About 400 members of the Rainbow Family threw rocks and sticks at 10 federal officers on Thursday night as they tried to arrest one member of the group at its annual gathering in western Wyoming, the U.S. Forest Service reported.
The agency said five members of the group were arrested and one officer was injured slightly.
At least 7,000 members of the Rainbow Family are camping this year on Forest Service land near Big Piney, in Sublette County. The group camps at a different place on federal lands each year around the Fourth of July holiday.
Rita Vollmer, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service, issued a statement Friday morning saying that 10 Forest Service officers were patrolling the main meadow of the Rainbow Family’s camping area on Thursday night. She said the officers apprehended one person described as being uncooperative.
As the ten officers were taking the two people out of the area, “about 400 Rainbows surrounded the squad trying to leave,” according to the statement.
“More officers were requested to assist in the main meadow area. The mob began to advance, throwing sticks and rocks at the officers. Crowd control tactics were used to keep moving through the group of Rainbows.”
Randall Kelton, who co-hosts an Austin, Texas, based radio show, says his colleague Deborah Stevens reported by satellite phone that federal officials had instigated the confrontation and that the crowd control tactics were extreme.
Stevens and Kelton host of “The Rule of Law” on the We The People Radio Network.
Rainbow members made similar complaints about the law enforcement at a gathering two years ago in the woods north of Steamboat Springs.
Law enforcement said they were not being provocative, but only maintaining public safety, law and order.
Neo-hippies have attended the “Rainbow Gathering of Living Light” on federal land each July since 1972 to stress non-violence, world peace and living in harmony with earth. This year’s gathering was scheduled to end Friday.
Friday’s events included the “Circle for Peace,” where members father in a circle and pray for world peace, according to the event’s website.
According to Friday’s government statement, five people were arrested in Thursday’s incident. One officer suffered minor injuries and was treated and released at a local hospital. A government vehicle also was damaged.
Attempts to reach Vollmer for information about the identity of those arrested and the charges against them weren’t immediately successful on Friday.
Sgt. Stephen Townsend of the Wyoming Highway Patrol said state officers have issued some misdemeanor citations to members of the Rainbow Family charging them with possession of marijuana. He said two people were arrested this week on felony drug charges for allegedly possessing 96 hits of LSD.
Ben Neary of The Associated Press and Joey Bunch of the Denver Post contributed to this report.
