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trippinglynet · 5 years

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Has Popularity Killed Northern Nevada's Biggest Art Festival? | D. Brian Burghart | Burning Man 1997

By D. Brian Burghart

MIKE BILBO TELLS A STORY ABOUT A CERTAIN SPRING—a watery oasis near Roswell, N.M.—that became popular with travelers who needed a stopping off place while driving across the desert. An outdoor recreation planner for the Bureau of Land Management, Bilbo says old photos show the spring to be a flourishing resource. But as time advanced, the spring was abused and overused. It shrank.

“Now there's nothing,” he says. “You can't even tell where it was, they basically loved it to death.”

Bilbo's spring may be a perfect analogy for the Burning Man.

Lack of controls, poor planning, sheer popularity and philosophical differences may have killed the event. Whether something called “Burning Man” will happen outside Reno this year on Labor Day weekend remains to be seen. But one thing is certain喫t won't be the free expression of freedom and anarchy that it has been in years gone by.

"We want to keep the door open, but for the first time, there is going to be a door. People need to understand that this is a place with boundaries. In this case boundaries that are hard to breach. We're are trying to socialize it more intensively, and the way to do that is to have them live next to one another." -- Larry Harvey

“We're going to try and keep it inviting and inclusive,” says Larry Harvey, Burning Man creative director and founder of the anti-commercial, pagan arts festival that brings thousands of people from around the world to Nevada's Black Rock Desert “We want to keep the door open, but for the first time, there is going to be a door. People need to understand that this is a place with boundaries. In this case boundaries that are hard to breach. We're are trying to socialize it more intensively, and the way to do that is to have them [participants] live next to one another.

“You can have large gatherings of people, and they don't turn into ravening animals. So, to the people who say you can't have a lot of people, or they turn into robots, I say, 'Bullshit,' that's simply not true.”

The fact is, it is the number of people that may have caused the festival to collapse under its own weight. There were 11,788 participants at Burning Man 1996, according to figures arrived at cooperatively between BLM and BM staff. Black Rock City, for those several days is undoubtedly the largest city in Pershing County. While it may be a tent city, it experiences all the problems that a city the same size experiences—infrastructure issues such as sewage, taxes environmental impacts, police, fire, ambulance, insurance, leadership—without the incremental growth that allows other cities to address problems one at a time. For Burning Man in 1997, these issues will be dealt with before the city begins building, or the city will simply not be built.

The 1996 special recreation permit had 16 stipulations that had to be met to go into 1997 with a clean record: 10 of them were violated, according to the BLM.. It is these violations that put Burning Man on a probationary status with the feds.

“If you get enough formidable organizers out there, it will happen again,” says John Law, former technical director for the project. Law retired after the 1996 event, citing philosophical differences as much as anything. “For me personally, it's just gotten too big,” he says.

Law is not the only integral participant to bow out. Reportedly up to half of the old staff of volunteers and enthusiasts, including members of the Danger Rangers and gate organizers, have found the event has gotten too far from its founding principles and won't be returning.

“But, don't count Larry Harvey out,” says Law. “If anyone can get it going, it's him. He's an impresario in the literal sense of the word.”

Flaming Hurdles

What the Burning Man Project needs is money. Financial burdens have the most potential to nix the event.

“We got killed this year, financially devastated,” says Law. “The event doubled in size, doubled in people coming in and tripled in costs. One third of the people didn't pay, they simply rolled around the gate.”

Costs are only going to rise.

Insurance required by the BLM are projected to rise from $10,000 property damage for any one occurrence to $50,000 in 1997; personal injury, bodily injury liability will go from $300,000 for any one person to $2,000,000 based on the Lara Sherbin claim of $1,000,000-plus (Sherbin was injured at last year's event); and $300,000 for any one occurrence is predicted to rise to $5,000,000 in 1997. While these numbers are yet to be chiseled in stone, they are included in the model plan. No estimates for how much these insurance hikes will cost are yet available.

The project still has to pay the lion's share of fees from last year. They were assessed fees of $23,576 (based on $2 per person). Of this $3,000, a permit performance bond, was taken, and an $8,000 payment was made on the balance. Two more payments of $6,288 are to be made, one on April 19, the next May 17. If either are missed, the permit will he revoked, and the project killed, at least on public lands, for one to three years.

