Bizarre LEO experience/observation..

Drawingablank · Post by **Drawingablank** » Sat Sep 10, 2011 7:14 am

Overall, I found the leo presence was far less than I expected based on posts here about previous years.

We did see leos an average of twice a day cruising our street (H), but generally they were moving slow, not kicking up dust and didn't stop.

The one encounter I know of was pretty funny - there was a k-9 unit at 6:00 and A and when my son (not carrying anything but a beer) was walking past the dog stuck his nose up my son's skirt into his crotch. When my son commented "hey, that feels pretty good", the officer pulled the dog away.

Post by **Savannah** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 6:44 pm

Sounds like a spirited lad.

Drawingablank · Post by **Drawingablank** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 7:08 pm

Savannah wrote:Sounds like a spirited lad.

LOL, well shyness is not one of his traits.

Foxfur · Post by **Foxfur** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 7:26 pm

My bizarre LEO experience was of my own creating...

About 3AM Wednesday morning I saw a goddamned pickemup truck driving on A street past my camp in Terminal City. 'A' is a pedestrian only street. I jogged over to the driver's window and asked where they were camped. The truck halted and two Sheriff's jumped out! Fuckin unmarked truck... They asked WTF I thought I was doing. They said it looked like I was out to cause trouble, like I was jumping out to "tune em up". Right. Me? Yeah. I assured them that I was looking out for my fellow campers by asking drivers to comply with the posted signs restricting driving on A street and that I was doing it in a non-confrontational manner. They insisted I was trying to provoke fights with drivers. Bwahahaha. I said, "Look at me gentlemen. I'm wearing a skirt and shitloads of shiny jewelry. Mom always said be a lover, not a fighter...". After a few more rounds of denying I was an instigator they told me to go back to my tent. I politely informed them that I had an air-conditioned trailer

and swiftly departed.

Personally I found the encounter hilarious though I really should have got the plate number and filed a report with the org...

CapSmashy · Post by **CapSmashy** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 8:03 pm

CapSmashy wrote:I got a great picture of a group of Pershing County deputies with 3 K-9 doggies out by the man this year. They were doing a group photo and I stepped up and started shooting and handed out my card with my flickr album address for them. As soon as we get back to ft worth, i'll actually get them posted.

FIGJAM · Post by **FIGJAM** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 8:22 pm

The guy standing at the far left looks like Kevin Pollock.

Turnip · Post by **Turnip** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 10:30 pm

those poor dogs.

wedeliver · Post by **wedeliver** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 4:02 am

How is the dog used to keep the city safe. Is he a rapist chasing dog? No, he probably can smell pot really good and his only purpose at Black Rock City is to find pot. I guess the govt feels there is a real problem with pot at BRC. I thought that comunities could set their own priorities. The expense of the dog might be better used for something that actually helps the city. I have met law enforcement at BRC that I have liked and trusted, I have met Law Enfocement at BRC that I would not want to come across in a dark alley (or deep playa with no witnesses).

EspressoDude · Post by **EspressoDude** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 6:50 am

check out the front of their vests SHERIFF, name....lower left dude has a squirrel on his vest (repels acorns?)

junglesmacks · Post by **junglesmacks** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 7:34 am

Maybe that's the nut finding specialist?

EspressoDude wrote:check out the front of their vests SHERIFF, name....lower left dude has a squirrel on his vest (repels acorns?)

jdballas · Post by **jdballas** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 8:21 am

Junglesmacks....I was also at Robot Heart on Wed along the left side and saw 4 VERY tall blm guys walking through the crowd...They call it a pod...one had a military style haircut...they stood about 5 feet from me and seem to have set up shop when a young woman started talking to them. I think that they actually enjoyed the conversation and were in no hurry to leave. Earlier the same 4 pulled a much smaller young man out of the crowd watching Infected Mushroom with his backpack and hauled him outside....I thought that he was a gonner...later they returned and I moved far away, suddenly, the smaller man raced out of the crowd and plowed into one of the BLM guys, surprizing him. The Blm guy must have been at least 2 foot taller, he smilled widely, laughed and walked on shaking his head to his buddies...I guess the smaller man wasn't busted after all....
Honesly, I think the Blm pod were newbys and taken back by the whole thing, but know a pretty girl when they see one....

Boys will be boys...
Coach

junglesmacks · Post by **junglesmacks** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 8:29 am

Wow ok very very verrrry interesting! Finally someone saw the same thing that I did. Did you see them taking pictures with the girl or the guy though? Like I said originally, their back was turned to me so I could see what was going on. I could possibly maybe buy into the fact that it was friendly except for how the girl called for her boyfriend in the crowd in a rather distressed manner and then how they both took off very quickly right after it happened. Maybe they were just so freaked out about the whole thing or..???

