“NEAR RIOT CONDITIONS” IN UTAH OFF-ROAD GATHERING

[nosmokes]

yeah, this is what i look forward to when i go to the great outdoors, a bunch of drunken hooligans molesting women and children. i guess aafter a day of killing cactus and lizards and destroying an ecosystem it really whets your appetite to prove what a real man you are.
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original-PEER

For Immediate Release: May 23, 2007
Contact: Carol Goldberg [phone]
“NEAR RIOT CONDITIONS” IN UTAH OFF-ROAD GATHERING —
Irresponsible ORV Use Becoming Major Law Enforcement Challenge

Washington, DC — An Easter weekend gathering of a thousand off-road vehicle enthusiasts degenerated into “near riot conditions” in a Utah recreational area, according to an incident summary released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). More than 37 injuries, including a state Highway Patrol officer, led to the issuance of 300 arrests or citations by the more than 50 officers who were called to the scene from state, federal and local law enforcement agencies.

Large assemblages of off-road vehicle (ORV) users are becoming an increasingly severe law enforcement problem on public lands, particularly over holiday weekends. In this incident, many of the 35,000 visitors to the Little Sahara Recreation Area in Utah were terrorized by inebriated gangs of ORV riders during the weekend of April 6, 7 and 8. According to an official summary:

“Officers were faced with near riot conditions on two separate nights involving approximately 1,000 people which required all available officers and over 5 hours to mitigate the situation… Groups of partiers were blocking an area and forcing women to bare their breasts in order to leave, along with numerous incidents of unwanted fondling of women. When law enforcement officers took action, the crowd became unruly, throwing objects at the officers.”

“This sort of out-of-control behavior should not be tolerated anyplace, let alone on our public lands,” stated PEER Southwest Director Daniel R. Patterson, who formerly worked with the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the agency responsible for the Little Sahara Recreation Area. “Families should be able to visit national recreational areas without worrying about being subjected to sexual assault or confrontations with packs of drunken rowdies.”

Because of the vast desert acreages under BLM control, those lands have become the haunts for ever- larger convocations of ORV users. Pervasive alcohol and drug use contributes to growing injuries, not only to riders but to bystanders and to law enforcement officers responding to incidents. In addition to the public safety toll, these mega-gatherings wreak havoc on desert landscapes, with streams of riders often ignoring trail markers or other measures designed to keep ripping tires off of fragile wildlife habitats.

The problem is not confined to the BLM. The U.S. Forest Service also reports rising attacks on its rangers in connection with ORV encounters. ORVs allow deeper penetration into remote, formerly wild, areas by people seeking to escape social restrictions, often leading to destructive acts.

“Our rangers are not equipped to deal with hordes of mechanically mounted maniacs,” added Patterson, noting that while BLM has admitted the incident, it has tried to downplay it and has yet to change any area use policies or practices. “This destructive trend in off-roading blurs the line between recreation and riots –with visitors and rangers stuck in the middle.”

PEER is investigating the Little Sahara incident as part of a national probe into the public safety and law enforcement costs arising from reckless ORV use.

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Read the incident summary

Look at the growing law enforcement challenge posed by irresponsible ORV use

complete release including links to further information here

[tabasco]

1. Confiscate the vehicles.

These assholes ruin it for people who like to walk in and enjoy nature.

[Richard Steele]

4. Works for me. If they can't operate it responsibly, they shouldn't operate it at all.nm

[Book Lover]

2. Yet the Rainbow Family has been actively harassed by LE for decades....

for doing no more harm than some motor oil drippings from their vehicles...

[Greyskye]

7. usually not even that

The Rainbow gatherings require participants to walk in to the campsites, leaving their vehicles sometimes miles away. Then after the gatherings, cleanup crews go in and meticulously police the areas. After the official inspections of the last gathering, officials expressed amazement at how pristine the actual camping areas were.

I'd be surprised if there was any type of concerted cleanup efforts made after these off-road gatherings. :grr:

[Tigress DEM]

19. Yet they were fined and herded into barns for hours.. NO permit.

DID these BOZOs have a permit?

Lock them all up.

[here_is_to_hope]

22. All very true having worked clean up at

11 National Gatherings...look for us this year in Arkansas, Oklahoma or Texas!
(none of which I would choose but....)

[Sapere aude]

3. I live in the lower Sierra Nevada Mountains and we have lots of open space here.

It is mostly privately owned but some is BLM land. Every weekend the people with a truck load of kids and a trailer with a couple of quads comes down the road. The stop were ever they want and take off across the open space. They leave their trash, rip up the land then go home till next weekend. Even with the gasoline prices so high it doesn't matter to them.

I can't get it in my mind how people can be so self centered.

[Fridays Child]

5. Isn't this considered sexual assault?

Please, somebody tell me that these attacks on women are being investigated as sexual assaults.

