a positive LEO story to share

Spaz · Post by **Spaz** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 4:48 pm

this is Spaz from Playa Info/BMIR and Gigsville...

first a shoutout to Otto and Austin of DPW who helped me install the new water pump and see to it my disabled RV was fit to leave and get back to SF safely. also to Zeus, Christy, Transformer, Bobzilla and everyone at BMIR - great fun! and to Rob O, Elektra, Bobalou, Buf, Brillig, Ali Baba, and everyone at Playa Info... we rocked this year! to the folks around the Car-B-Q this year: best duststorm EVER! to all in the DPW parade... best duststorm EVER - also best projectile vomit EVER x4... i call it performance art.... thanks to JetFuel, Wheelgunner, Maid Marian, Dawg, Arcane, the Damn Fuckin Texans, Skynyrd Camp, the Vroom Vroom Room, the Tuna Guys (best monday nite part EVER), and all the rest I connected with who I am remiss in not mentioning here.

so on to my story.

i arrived early monday morning in the RV having travelled the journey just fine, but now idling slowly through the gate line found myself drastically overheating. i barely made it to my spot near Center Camp and shut it off quickly hoping i hadnt melted the cylinders. it took a day or two to locate someone expert enough to suss out the problem, but while working a shift at PI someone I hadnt seen in years walked up and had just made it courtesy of this mechanic, and sure he'd love to bring him by to help me. a few hours later this guy id never met was spending a total of 3 plus hours to discover the real problem and remove the offending part, a failed water pump. of course im driving a 1977 MOPAR big block class A motorhome, and the part has to be special ordered. thanks to DPW dispatch I got the call out to NAPA parts in Fernley and got the part on order for 3 day turnaround. I could have waited until the next wednesday i was told and theyd deliver it to DPW, but otherwise it would arrive at NAPA the monday after the burn. I had a court appearance to make this morning (made it - yay!) and to wait untilo wednesday would mean missing it, sending Federal Marhalls out with a warrant for my arrest. I had to get the part on Monday in Fernley when it came in. So after checking to see the part was indeed here, I set out to the gate during exodus and began hitching my way to Fernley. A nice burner named Sideshow Ed turned left at Wadsworth instead of heading to Reno and took me all the way into Fernley where Napa had stayed open an extra 15 minutes for me to be able pick up the part, closing at 415pm. I got there at 414pm. The ordered part was the correct one, and i charged my card, and hopped back in with Ed who dropped me in Wadsworth where I began to attempt hitching back the other direction.

After about ten minutes of standing there and no luck with about 20 cars, a pair of cops in a blacked out Charger honked at me, asked me if everything was alright, i told them my story about the pump, and they said hop in, we'll take you back. safer than hitching, no problem, hop in. damn. so these two federal cops from pyramid lake are now racing me at a bizillion miles an hour in a nicely airconditioned copcar, offering me bottled water, am i comfortable enough, chatty chat. they cant take me the whole way but they have radioed ahead to washoe county sherriffs wholl have someone to meet us at 42 mile. just as they said at 42 mile a washoe county swat guy drives up, and after patting me down we get into his 4x4, and we start moving along. more chat, war stories, water and gatorade. i tell him about BMIR and he says we do a great job and he was at the Temple burn the night before, and would I mind saying some safety things over the radio for him. sure i say. just then we come up on a trash explosion on the highway from some unsecured trash falling from exodus, and i offer to assist. sure he says, and the two of us get out and clean up the highway to safe condition before anyone else drives by. we get in and continue toward gerlach, and now instead of dropping me at the gate he says hell take me all the way to my camp. he tells me of a shirtcocker changing a tire in public. we pass many stuck vehicles whove caught the shoulder and been pulled off the road. at empire we see someone riding a red furry tricycle in the middle of hjighway amidst an armada of RVs. as promised the deputy dropped me at Playa Info/BMIR, and I went straight into the station and went on-air with the story im relating now.

the following day Austin and Otto from DPW helped get my pump installed and I left the playa that night, making it safely back to SF yesterday morning. all is well.

my thanks again to Washoe County Sheriffs Office Deputy Frank Eubanks, and officers Brennan and Primeau of the Pyramid Lake PD.