Could you elaborate any more on what you saw? I'm still so uber curious to get to the bottom of this. I too was on the left hand side and we may have seen the same interaction with the same girl but you saw it from a different perspective than I did..

jdballas wrote:Junglesmacks....I was also at Robot Heart on Wed along the left side and saw 4 VERY tall blm guys walking through the crowd...They call it a pod...one had a military style haircut...they stood about 5 feet from me and seem to have set up shop when a young woman started talking to them. I think that they actually enjoyed the conversation and were in no hurry to leave. Earlier the same 4 pulled a much smaller young man out of the crowd watching Infected Mushroom with his backpack and hauled him outside....I thought that he was a gonner...later they returned and I moved far away, suddenly, the smaller man raced out of the crowd and plowed into one of the BLM guys, surprizing him. The Blm guy must have been at least 2 foot taller, he smilled widely, laughed and walked on shaking his head to his buddies...I guess the smaller man wasn't busted after all....
Honesly, I think the Blm pod were newbys and taken back by the whole thing, but know a pretty girl when they see one....

Boys will be boys...
Coach

pinemom · Post by **pinemom** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 9:00 am

I will say just from short observation that the LEO presence was way down and way less obtrusive.

Last year they were WAYYYY obtrusive, Myself and another camper found one (undercover narco agent) in our personal camping area, we asked who he was seeking,
he saw us , never answered the again repeated question and started walking very fast out of our side wall and into our neighbor village sidewall camp. We chased him. NO REALLY! we chased that damn dude for over 300 yrds till he was running from us, yup we ran too, after him, he was scared!!!! Funny fucking shit!

I do believe the PoPo have been put into a "it better stick in court kinda thing", because after going to court with another camper over flaming his mutant vehicle supposibly too close to a cops car, scared him so he gave him a wreckless driving ticket. Get to court and they try to make a deal for "littering" a lessor charge? First off our camper said No way, I dont MOOP! Then back to court for the actual case....hahaha Dropped by the DA before we even got into the court room!
Cant exactly say that flaming a flame effect device at a flame/fire event, was illegal. Im sure he(cop) got read the riot act by not only his supervisor but by the Nevada court as well. No more wasting tax payers money damnit!

junglesmacks · Post by **junglesmacks** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 10:34 am

pinemom wrote:after going to court with another camper over flaming his mutant vehicle supposibly too close to a cops car, scared him so he gave him a wreckless driving ticket. Get to court and they try to make a deal for "littering" a lessor charge? First off our camper said No way, I dont MOOP! Then back to court for the actual case....hahaha Dropped by the DA before we even got into the court room!
Cant exactly say that flaming a flame effect device at a flame/fire event, was illegal. Im sure he(cop) got read the riot act by not only his supervisor but by the Nevada court as well. No more wasting tax payers money damnit!

WOW I was standing close by for this and clearly remember this story from last year. Super interesting to hear how it all turned out. Yeah.. last year was off the richter scale for over the top LEO intrusiveness..

Lassen Forge · Post by **Lassen Forge** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 4:25 pm

Good catch on the patch - we have the same logo on some of our shit at work. The rocker above the squirrel says "Secret".

It's an inside joke with those of us who do DHS related crap. If I told you more I'd have to disavow knowing you'd been shot.

I've gotten schwag from a couple of them - and BTW their dogs IIRC are generally S&R or Canine Patrol dogs, not dope dogs. Of all the LEOs out there, I like PCSO best, because to them it's not some trip to bust hippies... it's home. (And the dogs... I doubt they're suffering - they get treated like princes out there!)

Returning to your regularly scheduled thread drift now...

graidawg · Post by **graidawg** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 6:30 pm

I had an LEO incedent this year. off playa though, me and the girl from BDC who where driving to vegas from reno where on the i95 (or i195) and where looking for the airport to drop the rental off drifting from lane to lane as we got steadily more lost, eventually the cruiser flashed us with there blues and we got chatting, thet said basically after following us they decided we were either lost or stoned. after chatting about top gear for a while they directed us to the airport and left us to go on our way it was fun!
oh and the other officer asked my friend where we had been and she said burning man he said thats a drug party isnt it? have you got drugs in the car?. truthfully she said no and they left it at that.

overall it was a giggle though i wish i had taken a pic of the car i saw a ranger in at the monday night bonfire because it was fucking cool and i cant remember what he said it was. he found it funny when i asked if he had a massive boner everytime he drove it though.

CapSmashy · Post by **CapSmashy** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 7:38 pm

Turnip wrote:those poor dogs.

wedeliver wrote:How is the dog used to keep the city safe. Is he a rapist chasing dog? No, he probably can smell pot really good and his only purpose at Black Rock City is to find pot. I guess the govt feels there is a real problem with pot at BRC. I thought that comunities could set their own priorities. The expense of the dog might be better used for something that actually helps the city. I have met law enforcement at BRC that I have liked and trusted, I have met Law Enfocement at BRC that I would not want to come across in a dark alley (or deep playa with no witnesses).

