Feds on the playa?

Giraffe · Post by **Giraffe** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 12:38 pm

On Friday night while waiting in line for a porta-potty, I was startled to notice four or five federal agent types (dark suits, sunglasses, earpieces) in my presence. They moved in on a guy wearing a red outfit, and after a brief confrontation, ended up chasing the guy off into the playa. Scared the hell out of me. Did anyone else see these guys? Does anyone know what this was all about?

Borris · Post by **Borris** » Thu Sep 04, 2003 9:28 pm

I'd say Performance art.

No fed will walk the Playa with a dark suit, sunglasses and an Earpiece at night.

they aren't as stupid as we like to think.

freia · Post by **freia** » Fri Sep 05, 2003 12:14 am

Those were probably the faux security guards from Reverand Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping. During his sermons/performances, guys of this exact description stood in front of the stage facing the audience, with poker-faces and hands clasped in front of them. They played the part perfectly.

Ranger Mickey · Post by **Ranger Mickey** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 2:07 am

Agreed. Performance art.

Plainclothes (undercover) LEOs look like guys who are wearing "casual Friday" outfits: polo shirts, blue jeans, hiking boots. Uniformed LEOs frequently have windbreakers with their agency in big letters (DEA, FBI) or wear their service jackets.

LEOs don't do a lot of running; they're really good at calling for vehicle backup early in a call. (One year we did a long chase, but it was after an impaired individual who repeatedly went into others' camps and was more than just a bit unsettling. At least three LEO agencies (plus Rangers and ESD Medics/Crisis Counsellors) kept up with this guy until he could be wrangled and brought in. I think he slept it off.)

Chimp · Post by **Chimp** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 4:55 am

One weird thing though, me and a dude called Marc from The Lord Of The Drinks camp were rapping near the Temple late at night / early morning and he pointed out to me these two guys who drove up in a car with the lights off (practically unoticable in the dark) got out and preceded to take pictues of the Temple from a slight distance. He said he had seen them a couple of times that night on the Playa (thursday I think), they were dressed in black and very low key and unobtrusive, stayed about five minutes then split. I mean it was just strange y'know, if that was performance art who were they performing to, I mean they took virtually no notice of us. This guy Marc was a veteran burner from the early nineties and it struck him as pretty odd.

Agreed though, feds would probably be dressed as giant turtles or something equally as playa friendly

Kinetic · Post by **Kinetic** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 5:37 am

The only guys I saw who met that description were the Rev. Billy's bodyguards....as the previous posts said I doubt there were any LEO's dressed like that out there. The LEO's I noticed had the jackets with the agency prominently displayed.

As for the night time temple viewing, remember most of the officers volunteer for BM and that might have been the only time they could get out to the temple and get some pix for themselves.

Now if the black stealth helo was overhead, that's a different story.

Chai Guy · Post by **Chai Guy** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 6:16 pm

I think the LEO's have gotten much better at "blending in" over the years. I noticed signifigantly less LEOs both in uniform and "plain-clothes". My guess is they didn't go away, they just got better camoflage.

electrolux · Post by **electrolux** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 6:31 pm

I don't know if this is was a set-up, but some really freaky looking guy went up on stage in center camp when reverened Billy was doing his thing and started shoving him. The G-men sprung into action and got rid of him. The way everyone was acting it seemed not to be a joke.

captain mcguiver · Post by **captain mcguiver** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 7:04 pm

Interesting anecdote I heard:

A friend of a friend (oh god...) was driving his art car and was flagged down for a ride. He graciously gave the people (dressed in drag) a ride back to the area around his camp. They gave him something to which he felt obliged to return the favor. He ran into his camp, gave them a joint and sent them on their way. Immediately after, he was swarmed by LEO's and busted. I hear the E- word forming here...

chrisk · Post by **chrisk** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 10:10 pm

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... DT0143.DTL

freia · Post by **freia** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 11:11 pm

I don't know if this is was a set-up, but some really freaky looking guy went up on stage in center camp when reverened Billy was doing his thing and started shoving him. The G-men sprung into action and got rid of him. The way everyone was acting it seemed not to be a joke.

Nah, no joke. Some guy on a bad acid trip. I heard about it from the honorable Rev hisself. That was his first night virgin intro to BM.

But his "G-Men" were still kind of a joke thing, even though they performed well when the situation arose.

Borris · Post by **Borris** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 11:24 am

captain mcguiver wrote:Interesting anecdote I heard:

A friend of a friend (oh god...) was driving his art car and was flagged down for a ride. He graciously gave the people (dressed in drag) a ride back to the area around his camp. They gave him something to which he felt obliged to return the favor. He ran into his camp, gave them a joint and sent them on their way. Immediately after, he was swarmed by LEO's and busted. I hear the E- word forming here...

It happened to two guys in our camp, and it was the other way round, they flaged down an "Art Car" (actualy a slightly decorated golf cart) with a guy in drag and a girl who took them back to our camp (BRIBH). when pressed for a gift they suggested a smoke, but never actualy produced one, they did give the guy some roling papers. 10 min's later they were picked up by the feds at our camp and issued 250$ tickets for drug paraphenelia. they could probably try and fight it in court but one of them is a Kiwi (NZ) the other just too busy and not well founded enough to do so. we did a collection for them in our camp, and i know one of them also collected some money while waiting near gerlach for a towtruck to come and take the RV they were driving. he had a sign that said "Help my Legal Defence" was more interested in telling his story and pass time then in the money itself...

blyslv · Post by **blyslv** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 11:29 am

I was dancing one night and I noticed a guy, 20 something, wearing dockers and a grey tee-shirt with XXX printed across the chest. He wasn't dancing, but leaning against the wall and not looking like he was entirely comfortable. Something about him screamed "undercover" but who knows?

