Cosmic Iguana - Voice of the Evil Doers

IGUANA EXCLUSIVE - BREAKING: More than a dozen Forest Service rangers fired rubber bullets and pepper spray hitting some 30 men, women and children at the Rainbow Gathering on Thursday in Big Sandy, Wyoming, including a six year old girl, sources told the Iguana.

Conflicting reports indicate that the Forest Service apparently fired the bullets when a large number of people responding to a rumor of "fire" rapidly approached a group of officers arresting a woman for drugs. Many of the people were shot in the back by the Forest Service as they turned to head off those still approaching. Contrary to published reports, several witnesses claim that no sticks or rocks were thrown at the Forest Service. The Jackson paper:

U.S. Forest Service officers pointed weapons at children and fired rubber bullets and pepper spray balls at Rainbow Family members while making arrests Thursday evening, according to witnesses.

"They were so violent, like dogs," Robert Parker told reporter Deborah Stevens of the libertarian-oriented, Round Rock, Texas-based We the People Radio Network [www.wtprn.com] after the incident.

"People yelled at them, 'You're shooting children,'" Parker said during an interview on the network's "Rule of Law Show."... [*]

The confrontation, which occurred just before dinner time at the children's camp followed days of harassment by Forest Service special units, numbering 15-20 armed officers which penetrated deep into the National Forest to give citations for such things as failure to signal and obscured license plates on the single lane dirt roads.

The annual Rainbow Gathering espouses a philosophy of non-violence and ecological awareness, but is seen as drug-using hippies by the Forest Service. The ACLU announced today it is planning an investigation [*].