After the pictures were taking I talked to the deputies a little bit. I think it is the deputy in the middle that was the lead K-9 officer, but he was telling me that they do not use the dogs at the event because of the conditions and over stimulation. They brought them in specifically for the group picture. The dog on the left was hyper like a Jack Russell terrier and super friendly.

I did hear about BLM running dogs in the gate area, but I did not see it for myself.

CapSmashy · Post by **CapSmashy** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 7:42 pm

EspressoDude wrote:check out the front of their vests SHERIFF, name....lower left dude has a squirrel on his vest (repels acorns?)

Super Secret Squirrel.

A pretty popular patch for tactical leo's and military guys. Its basically an inside joke about people or units that have specialized jobs with details that can not be readily discussed in normal channels.

An outfit called Mil Spec Monkey has a lot of different patches for military and leo's like this. Some of them are pretty funny.

http://milspecmonkey.com/morale-page/morale-patches

Post by **trilobyte** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 7:52 pm

For what it's worth, the dogs are okay. I've had chats in years past. The reason they're banned from the playa is because people bring them out for a week (or more) to run around and sleep on the harsh alkali dust, and proper care just isn't taken. The police dogs, aren't sleeping on the playa for days on end, and they've got someone checking their health (and condition of paws) on a daily basis.

Lassen Forge · Post by **Lassen Forge** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 9:13 am

the now doomed CapSmashy wrote: Super Secret Squirrel.

A pretty popular patch for tactical leo's and military guys. Its basically an inside joke about people or units that have specialized jobs with details that can not be readily discussed in normal channels...

Let us know when our "welcome committee" gets there. Thank you.

Kenny Z · Post by **Kenny Z** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 6:37 pm

shykat wrote:We saw a pair following the sardine art car who were playing some silly song and the two leo's where laughing their asses off ,it was pretty funny......

Ha ha! That was me driving! We were playing a song by Jon Lajoie - Show Me Your Genitals. He pulled up next to us and stopped us. I wrote down the name of the song for him. He gifted me too!

Kenny Z

Post by **Elderberry** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 6:47 pm

Were you the guys playing that song with the "my vagina" lyrics? That was one of the funniest songs I've ever heard.

Kenny Z wrote:
shykat wrote:We saw a pair following the sardine art car who were playing some silly song and the two leo's where laughing their asses off ,it was pretty funny......
Ha ha! That was me driving! We were playing a song by Jon Lajoie - Show Me Your Genitals. He pulled up next to us and stopped us. I wrote down the name of the song for him. He gifted me too!

Kenny Z

Post by **Savannah** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 7:06 pm

I loved that song! I might've passed by at the same time!

Post by **Sham** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 7:19 pm

....or maybe they had just one song that they were playing over and over the whole week!

Trishntek · Post by **Trishntek** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 7:54 pm

Having a full-service bar, we took every precaution to prevent underage drinking. Our bartenders were brutal about I.D.s and to my knowledge, we had no LEO visitors.

One problem I personally got involved with was two guys getting drinks at the bar and taking them to a known minor female the bartender had given the boot. They lingered at our entrance, which is only about 10' wide and the bartender informed me what was going on. I confronted them and told them to move along. They continued to stand right in the middle of the entrance as the female said, "I'm waiting for my boyfriend to pick me up. He knows I will be right here.'

I informed her it was against the law for her to loiter at our establishment and they are blocking the entrance. They tried to argue a bit longer,,,,, and lost,,,,,

I only relate this to say that we all have a responsibility to demonstrate respect for the law. Our signs and our diligence prevent suspicion; therefore, to my knowledge, LEO never gave us a second glance.

About 3AM Tuesday, I was on watch for late arrivals to our camp. I had the propane firepit going to stay warm and was alone. There was a BLM SUV that stopped and shined a spot light into our shade structure. The firepit is back about 30 feet inside the structure. I think they just made sure the fire was attended. Personally, I appreciated that.

wedeliver · Post by **wedeliver** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 9:02 am

Bay Bridge Sue wrote:Good catch on the patch - we have the same logo on some of our shit at work. The rocker above the squirrel says "Secret".

It's an inside joke with those of us who do DHS related crap. If I told you more I'd have to disavow knowing you'd been shot.

I've gotten schwag from a couple of them - and BTW their dogs IIRC are generally S&R or Canine Patrol dogs, not dope dogs. Of all the LEOs out there, I like PCSO best, because to them it's not some trip to bust hippies... it's home. (And the dogs... I doubt they're suffering - they get treated like princes out there!)

Returning to your regularly scheduled thread drift now...