-spaz

Captain Goddammit · Post by **Captain Goddammit** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 5:12 pm

I read all sorts of bitching about the cops at Burning Man, mostly by people who are doing drugs and getting in trouble for it.

So far, every cop I've met at BM has been really nice! I had two Rangers (real LEOs, not BRC rangers) stop me on my boat this year near 9:00... just to give me a "Junior Boaters Program" keychain whistle! I gave them some of my schwag in return.
I met another out by the Bummer one morning, nicest guy I ever met. He told us all about where the good hot springs were, the best scenery, etc. in case we wanted to explore after the event.
I run into several cops every year out there, and they always just wanna see the boat and/or chat about whatever.

But then, I'm not driving drunk or doing anything illegal.

HughMungus · Post by **HughMungus** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 6:17 pm

Great story.

Post by **AntiM** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 6:58 pm

We chatted with a couple BLM rangers, gave them some schwag, one of them gave Larry a Junior Ranger badge, the gal gave me a lip balm with a BLM logo on it. They were having a blast out there and loved talking to participants. In the past, other rangers have given me blinkies, and this year a fellow Hushvillian gave Genius a Washoe police patch, which he gave to me.

gaminwench · Post by **gaminwench** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 1:29 pm

Monday 5ish, I'm driving an RV pulling an ArtCar on a trailer, when just south of Empire, the trailer blows tires and decides to drive the RV. Fishtailed for 1/4 mile, then slam 45 to the left, and wham 180 to the right. Wound up with the right front tire in the oncoming ditch with the back left trailer tire across the road in the opposite ditch. Burner buddy drove the rig on its rims to the correct shoulder, Burner buddy 2 went ahead to cel service to call AAA. During the 4 hours we waited by the side of the road, Officer Douglas, first on the scene, called for a semi to haul our trailer out, and parked behind our rig with flashers going so we wouldn't get hit, staying with us the whole time to make certain we (3 women with large load) would be alright. Officers Lund and Carl stopped by periodically to check on us - they said that they had been hired out of Reno(volunteered for the shift) to PROTECT and SERVE. This became very clear, as they cited violations to us on *most* of the vehicles that went by. They were helpful, friendly, kind, funny and very supportive of Burning Man. Hurray!!!!

gyre · Post by **gyre** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 4:19 pm

and after patting me down we get into his 4x4

What was that about?

DoriumLux · Post by **DoriumLux** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 4:22 pm

I've had some positive experiences overall with the cops out there. I chatted some up randomly one night that were hanging out on the playa. They said that had put themselves on a waiting list to come to work the event 6-7 months prior and they had never seen anything like it in their lives. They really seemed to like working the event. One was from Alaska and the other from Montana. This year my bf and I also received a lot of waves and smiles from BLM and police.

My favorite thing was probably the navy chopper that kept coming around and flying pretty low. At one point they flew by the man. A guy was hanging out with the door open with a fat big grin on his face enthusiastically waving at everyone.

Curry · Post by **Curry** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 6:27 pm

it's wonderful to hear stories of good interactions and connections on a human level! When we can take down the walls of "us" and "them" by all being self-reliant and responsible and respectful (to ourselves first and then to our community), it is amazing the response we get and share in return...

-- Curry

skygod · Post by **skygod** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 7:47 pm

We Have Met The Enemy And They Are Us!

Zulegoona · Post by **Zulegoona** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 8:16 pm

skygod wrote:We Have Met The Enemy And They Are Us!

And that is the whole point of creating a civil society with rules of conduct laws and ways to enforce those laws. The enemy Is US !

dr.placebo · Post by **dr.placebo** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 10:06 pm

I was doing some traffic control for Monday morning Exodus and there was a minor trailer fire a couple hundred yards away. Two Pershing County deputies (one man, one woman) came along and took over traffic until the situation was resolved. They said that exodus was doing a good job, and were quite friendly. No weird comments about my outfit, either.

In 10 years I've not had any bad experiences with the LEOs yet. Not saying that it could not happen, but it's not happened yet. My guess is that treating them decently plays some part.