Another financial obligation to be met will be a paid security force. Everyone contacted expressed concern about general safety, although solutions to the problem vary.

The BLM sanctions getting a paid security staff on the order of a Lollapalooza event. “Permittee will hire and coordinate closely with regional certified law enforcement of officers at the federal, state and county levels. An avocational security backup is appropriate when it only augments certified personnel,” says an issues and potential solutions document compiled by the BLM.

“Lollapalooza has around 100 security guards,” says Law, and emphasizes that the area covered by Burning Man participants is much larger than any comparable rock show. He suggests that organizers may be between a rock and a hard place, since paying 100 guards 24 hours a day for three to five days will be expensive and “you couldn't do it with volunteers.”

Another cost that will be required this year is for an expanded environmental assessment. Since the event annually has doubled in size since its first appearance on the Black Rock Desert in 1990 (it started on a California beach in 1986), there is larger impact on the environment than before. According to Bilbo, past assessments did not take into account all potential impacts on the playa and surrounding areas. Contrary to popular opinion, there are environmental concerns on the playa. The event is held near the Applegate Lassen Emigrant Trail, a settler shortcut that crossed the desert last century.

Hot springs, both on public and private land, had negative impacts last year. In particular, water and mud was illegally removed from Trego Hot Springs and emigrant-period artifacts (two bottles and possibly a rifle barrel) were reportedly taken.

Trash is another concern. While the BLM praises the trash removal efforts made by the project, (“A highly commendable effort—the place becomes spotless”) it wasn't the perfection exhibited in past years. “Eye-witness reports and photos indicate considerable trash blown from event to Black Rock Desert eastern edge areas. Also, debris left at springs from campers and the water 'vendor,' ” the agency said.

Law's evaluation agrees. “From the very beginning, we were concerned with not trashing the desert,” he says. “Even though people carried 95 percent of it away, we still took out eight 30-yard Dumpsters [in the weeks after the event],” he says.

While the cost of an environmental assessment is less than that of an environmental impact study, a detailed assessment of the “real and perceived impacts” could be pricey. The BLM has assisted the project by compiling a list of companies that do these sort of studies. Bilbo could not estimate within $10,000 its cost.

“Who knows,” he says. “They could get someone to do it for free.”

The cost overruns for toilets and cleanup were mentioned in the BLM's closeout as reasons for the lateness in paying fees, saying they totaled $45,000.

Expect that cost to jump even higher. Planners had anticipated around 6,000 participants last year (as mentioned, nearly 12,000 showed) and supplied 80 toilets: half the number needed. The assumption is that if the event again doubles to 24,000 people, 320 toilets will be needed, and the toilets will have to be pumped two or three times a day—potentially quadrupling last year's cost.

The final hurdle is time. Even though Labor Day weekend is six months away, the clock is ticking. According to Bilbo, the sooner the environmental assessment is begun, the sooner it can be analyzed. The payment schedule deadlines will not be adjusted, and a missed one will spell disaster for the project. Specific emergency services plans must be developed, coordinated and implemented by Harvey with BLM, state and county emergency response personnel (medical and law enforcement ). The plans must be delivered to the BLM no later than 75 days before the event in order to give the public time to respond before the BLM will issue a new permit.

“We need to hear from them, like, now,” says Bib.

Burnt Out?

One possibility that Harvey is exploring is to partially move the event off public lands, although he is keeping the potential site secret

“I'm interested in publicizing the fact when its an absolute go,” he says. “What we are essentially talking about is private land—a place where people can form community instead of just a big parking lot. What happened to us was we were in an uncontrolled environment. All these people came and they drowned us.”

Still, whether the event happens even partially on public lands, state and county governments and the BLM are going to have a say in the proceedings.

“It's our job to ensure that resource degradation does not occur, and public's safety is handled,” says Bilbo. With these two goals in mind, the BLM has created more hoops for Burning Man to jump through to pass the federal permit application process. While it is true that moral questions have been raised and letters have been received both for and against the event, “It's not necessarily the BLM's position to rule on moral issues.”

