BM sold us out to the cops?
The reality is that the cops finally decided we were a source of revenue. Burning Man Inc. has never been allowed to keep cops off the site. Drugs and various forms of indecent exposure (outside strip clubs), including peeing on the playa, are still illegal in the U.S.
It is just a matter of etiquette that they've usually left us alone.
One of the few local busts this year resulted in a plain clothes cop inadvertently in seeing a bowl passed around in the cafe and fearing the event being witnessed and losing his job if he didn't make an arrest.

The local police forces of 2000 pretty much left in disgust after the Bureau of Land Management police force started entering people's tents, VW Busses and other "private areas" to bust folks for getting stoned. I left with the impression that legal action, on behalf of the attendees, was being taken. However, I don't know who by, so it is just hearsay.

But no one sold anyone out! People were being stupid and forgetting that Burning Man has become known for being a druggie event, even though growing numbers of folks probably never use anything illegal (onsite) because just being there is better than any drug trip.

For what we can get at an open, public event in the US, Burning Man is still the closest thing to a Temporary Autonomous Zone. Sure, it's not perfect, but what would be? Can you get even the majority of the Burning Man community to agree?

-- cthulhia (cthulhia@lse.org), September 29, 2000