from: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,38587-2,00.html Click Here: <A HREF="http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,38587,00.html">C ops Butt In on Burning Revelry</A> ----- Cops Butt In on Burning Revelry by Declan McCullagh 3:00 a.m. Sep. 4, 2000 PDT BLACK ROCK CITY, Nevada -- To Burning Man attendees, they were the tuna guys, a merry band of fisherman from Oregon who set up camp at the intersection of 9:30 and Head streets in this temporary city. They brought with them half a ton of tuna on ice, jugs of tasty orange-apple marinade, and plans to give away homemade tuna tacos to as many passersby as possible. But to the government, the fishermen were simple lawbreakers, illegally feeding the public without a license and a health inspection. The tuna guys say the county sheriff's department informed them last week that they could cook for their own camp and nobody else -- a prohibition that directly conflicts with the festival's share-freely ethos. "They told us we couldn't keep giving our food away," one fisherman said. Ever since police ordered one of the early Burning Man gatherings off of a San Francisco beach, there's been a tension between order and chaos at this event, which has evolved from an impromptu social gathering into a carefully-planned city of some 28,000 citizens that appears and then vanishes overnight on a dry lake bed in Nevada. But what has amounted to irksome behavior by federal and state authorities in the past -- the cops were once widely jeered for using binoculars to ogle nude women -- became more intrusive than usual this year. The festival formally ended late Saturday evening. During the last week, police stepped up enforcement against public sexual activity and drug use -- activities that are not only accepted among Burning Man attendees, but as unremarkable as negative advertising in a presidential campaign. A wayward fellow was fined for "indecent exposure" after allegedly peeing on the ground, an activity that may be inelegant, but perhaps understandable when the nearest portable toilet is a full mile away. One festival newspaper wondered, in all seriousness, why anyone should be fined for such an offense when a sizable portion of participants wander around nude. Burning Man rangers, who act as a volunteer unarmed peace force, say that state and federal officials have even entered and searched tents whose owners are absent. "They've been sneaking around, searching people's camps while they are gone, looking for any substances that are illegal or looking for any substances they can incriminate them with and then waiting for them and then busting them," said one ranger who asked not to be identified. "Our solution is that we're encouraging participants to film law enforcement activity," the ranger said. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management did not respond to a request for comment when contacted last week. Warrantless searches of private property may go too far, but some festival participants seemed to be sympathetic to officials' drug-enforcement dilemma. "How can they be expected to make arrests during the rest of the year and then not enforce those laws here?" mused one philosophical gap-toothed fellow, who was stopped by federal park rangers and asked if the cigarette he was smoking contained marijuana. The situation is, however, not as straightforward as a conflict between open-minded-anything-goes attendees and prudish rural police. Officials may not adhere to precisely the same principles as festival participants, but they don't seem to mind the largesse that Burning Man brings: About $150,000 in fees from last year's event went to government agencies, and with higher ticket prices, the figure likely will be considerably higher this year. Some long timers gripe -- the festival began in 1986 as a solstice celebration -- that with so many rules and regulations to contend with, they might as well stay at home instead. Some examples: No firearms, no selling anything, no campfires, no fireworks. Every new regulation, however, can be justified -- at least from the point of view of the organizers. Video cameras must be registered and tagged to protect the privacy of participants. Campfires are verboten to prevent soot scarring of the dry ground. "I launched a couple (model) rockets from the edge of the city (a few years ago) and that caused some stir," says Robert Kelley, a software developer from Portland, Oregon. The following year, the rule came down from above: no rockets allowed. But for most regulars -- and attendance has been growing steadily every year -- there's no other place on the planet quite like this, and they make the same long trek to the Nevada desert the next year. "This is so important to me," Kelley says. "I look forward to this all year. It's the biggest thing in my life, practically." The tuna guys seemed to feel the same way. In response to the official directive, they stopped advertising free tacos, but word-of-mouth proved enough to draw crowds. "We consider everyone part of our camp," grinned one fisherman Related Wired Links: Burning Man's for Geeks, Too! Aug. 31, 2000 Copyright © 2000 Wired Digital Inc., a Lycos Network site. All rights reserved. ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, All My Relations. Omnia Bona Bonis, Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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