Hi BBS, I agree Pershing Co is more invested in the event then BLM and I get along with all of them. But, respectfully I asked my "Outlaw" thats my daughters mother in law, who is part of Sacramento Search and Rescue and she says that is is unlikely that the dogs are Search and Rescue since very few police department need to have those dogs since when there is an incident that requires S&R the dogs come free with handlers. All free. But she said the dogs could very well be trained for explosives and firearms. I forgot to ask her but the term you used, "Canine Patrol dogs" sounds very offical but upon thinking about it, the term is redundant and the only thing I could find was "Space Canine Patrol Agents" from some dog movie.

I for one think that, especially today, LEO presence is necessary at BRC. There are some people who come there and do things that need the strong arm of law enforcement. Otherwise, EMT's, fire folks, our rangers and people like you and me can handle the city. I am a senior citizen, I have filed and am waited for my first social security check. I also think that it is wrong, WRONG. that people are still being harassed for smoking pot at Burning Man. I don't think that the police handing out tickets, searching people and just bringing a really bad feeling for POT, helps the event in anyway.

Now thats just what I think, I am sure there are people that don't agree. But arn't those dogs CUTE!

oscillator · Post by **oscillator** » Sun Sep 18, 2011 1:10 am

CapSmashy wrote:...he was telling me that they do not use the dogs at the event because of the conditions and over stimulation.

Don't ask me how, but I know exactly how those dogs feel about over stimulation.

BBadger · Post by **BBadger** » Sun Sep 18, 2011 2:05 am

trilobyte wrote:For what it's worth, the dogs are okay. I've had chats in years past. The reason they're banned from the playa is because people bring them out for a week (or more) to run around and sleep on the harsh alkali dust, and proper care just isn't taken. The police dogs, aren't sleeping on the playa for days on end, and they've got someone checking their health (and condition of paws) on a daily basis.

I'm pretty skeptical that it's mainly for sake of the dogs' health that they're banned. It's usually because people lose control of them, and the horrendous MOOP problem as the dogs' asshole owners don't pick up the dog's shit or force them to abide by the environmental rules. That kind of thing happens all the time at that Rainbow Gathering with peoples' dogs running off into the woods where they can't be found, causing a ruckus among the wildlife, digging holes, etc. After that gathering is over, many people end up leaving their lost pets behind, meaning the dogs have to be rounded up or shot. It's so damn irresponsible.

CapSmashy · Post by **CapSmashy** » Sun Sep 18, 2011 7:40 am

BBadger wrote:I'm pretty skeptical that it's mainly for sake of the dogs' health that they're banned. It's usually because people lose control of them, and the horrendous MOOP problem as the dogs' asshole owners don't pick up the dog's shit or force them to abide by the environmental rules. That kind of thing happens all the time at that Rainbow Gathering with peoples' dogs running off into the woods where they can't be found, causing a ruckus among the wildlife, digging holes, etc. After that gathering is over, many people end up leaving their lost pets behind, meaning the dogs have to be rounded up or shot. It's so damn irresponsible.

Um, you just explained why dogs are banned for the sake of their health.

We covered this in gate training. What typically happened in the past prior to the ban on dogs, was that someone would bring a dog and either chain it up in their camp or shut it inside a tent so the dog's owner could go play. Dogs being social animals do not do well in these kinds of conditions. Combine that with the harsh environment, and you have a recipe for a dog going crazy or simply dying of exposure due to negligence of the owner. DPW dogs are grandfathered in as they have typically been on the playa for years and the entirety of the DPW staff takes on the responsibility of caring for the few dogs out there with their department. They also have the necessary infrastructure in place to say get a dog into an air conditioned space on hot afternoons, etc.

On a curious note, dogs are the only animal that is specifically prohibited from the event. Someone wanting to bring a camel, for example, would have to demonstrate they are capable of caring for the animal at the event and convince a shift lead or manager that they are responsible enough to care for the animal. However, it did not really sound like this was ever going to be something we would have encountered as the prohibition on dogs pretty much leads anyone reading that make the assumption that it applies to all animals coming into the event.

Kenny Z · Post by **Kenny Z** » Sun Sep 18, 2011 9:46 am

jkisha wrote:Were you the guys playing that song with the "my vagina" lyrics? That was one of the funniest songs I've ever heard.

Kenny Z wrote:
shykat wrote:We saw a pair following the sardine art car who were playing some silly song and the two leo's where laughing their asses off ,it was pretty funny......
Ha ha! That was me driving! We were playing a song by Jon Lajoie - Show Me Your Genitals. He pulled up next to us and stopped us. I wrote down the name of the song for him. He gifted me too!

Kenny Z

That would be us! Yeah, I dig that song and it seemed to be accepted well. Every so often we would get a scowl but the majority of folks loved it. Shambala, LOL, no we had more that just that song! Most of the time we played music. The co-driver is a big dub-steps fan but he played different stuff and with words. I played all ranges and of course funny stuff.

Kenny Z

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