Marianne
/* Written 10:54 pm Jul 1, 1993 by chicken@astro.UMD.EDU in
igc:alt.gathering. */ /* ---------- "no subject (file
transmission)" ---------- */ From: chicken@astro.UMD.EDU Subject:
no subject (file transmission)
For Immediate Release July 1, 1993
RE: US Fedral Government Mounts "Proactive" Campaign A gainst the
Rights of Peaceful Assemblage, Expression and Belief.
The Rainbow Family of Living Light is Gathering again in the
Talladega National Forest in Alabama, the Daniel Boone National
Forest in Kentucky, and other public lands. Every year for the
last 22 years, on July 1-7 the Family has assembled for a week to
pray for peace on earth and unity of humankind. To suit the
Family's needs this year it is assembling in at least three,
perhaps six, places. Also this year, the Family's church is
experiencing a virtual invasion by a multi-agency task force,
which c ombimes elements of the Kentucky State Police, the
Kentucky National Guard, the Alabama State Police, Cleyborne and
Calhoun County Sheriffs Offices, all coordinated by U.S. Forest
Service agents. Every day this task force builds in strength and
intimidat ion, in an unmistakable example of what Forest Service
reports have labeled "proactive law enforcement."
A statement from Family members reads: "Our various campsites
around the South & Northwest are one in our intent to demonstrate
our right to assemblage, expression, prayer, and the other named
& unnamed rights of the First Admendment.
"The various camps are experiencing a coordinated abrigement
of our civil liberties such as road blocks, petty arrests over
toplessness by womun and leashless dogs, abusive treatment &
detainees, and identification checks which is partically chilling
on all American's exercise of the First Amendment Rights.
"It would be unthinkable to check the personal ID of those
people attending a Baptist Convention or a hockey game yet here
in the National Forest even the US Army is poised menacingly at
the doors, while federal agents prowl disrepectfully in our chur
ch."
At the Kentucky Gathering the Family had reached a compromise
agreement with the Forest Service which set a per deim limit,
excepting emergencies, on the number of times armed law
enforcement officers were permitted to drive through the site.
That a greement was violated on June 30, 1993 when Kentucky
National Guard and State Police, armed with automatic weapons,
some had removed, in violation of federal regulations their
official badges from their uniforms, attempted to enter the
Rainbow church on t he land despite requests that they not do so
unless they locked their weapons in their trunks. The task force
refused to comply with requests not to enter the church while
armed, but was stopped when Rainbow Family members sat in the
narrow forest road, and blocked police and military vehicles from
actually entering the church.
The government task force is apparently using a slightly
different tactic in Alabama, where agents enter the church in
armed groups of eight or ten to roam disrespectfully through the
church, engaged in activities such as verbally assaulting
children, voyeuristicly ogling women taking showers, and acting
in a generally thugish manner.
The actions of these agents threaten not only the Rainbow
Family, but extend to everyone within the legal jurisdiction of
the US.
School children know that since the beginning of the United
States freedom of peaceful assembly on public lands has been
considered an inalienable right. Explaining that it had a
problem with "the First Amendment," on May 6, 1993 the Forest
Service p ublished proposed amendments to 36 CFR 251 & 261 which
would transform the "right" of assembly into a "privilege, a
violation of which would be punishable by six months in prison
and/or $500 fine. These proposed regulation would change the
Rainbow Gather ing from "constitutionally protected activity"
into a "crime," with potential adverse impacts on the Boy Scouts
or any other user of National Forests.
Presently the government has no legal authority to interfere
with the Rainbow from gathering. Some Family members predict that
nation's capital is likely witness a response to the government's
lawless proactive enforcement tactics, and draconian regul atory
proposals.
P