[donco6]

6. I despise ORVs.

I have a place in the mountains, and occasionally some of these dumbasses will tear up and down the lane in an ATV (which is illegal on my county's roads). Last year, we had a group of them squatting on BLM land and not only did they tear up the countryside with those things, but they ALSO brought their firearms and had a free-for-all with those, too! It was horrifying to be on our walk with the dogs and suddenly come upon about 30 armed rednecks destroying trees and other makeshift targets. Beer cans and liquor bottles everywhere. We could have been shot, or our dogs. Idiots!

[earth mom]

8. They are tearing up public lands too-I think they should be banned.

Yeah, I know I'll get flack for my post but I don't care. The environment should ALWAYS come first. If you want to enjoy nature-take a walk.

[LostinVA]

12. They should be banned on public land

Good grief, some nature areas won't even allow trailrunning, which is insane, but yet allow this, or rant about mountain bikers, the majority of which respect the environment.

[wordpix]

27. not just banned: OUTLAW the damn things on public land. These env't wreckers

should never have been allowed on public lands to begin with b/c how can the public "enjoy" the lands when these loud, polluting, obnoxious vehicles are running around wrecking the soil, plants and scaring away the birds and animals? Not to mention the noise pollution, air pollution and obnoxious neanderthals that drive ORVs. :puke:

[laststeamtrain]

9. I'm shocked, shocked. You mean to say ORV people are a bunch of insane...

...goobers?

Get'er done!

All publicly owned land should be available to such recreational activity as rape & assault.
:sarcasm:

[Marrah_G]

10. Riots are scary

ALmost any large gathering of people can turn into chaos. Sporting events (especially soccer), or after sports game parties ( such as here in the US). Even if a group wins, it can turn nasty in a hurry. All it takes are a few people and then mob mentality takes over. It's really a bizarre phenomenom.

[FatDave]

20. "All it takes are a few people and then mob mentality takes over"

Actually, you're missing a key ingredient. Alcohol. It's always a bunch of drunks. Always.

When was the last time you saw a bunch of potheads riot?

[Marrah_G]

25. ROFL

Okay now you have me picturing giggling people very slowwwwwwwwwwly looting all the Doritos.

[Zookeeper]

11. So, why is it illegal to drink and drive a car or motorcycle, but....

when it comes to ORVs, ATVs, dirt-bikes, snowmobiles, jet skis, and boats, it's "Party-on!"

If you're drinking, you shouldn't be operating any vehicle with an engine. (IMHO)

[LostinVA]

13. In some places, it's illegal to drink and drive/ride bikes and horses

[Toots]

15. I believe it is illegal in most states OMVI

Operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated

[Xithras]

16. Yes, on public land driving ORV's drunk is illegal.

Anything goes on private land, of course.

[TrogL]

14. Maybe the tourists will come to Canada instead

We don't put up with that kind of crap up here.

[wordpix]

26. BS---I lived in BC and there was plenty of ORV and ski-doo wrecking of envt there

[HCE SuiGeneris]

17. Let 'em off each other -- good riddance. n/t

[Selatius]

18. Arrest as many of them as possible and suspend their driver's license.

Maybe that will act as a deterrent to this kind of stupidity. You don't do it on the streets and interstates. A park shouldn't be any different.

[Truth2Tell]

21. Round em up!

Round up these crazies and place them in chain link holding pens for a few days.... give them no access to lawyers... charge them with all kinds of BS petty offenses.... at least until the convention is over... oh wait..

[Robson]

23. Bush's (and others) solution - let's privatize it and make a profit or lease it!

The GOP (and others) have a solution...privatize it and sell our assets to oligarchs for penneys on a dollar, use the proceeds to prop up our government...just like the Russians did.

BTW this isn't strictly a Republican tactic and there are those in the Democratic Party that are guilty also.

[Vinnie From Indy]

24. Burning Man is much larger and does not have problems like this

I would caution all readers that this story may be a bit hyped or slanted. Please note that I am not advocating wholesale destruction of our national parks or Federal land by drunken assholes. It actually sounds to me like the law enforcement agency should have stepped in earlier to prevent women from being molested and taunted. Of course, I was not there so I am ONLY speculating. It could be as bad as it sounds.

Burning Man draws a much different crowd than the one described in the above article snip. It is a leave no trace affair. I have spent many an hour walking and picking up the most minute pieces of MOOP on the Playa. Also, unless you have an "art car" or a bicycle, you are forbidden to drive around on the Playa.

[bobbolink]

28. You think it's a coincidence that BLM and Forest Service

have had their budgets sliced, and are being privatized??????

Wanna see the same thing happen to National Parks? That's what this is coming to!

No minimum wage corporate hack is going to care for public lands like dedicated government workers.

It's time to decide just what it is we value.