Dork · Post by **Dork** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 10:31 pm

Two BLM Naughty Rangers (that's how they identified themselves - they gave us fliers advertising their camp) stopped by to say hi several times while we were building the Bummer. They always had kind words on our project, never gave us the least amount of shit or attitude. Great guys.

wedeliver · Post by **wedeliver** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 8:16 am

Spaz wrote:.......After about ten minutes of standing there and no luck with about 20 cars, a pair of cops in a blacked out Charger honked at me, asked me if everything was alright, i told them my story about the pump, and they said hop in, we'll take you back. safer than hitching, no problem, hop in. damn. so these two federal cops from pyramid lake are now racing me at a bizillion miles an hour in a nicely airconditioned copcar, offering me bottled water, am i comfortable enough, chatty chat. they cant take me the whole way but they have radioed ahead to washoe county sherriffs wholl have someone to meet us at 42 mile. just as they said at 42 mile a washoe county swat guy drives up, and after patting me down we get into his 4x4, and we start moving along. more chat, war stories, water and gatorade. i tell him about BMIR and he says we do a great job and he was at the Temple burn the night before, and would I mind saying some safety things over the radio for him. sure i say. just then we come up on a trash explosion on the highway from some unsecured trash falling from exodus, and i offer to assist. sure he says, and the two of us get out and clean up the highway to safe condition before anyone else drives by. we get in and continue toward gerlach, and now instead of dropping me at the gate he says hell take me all the way to my camp. he tells me of a shirtcocker changing a tire in public. we pass many stuck vehicles whove caught the shoulder and been pulled off the road. at empire we see someone riding a red furry tricycle in the middle of hjighway amidst an armada of RVs. as promised the deputy dropped me at Playa Info/BMIR, and I went straight into the station and went on-air with the story im relating now.

Burner LEO'S, they gifted you the ride. Don't ya just fuckin' love it!

Your story brought tears to my eyes. We have met some BLM from the Naughty Ranger Camp, they have a lamanite ID that says Naughty Ranger Camp, (Dork did you see the ID?) and that makes it official. We got a really cool Pershing County Sheriff stickon tattoo a few years ago. But the most special thing happened 28 years ago when we lived off the Russian River near Monte Rio. Long story about vehicle issues, but to make it short called Sonoma County Sheriff's for an escort to the hospital for the birth of our first daughter. As we drove to Santa Rosa, one cop would leave as a new one would join us, all the way to the door to the hospital where an officer had a wheelchair ready for my bride. Thats what I love about our community it makes me cry.. (and laugh etc)

geekster · Post by **geekster** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 12:23 pm

LOL! One of my campmates was listening to BMIR and heard the "safety tips"! It was a riot to hear her tell it, especially the part about the shirtcocker.

"So far, every cop I've met at BM has been really nice! "

That has generally been my experience as well. I haven't had any problems with any LEO personnel on the playa. Not that they aren't just like everyone else and come in all different degrees of disposition, but luck has held out and every one of them I have interacted with have been courteous and professional. I didn't have any interactions this year directly but we did have one guy (a visitor) in our main shade tent who decided to spark up a bowl right in the main doorway facing the street just as an officer rode by in a 4-wheeler. BUSTED. But that is one I chalk up to stupidity on the part of the person lighting the bowl. Fire one up in broad daylight practically right on the street and you are pretty much asking for trouble. There wasn't any hassle about it, though. Citation written and off he went.

Intubater69 · Post by **Intubater69** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 3:21 pm

My only interaction with LEO's was when one of them gifted my 5 yr old a bracelet. I'm a medic in defaultopia, work side by side with LEO's on a daily basis and know most of them are really cool. Give em respect and they'll return it. Spaz, your story was awesome! It shows interaction on many levels with diff people helping out others with no problemo, just a desire to help out. Inspiring. And if someone is dumb enough to spark up a bowl in the wide open, they deserve to be busted. Go hide under your sleeping bag to smoke it for christ's sake

the bitch · Post by **the bitch** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 2:22 pm

hey spaz,

i'm happy to see that you made it home ok!!

pm me and let's stay in touch... it was so great being your neighbor at BMIR.

xoxo
b

hsdavis · Post by **hsdavis** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 2:57 pm

I can honestly say that since I have been attending BM for all these years, I have never met a LEO that I chatting with on a personal level, that I would not want to invite to my home for dinner. I have been very critical of the vigilant attitude this year, but I still have to say that these are very nice people who were assigned to this event.

In many cases, they are just as amazed at the art and sights as the paying participants. They really do a lot of good and want to come across as helping and caring of the attendees. I would grade these individuals an A+ for the good work they do.