Still, the moral objections are, in effect, covered by the BLM, because one of the stipulations covered by the permit is that state and local laws will be obeyed by participants. While the BLM is more concerned with health, safety and environmental violations like public defecation, food and water vending and water rights than flagrant drug use and public sex, it is obvious that those are considerations that will affect renewal hopes for the permit.

A group called The High Rock, Black Rock, Immigrant Trail Coalition made up of mining, ranching environmental and land use groups have also expressed concerns about the event. Contrary to other reports, they are not specifically against Burning Man, but against most large-scale recreational uses of the Black Rock Desert until a management policy for the area is put into force. Burning Man is the largest event on the desert.

“There really aren't any problems with Burning Man, per se,” says Desna Young, former planner for the BLM and project and research coordinator for Public Resource Associates, a group that belongs to the Coalition. “It's just how large it has gotten out there. For every event there comes a point when the life cycle changes and the dynamics change.”

She says the Coalition is most concerned with maintaining the desert's “integrity of setting.”

Pershing County has also raised objections to the event.

“Pershing County got slammed,” said Law. “Sheriff Skinner and the deputies did a great job, but it was just too much.”

Sheriff Skinner is at the FBI academy in Washington, D.C., and was unavailable for comment. Acting Sheriff Lt. Bill Barks would not comment for the record

“We're not against Burning Mall, per se,” said William Denier, Pershing County commissioner. “We are against anything illegal that took place on the desert last year. We don't want to violate anybody's rights, free speech and the right to assemble and such. Everybody has the right to use public land. What we are against is the alcohol and drug use that was beyond anybody's ability to control.”

“It was probably fine when it was just a gathering of artists when it started in California and for the first two years or so there in the Black Rock, nobody got hurt,” he said.

Last year, there was one death and two severe injuries associated with the event.

“I was on 14 accident sites, and I didn't get to all of them,” says Law. “It's a miracle that there weren't more accidents than there were.”

Invariably, organizers of the event see automobiles as the major threat to public safety on the playa.

“If you could leave the fucking cars out of the equation, you could mitigate problems,” said Harvey.

Harvey says that his plans for the new event will take people out of their cars, thus increasing safety and minimizing impacts on the desert. He plans to lessen financial impact by raising ticket prices (preliminary planning suggests that tickets will go from $25 to $45 in advance and from $40 to $75 at the gate) and making it impossible for people to sneak in.

“If they come out and expect what they're used to, they are in for a shock,” Harvey says.

“I don't believe we're going to be on the Black Rock playa [in '97]. If today they said, 'No problem, you've got the big playa,' I think I'd just say 'No.'

“We are well into the planning process,” he said. “I think we've got what we need. I think we've got exactly what we need.”

#D. Brian Burghart #1997 #Burning Man 1997

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marcel334 · 4 years

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NBC NEWS July 11, 2020, 6:09 AM EDT By Alicia Victoria Lozano ----------------------------------

“The number of people killed by police is microscopically small,” D. Brian Burghart said, but those deaths "symbolize systematic racism.”

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the-sayuri-rin · 4 years

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“The number of people killed by police is microscopically small,” D. Brian Burghart said, but those deaths "symbolize systematic racism.”

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deanlawrencekowalski · 4 years

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Fatal Encounters: One man is tracking every officer-involved killing in the U.S. | NBC News “The number of people killed by police is microscopically small,” D. Brian Burghart said, but those deaths "symbolize systematic racism.” Source: Fatal Encounters: One man is tracking every officer-involved killing in the U.S.

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nemolian · 5 years

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Police Are a Leading Cause of Death for Young Men, Especially Those of Color, Study Finds

Photo: Yana Paskova (Getty Images)

For men, especially men of color, coming face to face with the police may be one of the most likely ways to die young, a new study out Monday finds. The study estimated that black men are twice as likely to be killed by police than men of other races. It also found that police use of force is one of the leading causes of death for all young men.

To reach their conclusions, researchers at Rutgers University and elsewhere looked at mortality data reported by the U.S. government and Fatal Encounters, a project founded by Nevada journalist D. Brian Burghart and others. Fatal Encounters identifies and tallies up deaths caused by police by combing through media articles and other sources of public records (though this data collection was initially crowdsourced, the organization now largely relies on paid researchers).