Blackrock Lover · Post by **Blackrock Lover** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 1:39 am

The reverend Billy freaky guy event was not a set up...............

Borris · Post by **Borris** » Thu Sep 18, 2003 3:49 am

blyslv wrote:I was dancing one night and I noticed a guy, 20 something, wearing dockers and a grey tee-shirt with XXX printed across the chest. He wasn't dancing, but leaning against the wall and not looking like he was entirely comfortable. Something about him screamed "undercover" but who knows?

I think that was me...
those walls are damn uncomfortable to lean on and the xxx on the shirt was just me asking if anyone would like to have sex with me... I guess you missed the question mark at the end of it.

Apollonaris Zeus · Post by **Apollonaris Zeus** » Sat Jul 10, 2004 10:49 pm

It was the Matrix cyber clones!

did you see them with toilet paper!

the guy didn't wipe in the right direction.

Its illegal!

Wipe in the right direction or else or someone will be licking your balls of S**T!

A II Z

satireDUN · Post by **satireDUN** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 1:53 pm

though i *DID* meet someone who worked for the FBI on the playa...though he only worked as a mechanic for them, he had the ID, the badge, the whole deal. it was awesome.

jellibee · Post by **jellibee** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 10:28 pm

Please be careful on the playa. At 3 and approx mars, they were watching the potties. A couple blocks further out, they had a few camps together. Don't do anything illegal outside your temporary housing which may actually be protected... At the very least, assume you are under watch, why not safe. We made a misjudgement and attracted a lot of attention although we realized it quickly and discontinued any suspicious behavior especially outside our tent.

jb

geekster · Post by **geekster** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 10:47 pm

Burning Man is on federal property. If you don't like living with their rules, don't go. Have your own event on private property. Invite some friends. Have fun.

Tancorix · Post by **Tancorix** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 11:07 pm

Yawn. Anti-Fed crossposting. If you leave common sense behind at the gate off 447 then you deserve whatever happens to you. Plus this topic has been beat to death, pulled back through 19 resurrections and reburials, and is now on the verge of becoming a church of it's own: The Church of the Anti-Feds. Good gawd, can we get warnings on something practical or helpful like don't use this style of dust mask or Gatorade doesn't work as well as people claim? Surely there's another topic that can be flogged besides this one.

And on top of that Tiara posted elsewhere on how to reach the LEAL team to address aggressive Feds and local LEO's. If this topic keeps getting beat on the heat from the cracking whips will revive the carcass again. Stop it.

stuart · Post by **stuart** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 10:40 am

Have your own event on private property.

private property is a safe-haven for loca or federal law. I can't make crack or kill you if you come over to my house and party.

If you leave common sense behind at the gate off 447 then you deserve whatever happens to you.

this is just plain mean spirited. Reminds me of the old 'look at the way she was dressed' screed. If I leave my car unlocked and un anattended for several nights I don't deserve to have it stolen. You may say it was unwise of me to do so but my behavior in no way creates the moral condition you describe.

stuart · Post by **stuart** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 10:41 am

wow, edit

should have read

private property is not a safe haven from local or federal law

ThePikey · Post by **ThePikey** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 6:09 pm

chrisk wrote:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... DT0143.DTL

Yeah, I was one of the guys busted during that.... freaky as all hell.

thedrunkenmonkey · Post by **thedrunkenmonkey** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 11:59 pm

Meh. For the most part, people would run through our camp yelling, "THE COPS ARE HERE! THE COPS ARE HERE! THE COPS ARE HERE!" and freaking out repeatedly every time someone in a semi-official car pulled up. Which was annoying as hell, because frankly, if I'm in camp, I'm not doing a lot of illegal things, and if I am, they're consumed within the privacy of my own tent and not out in public.

I don't smoke pot, which probably helps a bit. I also don't do the higher-end paraphenalia drugs, and when I drink, bugger all if I'm going to give to someone who looks like they're under 20. That's MY booze, dammit. Call me a big fat hoggy boozehound, but those are MY drugs, those are MY boozelets, and those are MY items of taste.

I figure if I get busted for my happy stuff, I get busted. But I take the precautions so I DON'T get busted for my happy stuff. People who go through the camp looking for lost drugs are bad news - regardless of whether they're burners or LEOs. So I don't associate with them.

But I did have a marvelous time with a cop dressed in khaki who I walked up to, said, "Hey, thanks for being here and doing a good job." We had a good conversation, and he expressed the simple notion that it's only the people who're being blatant consumers that they usually cite.

That may not bode well for "NITRO MAN" and his dual N02 chargers of DOOM, but hey, at least they're honest about their job.

jellibee · Post by **jellibee** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 12:01 pm

BMAN2U
California

ahchim-namdongsang · Post by **ahchim-namdongsang** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 7:28 pm

Just because I feel like looking the part of BM virgin and village idiot tonight.....

What's a LEO?

sputnik · Post by **sputnik** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 7:49 pm

Law Enforcement Officer

ahchim-namdongsang · Post by **ahchim-namdongsang** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 8:07 pm

Ah... shoulda figured that one out.

desertswine · Post by **desertswine** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 6:01 am

the undercover or plainclothes are getting better at blending in,except that are several things to look for,well heres a few.....Lothos

jellibee · Post by **jellibee** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 7:47 am

The row of telephoto lenses in the mini U-Haul that's been decked out with shelving is another give-away.

Feds on the playa?

Feds on the playa?

sfgate article says arrests were down

Re: sfgate article says arrests were down

LEO'S