Now, the leaders who send them out to spy and do unwarrented raids and searches need to lighten up and back off. They're making the good people look bad.

There, I said it!

Intubater69 · Post by **Intubater69** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 7:51 pm

hsdavis wrote:I can honestly say that since I have been attending BM for all these years, I have never met a LEO that I chatting with on a personal level, that I would not want to invite to my home for dinner. I have been very critical of the vigilant attitude this year, but I still have to say that these are very nice people who were assigned to this event.

In many cases, they are just as amazed at the art and sights as the paying participants. They really do a lot of good and want to come across as helping and caring of the attendees. I would grade these individuals an A+ for the good work they do.

Now, the leaders who send them out to spy and do unwarrented raids and searches need to lighten up and back off. They're making the good people look bad.

There, I said it!

Bravo

RoblRobl · Post by **RoblRobl** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 2:56 pm

We encountered several BLM officers with a dog at Illusion one night. The dog was wearing a cool flashing led collar. The officers chatted with us for awhile and were very friendly.

Post by **Elderberry** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 3:15 pm

The first year I went, I never even saw a LEO on the playa. This year I saw many, waved to all and they all waved back and smiled. I think respect is key--that and being bright enough to not be blatantly obvious if/when doing anything illegal.

JK

gyre · Post by **gyre** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 12:47 am

Not on the playa, but a sheriff Tom Dart has stopped illegal evictions of renters.

The sad thing is how unusual it is.
http://www.wbez.org/Content.aspx?audioID=29410

somekind · Post by **somekind** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 8:03 am

I have to admit to not making eyecontact or any type of encounter with LEOs. I try to stay as far away as possible.

Post by **Elderberry** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 8:26 am

somekind wrote:I have to admit to not making eyecontact or any type of encounter with LEOs. I try to stay as far away as possible.

No eye contact? That won't make you look like a suspicious character with something to hide.

JK

gyre · Post by **gyre** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 8:52 am

Being overly friendly and making eye contact with someone you shouldn't is one of the profiles for suspicious behavior, under trying to hide something.
So is almost anything you might do under certain circumstances too.

It is true that con men alomost always make eye contact and smile, all to seem more honest than real people.
Honest people don't require so much attention to bedside manner.

Making eye contact in customs will get you focused on quickly.

Post by **Elderberry** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 9:01 am

gyre wrote:Being overly friendly and making eye contact with someone you shouldn't is one of the profiles for suspicious behavior, under trying to hide something.
So is almost anything you might do under certain circumstances too.

It is true that con men alomost always make eye contact and smile, all to seem more honest than real people.
Honest people don't require so much attention to bedside manner.

Making eye contact in customs will get you focused on quickly.

Interesting. I have always made eye contact with everyone, all the time, even say hi to people I pass on the sidewalk. Doesn't matter if it's LEO or not. I even make eye contact and nod when I stop next to a cop on the road. Have I been acting suspiscious all these years?

JK

gyre · Post by **gyre** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 9:09 am

Different will always be suspicious to law enforcement, and people do vary.
Constant eye contact is more the exception though.
It is normal for some people.

People on eplaya have commented about how being friendly after burning man gets weird reactions sometimes.

ygmir · Post by **ygmir** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 9:10 am

jkisha wrote:
gyre wrote:Being overly friendly and making eye contact with someone you shouldn't is one of the profiles for suspicious behavior, under trying to hide something.

So is almost anHave I been acting suspiscious all these years?

JK

depends (ooh, a pun..) on why you wear pantyhose on your head......

Post by **Elderberry** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 9:13 am

ygmir wrote:
jkisha wrote:
gyre wrote:Being overly friendly and making eye contact with someone you shouldn't is one of the profiles for suspicious behavior, under trying to hide something.

So is almost anHave I been acting suspiscious all these years?

JK
depends (ooh, a pun..) on why you wear pantyhose on your head......

a double pun, actually.

JK

skygod · Post by **skygod** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 7:07 pm

gyre wrote: Making eye contact in customs will get you focused on quickly.

Eye contact is the window to Another World, and will always mark you as a Possible Subversive. Its a luxury anywhere else but Burning Man, and even there it's a risk.

a positive LEO story to share

a positive LEO story to share

Re: a positive LEO story to share