First gathering what can I expect from the leos.

Hey friends this is going to be my first gathering. I have read in countless places the the leo's often harass people on the way to the site. What kind of harassment should I expect. Much peace and love friends.

 

You can expect that your identification will be checked; if you are driving, it is likely that your vehicle plates will be called in, your insurance checked & you may or may not be searched, depending on the leo mood o' the day and your attitude when they stop you. Me'n'JuJu like being so sickenly sweet & nice that the leos usually just like to help us get back on our way

 

Refuse all searches as they have no right to do so.

Read and understand rap 420!!!!!
Rap 420
This rap sheet has been prepared to help you stay out of jail. In the past, rainbow gatherings have
been the target of unjustified police influence and harassment, often illegal. Many of the brothers
and sisters that have been arrested in the past could have completely avoided wasted jail time and
expensive court dates if they had just known a few of their basic rights. This rap sheet is a tool. Read
and understand it and next time You will have the upper hand in the situation.
Roadblocks (DUI Checkpoints, etc.)
When heading to a gathering, Always assume you will run into a roadblock on the way in. It is very
important that you know your rights before reaching the roadblock because this is where most of the
coercive tactics and encroachments of rights will take place.
Law enforcement officers are trained to intimidate people into consenting to searches. You may be
asked Several times during the detention if they can search your car or person. Always refuse and
you’ll be fine. The only legal reason they have to search you without arrest is that they feel they are in
danger of being attacked, which should not be an issue with rainbows.
If you do find yourself under arrest for any reason, always exercise your right to silence. Continue to
refuse to allow any searches and politely inform them that you will not say anything until your attorney
is present.
A. Your driver’s license, registration and proof of insurance should be legal and accessible. You will
sometimes need all three as the requirement laws vary from state to state. Always assume that you
need all three and you’ll never have a problem.
B. Your car must be road-legal. No broken tail-lights, windshields, headlights, etc. You will be cited
for these.
C. Never leave anything in “plain view”. Anything inside the car that is visible to the officer is
considered to be in “plain view”. Although this does not give them the right to search your car, they can
confiscate the item and place you under arrest. They will still need to obtain a warrant to search the
rest of your car which will not be very hard if they found something in plain view.
D. Never consent to a search of your body or your vehicle. This is your fourth amendment. The only
reason they would ask is that they do not have enough evidence to obtain a search warrant (or they
may just be too lazy to get one). Just Say No!!
At rainbow gatherings in the past, officers have been known to plant drugs in cars after consent to
search is given. You can avoid this problem by refusing to consent.
E. If you are harassed or mistreated, write down all the information you can about the incident. The
officer’s county, name, rank, badge number, etc. Date, time of day, location, etc. Contact one of the
organizations listed at the end of this document to pursue the matter or just file a complaint with that
officer’s superior.
Other Police Contact
It is important to remember a few things about
police officers. One is that they are aware of your
rights and they have been known to intentionally
violate them. If you find yourself in a situation
with an officer who is out of control, it is best to
be submissive in order to avoid injury or even
death. Remember that They are Armed and
Dangerous!
If you are stopped by an officer outside of a
vehicle, your contact with him/her will fall into three
categories. Consensual contact, detention or
arrest. We are mainly concerned with consensual
contact and detention as this document is intended
to help you in Not Getting Arrested.
Consensual Contact
Consensual contact means the officer comes up to you and says, “Can I speak with you?” If you
say “yes”, you have consented to have contact with the police. This is not good. When you consent to
contact, you waive some of your rights especially if you think you may be guilty of something. NEVER
consent to speak with an officer.
If the officer asks, “Can I talk to you?”, reply with something like “I’m sorry, I’m in a hurry and don’t
have time to talk to you right now.” If he/she insists, ask, “Are you detaining me? Am I free to leave?”
You should ask this several times to make sure the officer will remember you asking if the encounter
results in an arrest and court case. If it is really a consensual contact, the officer is required to let you
go on your way if you ask to. If you don’t verbally ask to leave, the court will presume you consented
to whatever follows.
Detention
The police are only allowed to detain citizens when there are “specific and articulable facts supporting
suspicion” (SAF) that you are involved in criminal activity.
This means they can’t detain you on a “hunch”. They must have observed something about your
behavior or character that links you with specific criminal activity. If you are detained without SAF, you
are detained illegally. If this matter ever lands in court, you may be able to get off because the original
detention on their part was illegal.
When you use terms like “detention” and “specific and articulable facts”, the officer will usually back
down a bit. The majority of a police officer’s power in the United States comes from intimidation and
prey on the public’s ignorance of its own rights.
It is crucial that you let the officer know that you are not consenting to talk with him and that the only
way you will talk to him is if he detains you which he can not do without SAF.
Arrest
If you find yourself under arrest, there’s not much left you can do. You are going to be searched.
It is important to continue refusing consent to search your vehicle (if there is one involved) as they will
still need a search warrant to search your vehicle. This, however, will not be difficult to obtain now that
you are under arrest.
By refusing to consent to a search of your vehicle, though, you are maintaining your position. They
may get impatient and search the vehicle without a warrant which is completely illegal. If this happens,
anything they find in the vehicle will not be accepted by the court because it was evidence obtained
illegally.
Those are the basics rights you have when involved with the police. By exercising these rights and
using a little common sense, you should be able to have a safe and happy gathering. Below are some
legal contacts you may find yourself in need of if placed under arrest.
PDF versions of this & other Rainbow Raps can be found online at: http://RainbowGuide.info
For everyday police harassment, call COPWATCH at:
(510) 548-0425 OR
file a complaint at COPWATCH.com
If you feel your rights were violated or that you are
being charged unjustly, contact:
National Office of the American
Civil Liberties Union
125 Broad Street, 18th Floor
New York, NY 10004
Or call (212) 344-3005
Love your brothers & sisters with guns even when
they are misguided.
Know your rights. Spread the light.