Based on “police-involved” deaths recorded between 2013 and 2017, they estimated that black men had the highest risk of being killed by police, while white men had the lowest. One in every 1,000 black men are killed by police, they found, while the same is true for one in every 2,000 men overall. Men in other racial and ethnic groups were similarly more likely to be killed by police than white men, including Hispanic (1.4 times more likely) and Native American men (1.5 times more likely). Only one in every 33,000 women, on the other hand, are killed by the police, though black women were still more likely to be killed than white women.

Edwards and his team also tried to calculate the odds of men being killed by police across age as well. Reported police killings (more than 11,000 in the study’s sample) most often happened to men between the ages of 25 and 29, amounting to an estimated mortality rate of 1.8 deaths per 100,000 men in that age group every year. That would make police the sixth leading cause of death in that age group, only behind things like accidents (including car crashes and drug overdoses), heart disease, and suicide.

Their results were published Monday in the journal PNAS.

Facial recognition experts called to testify before a congressional hearing on Wednesday found…

Read more Read

“The inequality is not surprising,” said lead author Frank Edwards, assistant professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University-Newark, in a release from Rutgers. “All you have to do is turn on the news to see that people of color are at a much greater risk of police-related harm.”

By publishing these findings, the team ultimately wants to galvanize the government into establishing an accurate, national database of police killings. Indeed, projects like Fatal Encounters began because of the lack of such a database. In 2014, the Bureau of Justice Statistics shut down its collection of data on “arrest-related deaths,” after finding that it likely was missing many cases. This July, the agency published data from a pilot study on a similar program that would improve its data collection, though it’s still unclear if and when a national database will be started up again.

“The Bureau of Justice Statistics needs to develop a comprehensive system that would track police-related deaths,” said Edwards. “We need to increase transparency of police use-of-force if we are going to decrease the number of civilian deaths in this country as a result of these encounters.”

Edwards and his team aren’t the only ones to argue that interacting with police is often a dangerous, unhealthy proposition for people. Just this week, the New York Health Department warned the public that “involvement with the criminal justice system—even brief contact with the police or indirect exposure is associated with lasting harm to people’s physical and mental health.”

via:Gizmodo, August 6, 2019 at 12:48PM

#IFTTT #Feedly #Gizmodo

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welcometoyouredoom · 7 years

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20 Fearless Groups Fighting on the Frontlines

Here are 20 fearless groups fighting on the frontlines who aren’t crippled or muted by their allegiance to favorite politicians, political parties or big politically-connected donors and foundations.

Alliance for the Wild Rockies P. O. Box 505 Helena, MT 59624 https://allianceforthewildrockies.org/

From the grizzly to the bull trout, the grey wolf to the lynx, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies is the last line of defense for the largest swath of unprotected wild lands in North America.

Anti-Police Terror Project Oakland, California http://www.antipoliceterrorproject.org

Beatings, taserings, illegal arrests, chokeholds, and shootings are a daily occurrence in urban America. The police won’t police themselves. With Trump in power, the Justice Department will probably stop doing even cursory investigations of such brutal actions. The Anti Police-Terror Project is building a replicable and sustainable model to end state-sanctioned murder and violence against Black, Brown, and poor people.

Beyond Nuclear 6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 400 Takoma Park, MD 20912 http://www.beyondnuclear.org/

Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abandon both to safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic.

Buffalo Field Campaign PO Box 957 West Yellowstone, MT 59758 1-406-646-0070 http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/

The annual slaughter of buffalo that migrate out of Yellowstone Park is one of the more horrific traditions in practice in the West today. Buffalo Field Campaign is perhaps the only group working tirelessly to defend the right of bison to wander to lower elevations during winter, without the threat of being killed by Montana bureaucrats.

Campaign to End the Death Penalty PO Box 25730 Chicago, IL 60625 http://www.nodeathpenalty.org

The Campaign to End the Death Penalty (CEDP) is the premier national grassroots organization dedicated to the abolition of capital punishment with active chapters and members across the United States—including California, Texas, Delaware, New York, and Chicago. The campaign has placed those who have experienced the horrors of death row ﬁrst hand–death row prisoners themselves and their family members–should be at the forefront of their movement, arguing that those experiences help to shape their political strategies.

