound so stupid, but would someone explain what this is? Obviously, it's some kind of confrontation between police and ordinary humans. Why? What was the motivation for these characters?

[Scott]

Yeah, there's not really a whole lot of context - the youtube description is simply this: "Excellent footage of Rainbow hippies overpowering the cops' attempt at a roadblock. Hilarious. Taken at this year's gathering north of Steamboat Springs in Colorado." From the perfunctory bit of research I did into this, I learned that the cops set up a roadblock -every year- before either their dinner "circle" or their 4th of July "circle", it wasn't clear why.

And yes Doug Harvey, I'll post the soundtrack in an update tomorrow.

[impboy]

Awww, yeah. I may be one of the few burners to say this, but I feel the Rainbows are our spiritual brothers, and I've known quite a few people, including my sister, who have been out to the gatherings. Sure, the cops hate 'em, but an assault on them is really, when you think about it, an assault on anyone who wants to use the federal lands to enjoy them as they see fit.

It's their country too. Long may their freak flag fly.

[Carol]

I wouldn't saint the hippies quite yet. A group of the very same rainbowers showed up at Dreamtime fest the next week and created a road block for those going in(they didn't want to pay for the gate fee for this non-profit, private land event), yelling to everyone 'Don't go in! Dreamtime sucks! etc...' They also called the heath dept. to try to get Dreamtime in trouble (didn't work, they were totally above board), just all kinds of vindictive shit. And those who did get in didn't bring anything, even water for themselves, so they just walked around begging. Very different than burner mentality; long live radical self reliance!

[Genius]

The RF are just fucking idiots. The reason there was a road block is because the event was UNPERMITTED. The organizers refused to apply for the FREE PERMIT for the event. The video only shows half of the story, like it misses the part where the manager for the parks service BROUGHT THEM a copy of the permit, signed and dated, and all they needed to do was put their name on it and sign it, and they just wrote "fuck you" across it. IT also doesn't show hundreds of them getting arrested. All they needed to do was file that FREE permit, and the rangers would have been protecting them, instead of blocking them. Having seen the site of a rainbow gathering here in UT (also on forest service land) I can tell you that these dirty hippies are not practicing Leave No Trace either. It looked more like a landfill than a campsite when they were through with it.

[John Bergmayer]

What's so peace and love about calling a bunch of forest rangers "brownshirts?" Conflating the attempt to enforce reasonable land-use regulations with fascism is silly. The right to freely assemble does not imply the right to assemble in nature reserves. Plus, Genius is right. These gatherings always cause lasting damage. Their clean-up crews don't know what they're doing. One reason for permits is so that people like this don't just go and ruin parks for the rest of us. They defend their actions with crackpot legal theories and non-sequiturs about how they do less environmental damage than suburbanites with SUVs. Well, whoop-dee-doo. I am not impressed by the RF's holier-than-thou attitude and nasty way of dealing with people with whom they disagree.

[Mama Rainbow]

The rainbows for your info TRIED to get a permit...the rangers wouldn't give it to them. The whole permit thing was set up in '95 FOR the Rainbows. As far as those who beg and cause trouble, those are called "DRAIN-BOWS: not Rainbows. Just as most groups of people there are always those who don't get the big picture. Gatherings are a huge accomplishment, and if you have bad vibes to them you should try one first!

[Mama Rainbow]

As for trashing the forest, you should try an educated oppinion. Look it up, not one sight has had a bad right up by the forest service. The FS actual says that a sight one year later is a hell of alot healthier then before!!!!

[Clancy]

yeah, i was there... the 'whole' permit thing... there was no permit, they said there was but we went and tried getting a permit and they said there wasn't any... the roadblock deal. those 'brownshits' and police where masing people (like myself)... and threating to shoot dogs... i had a shotgun pointed at my head... all we were trying to do is bring our family back in and bring suplies to those who needed it...

[sansdeity]

I was at that roadblock and can personally tell everyone that people did sign a permit. however rainbow is not an organization with leaders who include or exclude individuals based on ticket price or age, we are a non organization and we are all leaders. the police broke the law many times that day and lost their jobs. When police abuse their power and we as a people don't resist we become traitors to ourselves and our country. Rainbow family is not all beggars. Anyone is welcome at a gathering so many poor people come. the beggars Ive observed live happy and humble lives and enrich people with their wisdom...not all , but most....if you are too shallow to open your heart with love to people first and judge them based on more information than superficial judgments. I know a lot of burning man people and know that they are beautiful and have seen some of them do and say asshole like things. i know full well out of thousands of people some are assholes most are good...in every culture. much love burning man...and Ill be there this year kickin it with alex grey and bassnectar mUCH LOVE