 

I wonder why whtdrgn386 isnt accepting private messages? Strange...

 

new forum thing ya cant til u get enough posts



expect to smile and wave

any other attitude will get ya hassled

i remember a funny storry..think it was glowingfeather pulled up to the roadblock in co..smiled andwaved his hand in front of the leo and says i am not the hippie you seek (jedi mind trick) the leo laughed and waved him by

they tend to leave ya alone if u act freindly enopugh

 

Nice one! How many posts do you have to have now?

 

a

 

They require probable cause to search your vehicle. Several instances of reasonable suspicion can amount to probable cause. For instance a pack of rolling papers would be reasonable suspicion. But that pack of rolling papers alone isn't probable cause, because they're legal to possess . However if they were to find a pack of rolling papers along with an empty baggy perhaps a clean pipe or two rolling around the glove box and they felt you were acting nervous or uncooperative . That would probably stand up in court as probable cause.
As for them going through your vehicle with a drug dog, they're allowed to sniff the exterior of the vehicle only and they don't need a warrent or probable cause to do it. However if they don't have a dog handy they can't have you wait very long unless you're under arrest. A dog alerting on your car constitutes probable cause and will result in your car being searched. Beware of unscrupulous officers who teach their dogs to falsely alert with subtle hand signals.

Hope this helps.

 

just a reminder to those hitch-hiking . it's illegal to solicit a ride in wyoming - this is recognized by flying a sign or a thumb or such thing as that . you may however stand on the road , or if walking - to walk against traffic .


so . you are in a spot and waiting for a ride - if you are approached by an officer you don't say you are going to the gathering however happily you may want to share this . why . because you are legal if going the other way (walking against traffic) . smile alot as always . itsa blessed trail .

likely you will be asked for I.D .

they are checking for warrants .
.
.

 

its been years ago since i hitched,,err walked against traffic,cough in wyoming.. it can be done,just expect to get hassled big time when stopped. your shit tossed the whole nine yards. that is unless shit has changed. and i highly doubt it has.

i remember i was in between rock springs and rawlins when i got stopped, all my shit tossed everywhere lots of verbal harrasment,then i was told to crossover and walk against traffic out of "his state".. yeah right its only 300 miles..

anyone know of anyone whos actualy been to jail in wyoming for hitchhiking?

 

Sounds to me like the state of Wyoming can jump up and hug my nuts. The first time my things are tossed I'll have an ACLU lawyer straight up their ass. Thats harassing the homeless.

 

well , ya , write down the officer's name and complain later if you want . you're standing on the road just going home .

i scouted this scene going north from the colorado gathering last summer . i encountered one wyoming highway patrolman and had an open conversation . i'm passing along his advice to rainbow family . one other guy i met was a professional hitch-hiker picker-upper . he'd save up his money from working a labor job . that morning god had told him to get in the car and drive until he found a hitch-hiker . cripes , he found me . drove me 60 miles further on , gave me 60 dollars cash , then turned around and went home . i found some rainbow kids there in Casper and shared out the money . peace . got to Gillette yet that day with some rainbow native indians . the next day i was in iowa .

 

i wish i had encountered your highway patrolman.. lol

like i said my encounter was 20 years ago,..

 

If I remember right from '94, and I didn't hitch to that Gathering, State and local law enforcement really only wanted all the hippies to get up to Snyder Basin and out of the way, but that's no guarantee of how they'll behave this time.


Has that rap 420 been updated since 9/11 and the "Patriot" Act? And remember, if you're going to an illegal Gathering, that is to say, one where your High Holies have decided not to comply with 36CFR251-261, a/k/a The Permit Regulation, you are already comitting a crime, in the eyes of the law, and therefore the cops have all the probable cause they need for a search.

 

As far as I know there has been no updates to that rap but i could be wrong.
As far as the permit thing the family is working Mark Rey in DC and dont need to sign a permit so we are well within the law. But that dosent mean LEO will not try to take advantage of those who dont know their rights...

 

Mark Rey was working with Fam last year on the permit issue too, but the FS still hassled the scouts....and the leos still drove a vehicle into main circle and made an arrest, endangering many in the process.

As far as rights, well of course folks should try to stand up for their rights but there are situations where all you can do is cooperate...like the time that the cops shut down a rest area and trapped a bunch of tour kids inside, telling the kids that they couldn't leave until they consented to a search...some of our kitchen crew related this scene to me & when the folks from our crew pulled out their little green 'know your rights' card, the cops laughed, grabbed the card & tore it up...oh & this was before 911 & the patriot act. So was the time we got pulled over outside of Atoka OK...when JuJu said that he would not consent to a search, out came the dog, then a false hit on our bus, followed by the cop taking apart our kid's bed to find the taco bell taco that the dog hit on after he & the cop entered our bus on the 'probable cause' clause...

want to get searched? get cocky & demand your rights

want not to get searched? be nice, smile & pray

 

The Cop watch ad in the rap has a date on it of 2003 if this helps. So this rap was posted after 2003...
And yes, unfortunately the cops do infringe on our rights because there is no one to represent us at the scene. So yes there are times you have to swallow your pride and rights and cooperate to some extent and be ready to fight it in court. The ACLU is very helpful in these instances.
I am trying to challenge the hitchhiking laws in that state right now and will update when possible as I believe they violate my freedom of travel.