Civil Liberties Defense Center 259 E 5th Ave, Ste 300 A Eugene, OR 97401 (541)687-9180 http://cldc.org/

Increasingly the Civil Liberties Defense Center, a small, non-profit law firm based in Eugene, Oregon, has become the last line of defense for radical activists in America during this age of government repression and prosecutorial crack-downs on dissent. CLDC has led the legal fight against the McCarthy-like Green Scare attack on the constitutional rights of environmental and animal rights activists. They have defended the rights of Rastafarians to practice their religious rituals in prison. They successfully defended a mosque against the FBI’s first-ever attempt to subpoena religious records. CLDC has also developed and distributed much-needed “Know Your Rights” outreach material, and presented more than 150 “Know Your Rights” trainings.

Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund P.O. Box 360 Mercersburg, PA 17236 http://celdf.org

Communities facing fracking, pipelines, factory farms, and other threats are recognizing that these seemingly “single” issue threats share something in common – the community doesn’t have the legal authority to say “No” to them. The existing structure of law ensures that people cannot govern their own communities and act as stewards of the environment, while protecting corporate “rights” and interests over those of communities and nature.

Family Farm Defenders P.O Box 1772 Madison, Wisconsin 53701 http://familyfarmers.org

Family Farm Defenders mission is to create a farmer-controlled and consumer-oriented food and fiber system, based upon democratically controlled institutions that empower farmers to speak for and respect themselves in their quest for social and economic justice. To this end, FFD supports sustainable agriculture, farm worker rights, animal welfare, consumer safety, fair trade, and food sovereignty. FFD has also worked to create opportunities for farmers to join together in new cooperative marketing endeavors and to bridge the socioeconomic gap that often exists between rural and urban communities.

Fatal Encounters 3375 San Mateo Ave. Reno, NV 89509-5046 http://www.fatalencounters.org

Fatal Encounters is an incredibly vital project by D. Brian Burghart, the editor/publisher of the Reno News & Review, to create a national database of out how many people are killed by law enforcement, why they were killed, and whether training and policies can be modified to decrease the number of officer-involved deaths. Fatal Encounters’ efforts to collect information about officer-involved homicides going back to January 1, 2000, is completely funded by donations.

Guardians of Our Ancestors Legacy (GOAL) P.O. Box 30000 #360 Jackson, Wy, 83002 http://www.goaltribal.org

GOAL, the Tribal Coalition to Protect the Grizzly, may be the last best hope to save the grizzly. This fierce, small, grossly underfunded outfit has pulled together over 40 tribal nations in an effort to keep the Interior Department from removing the grizzly from the Endangered Species list. With many of the big green groups missing-in-action, GOAL has mounted a powerful legal and cultural defense of the bear, arguing that allowing trophy hunting of the grizzly infringes on tribal sovereignty and violates the federal trust responsibility by disregarding tribal interests and pursuing a policy that benefits three states over a coalition of tribes from Montana to Arizona.

Israeli Committee Against Housing Demolitions (USA) PO Box 8118 New York, New York 10116 http://icahdusa.org

Since 1967 and the beginning of the Occupation, the Israeli government has demolished over 28,000 houses belonging to Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. These demolitions are part of a web of policies designed to force Palestinians off their own land to make room for expanding Israeli settlements, construct a 26-foot high “separation barrier” that cuts deep into Palestinian territory, create a network of Israeli-only bypass roads, and generally “thin” Jerusalem of its Palestinian inhabitants. Largely obscured in U.S. politics and the media. ICAHD-USA works to educate the U.S. public about the realities of the Israeli Occupation.

Living Rivers PO Box 466 Moab UT 84532 http://livingrivers.org

From the Rocky Mountains through seven states and Mexico, the Colorado River is the artery of the desert southwest. Its canyons, ecology and heritage render an international treasure. However, ignorance, greed and complacency are robbing the Colorado of its ability to sustain life. Living Rivers empowers a movement to instill a new ethic of achieving ecological restoration, balanced with meeting human needs. They work to: restore inundated river canyons, wetlands and the delta and repeal the antiquated laws which represent the river’s death sentence.

