Climate Protesters in Nevada

[dogmush]

Apparently some of those road blocking environmental hippies did their road block thing on the road to Burning Man this weekend, and the Park Rangers were having none of it.

https://twitter.com/MichelleLhooq/status/1695952716915450301?s=20

I will admit to conflicted feelings on this. 

On one hand that ranger waiving his sidearm around and screaming in "Command Voice" while his tac team LARPer buddy provides overwatch is everything that I find abhorrent about the current US Law Enforcement culture. Specifically the gun.  There was zero credible threat from those hippies.

On the other hand that girl crying at the end was fricking hilarious, as were the expression on the face of the girl chained to the trailer as that truck just pushed through.  Sad hippies make me smile.

[K Frame]

They didn't glue their hands to the pavement?

Hum, maybe they do have some brains after all. Nothing says smurt like gluing your hand to a pavement that can hit 150 deg. F in the full desert sun.

[WLJ]

Yeah, zero reason for him to pull his gun out like that.

[K Frame]

Now that I've watched it... same here. Conflicted feelings. The ranger was more than a bit out of control.

[Ben]

Overall hilarious. A couple of points of interest:

1) Yeah, a park ranger doing command voice is a crack up. My understanding is that park rangers are one of the groups that gets teased a lot at FLETC, so they like to jump at chances to show their authoritah.

2) I don't know a lot about Burning Man, but I was thinking it was heavily weighted toward the hippie element, so other hippies protesting the event is kinda funny too.

EDIT: Oh, wait. I was thinking NPS Rangers, but there's none there. That's probably BLM LE? They probably get picked on at FLETC too though. 

[WLJ]

[HankB]

Drawing the sidearm (it didn't look like a taser) wasn't necessary when pepper spray would have sufficed.

Still good to see they weren't ordered to "stand down."

[RocketMan]

They were rangers for the Pyramid Lake recreational area.  Actually the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Police Department.  I suspect they have somewhat less tolerance toward hippie types.  And maybe less tolerance for non-tribal members in general.

[Angel Eyes]

EDIT: Oh, wait. I was thinking NPS Rangers, but there's none there. That's probably BLM LE? They probably get picked on at FLETC too though. 

From the replies on X, they were tribal rangers, probably Paiute.

[dogmush]

https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/status/1696143496829423836?s=20

Some more video.
Also some more of my thoughts, in no particular order:

Every Tribal cop I've ever met was a bully and bad cop, nothing I see here makes me change my mind.

If they were actually on Tribal Land, those protesters are about to find out why they're called "Indian Nations", and that they have their own set of laws that don't always mesh with US expectations.

I bet that was some hot ass pavement to have to push your face against.

If you use bad assumptions to *expletive deleted*ck Around, you might not enjoy what you Find Out

Still no call for firearms to be drawn.  They could have just had Meal Team Six (seen at 1:42) tackle them

Crying hippies still make me laugh.

[HankB]

From the replies on X, they were tribal rangers, probably Paiute.

So it was hippies vs. Injuns on the warpath . . . 

[BobR]

Right now I believe the FAFO fuse is very, very short for that department. Probably a lot of emotion.

https://news3lv.com/news/local/pyramid-lake-officer-killed-in-line-of-duty-after-struck-by-car

"Every Tribal cop I've ever met was a bully and bad cop, nothing I see here makes me change my mind."

When I worked on the Blackfeet Nation in Northern Montana the tribal police force was disbanded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs because of corruption, etc and they brought in BIA Police from the Crow Reservation in Montana. Blackfeet and Crow relations run along the lines of historical mortal enemies. We saw a lot of people they arrested in the ER and quite a few of them for injuries they sustained in policing the Rez. It's a thankless job no matter where it is.

bob

eta: I have it on pretty good authority from locals up there that anything Burningman or burners are pretty much hated universally in the general area by the locals.

[BobR]

The full video is up now. As you can imagine the language is NSFW.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8fDM60MS84

bob

[WLJ]

But I though Native Americans were totally peaceful and in total harmony with the environment thus would have sided with the protesters.

[Hawkmoon]

On the other hand that girl crying at the end was fricking hilarious, as were the expression on the face of the girl chained to the trailer as that truck just pushed through.  Sad hippies make me smile.

"Please! Please! Please!"

It's all fun and games ... until it isn't.

[Nick1911]

I don't think any part of that was appropriate.  Ramming the trailer created a totally unnecessary physical hazard.

Tell the protesters to dispute or be arrested for whatever crime blocking the road is.  If they don't, start making arrests.  If they resist, escalate up the force continuum.