Charges fly over Rainbow Gathering
7/2/2009
Festival participants accuse the federal agency of wasting money, violating their rights by ticketing them for dirty license plates and requiring them to appear in federal court in Albuquerque.
"The federal government may see a small profit in the fines gatherers pay," says a news release from an Albuquerque lawyer representing many of the participants in the gathering, "but that is little compared to its unnecessary spending of hundreds of thousands of dollars to intentionally interfere with citizens exercising their First Amendment right to peaceably assemble on public lands."
The Forest Service says it's protecting participants by busting people for using drugs and alcohol, which have already caused one overdose and other dangerous situations.
"Our responsibility in law enforcement is to help prevent these situations from escalating and aggressively promote for the public safety and health," said Gene Smithson, incident commander for law enforcement for the Forest Service. "We continue to focus on ensuring the Gathering is a safe and peaceful event for all those involved and to work closely with Gathering participants in good faith."
More than 200 people so far have had to travel 240 miles round-trip from the site in the Santa Fe National Forest near Cuba, N.M., to Albuquerque to see U.S. Chief Magistrate Lorenzo Garcia regarding various misdemeanors, drug and traffic offenses, such as not having valid insurance, license plates, registration and safety equipment. Forest Service spokeswoman Denise Ottaviano said only six of the arrests have been for felonies — assault on a federal officer, theft of government property, damage to government property and conspiracy.
Seized drugs, she said, have included marijuana, hashish, crystal methedrine, heroin and psilocybin mushrooms, with the largest seizure equaling about one pound of marijuana. One participant "overdosed three times and had to be transported out to a medical facility three times," Ottaviano said. "The information we got was that it was LSD, but there may have been other things that he was taking that we're not aware of."
John McCall, an Albuquerque attorney representing some of the Rainbow Gathering participants, disputed the Forest Service's contention that its officers were acting in good faith. The Forest Service's National Incident Management Team "has dissuaded people from attending by conducting random searches of vehicles and tents; intruding on camps at night, aiming pepper ball rifles and flashlights at gatherers; issuing tickets at illegal roadblocks; and generally exhibiting hostile behavior toward attendees and volunteers even after a permit was issued for the event," he wrote.
Ottaviano said the most serious incident so far was a stabbing more than a week ago that was investigated by the state police. However, neither she nor a state police spokesman could provide more information, including the identity of the injured and who, if anyone, was charged.
Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com">tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.