Los Alamos Study Group 2901 Summit Pl. NE Albuquerque, NM 87106 http://www.lasg.org/contact.htm

Since 1989, the Los Alamos Study Group community—our staff and board, volunteers, interns, and supporters—has consistently provided vital leadership on nuclear disarmament and related issues. Their work includes research and scholarship , education of decisionmakers, providing an information clearinghouse for journalists, organizing, litigating, and advertising, with particular emphasis on the education and training of young activists and scholars.

Middle East Children’s Alliance 1101 Eighth Street, Suite 100 Berkeley, CA 94710 US https://www.mecaforpeace.org

The Middle East Children’s Alliance is a non-profit organization working for the rights of children in the Middle East by sending humanitarian aid, supporting projects for children and educating North American and international communities about the effects of the US foreign policy on children in the region.

Migrant Justice 294 N. Winooski Ave, Ste. 130, Burlington, VT, 05401 http://migrantjustice.net

The seeds of Migrant Justice were planted in 2009 after young dairy worker José Obeth Santiz Cruz was pulled into a mechanized gutter scraper and was strangled to death by his own clothing. This tragedy inspired the production of the documentary film Silenced Voices and led to the formation of a solidarity collective organizing to partner with farmworkers to gather the community to share food, discuss community problems, envision solutions and take collective action.

Nevada Desert Experience 1420 W Bartlett Ave Las Vegas, Nevada 89106-2226 http://www.nevadadesertexperience.org

Fighting drones at Creech Air Base, nuclear weapons testing at the Nevada Test Site and radioactive waste disposal at Yucca Mountain, Nevada Desert Experience is trying to keep the Great Basin from becoming a national sacrifice zone for the Nuclear-Military-Industrial Complex.

Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign 174 W. Diamond St. Philadelphia, PA 19122 http://economichumanrights.org/

The Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign is building a movement that unites the poor across color lines. Poverty afflicts Americans of all colors. Daily more and more of us are downsized and impoverished. We share a common interest in uniting against the prevailing conditions and around our vision of a society where we all have the right to health care, housing, living wage jobs, and access to quality primary, secondary, and higher education.

Solitary Watch Community Futures Collective: Attn. Solitary Watch 221 Idora Ave., Vallejo, CA 94591. http://solitarywatch.com

While polls show that a decisive majority of Americans oppose the use of torture under any circumstances, even on foreign terrorism suspects, the conditions in U.S. prisons and jails, which at times transgress the boundaries of humane treatment, have produced little outcry. The widespread practice of solitary confinement, in particular, has received scant media attention, and has yet to find a firm place in the public discourse or on political platforms. Solitary Watch is a web-based project that brings the widespread use of solitary confinement out of the shadows and into the light of the public square. Their mission is to provide the public—as well as practicing attorneys, legal scholars, law enforcement and corrections officers, policymakers, educators, advocates, people in prison and their families—with the first centralized source of unfolding news, original reporting, firsthand accounts, and background research on solitary confinement in the United States.

Stand With Standing Rock Standing Rock Sioux Tribe #1 N. Standing Rock Avenue Fort Yates, ND 58538 http://standwithstandingrock.net/donate/

The battle at Standing Rock isn’t over. In fact, it’s just beginning.

Voices For Creative Nonviolence 1249 W. Argyle St. #2 Chicago, Illinois 60640 773-878-3815 http://vcnv.org/

Since Obama’s election, the anti-war movement in the United States has withered away, even as the wars and interventions have expanded with rising body counts. Yet one group has never wavered. You’ll find activists with Voices for Creative Nonviolence leading protests at the White House, blocking the entry to Drone Operational Centers, occupying nuclear missile silos, educating inside US prisons, and organizing for peace inside war zones, from Afghanistan to Syria. Most crucially, Voices for Creative Nonviolence recognizes that war is waged by many means. Almost alone among US anti-war groups, Voices For Creative Nonviolence is mounting a resistance to the economic war machine.

#activism #engagement #groups #environmental #peace #social justice #get involved

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