ePlaya

by **Chai Guy** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 6:05 pm

Several people have come forward on the eplaya to confess that they were busted for drugs, yet no one has come forward to confess they were one of the three people busted for sex in public. (which kind of makes you wonder what those three people were doing, and was it two couples and a one lone person, or 3 individuals, or what?). Here's your chance, we won't judge, we just want to hear the story.

The Pershing County Sheriff’s office issued nine citations to eight individuals (up from the four citations issued last year) and made five arrests. Three of the citations related to possession or use of unlawful drugs or drug paraphernalia, one for simple battery, one for destruction of private property, one for unlawful trespass, and three for fireworks violations. The arrests included three for sex acts in public, one for trespass, and one on a failure to appear warrant from the Nevada Highway Patrol.

by **Kinetic II** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 6:15 pm

Wow...out of 30,500 people and with all that went on, that's the full sheriff's blotter? Amazing.

I wonder if any of the sex arrests were related to theme camp content...I'm thinking about the Jiffy Lube incident as I type this...we all know the sheriff is a little thin skinned on some issues.

by **Chai Guy** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 7:00 pm

Well that was the Pershing County Sheriff's Blotter, here's the BLM's

Law enforcement at the event is conducted primarily by BLM and the Pershing County Sheriff’s office in cooperation with other State and county law enforcement offices. State and federal laws pertaining to illegal drug use are strictly enforced. This year BLM rangers issued a total of 177 citations and made five arrests (down 25% from last year). One of the arrests resulted in a federal grand jury indictment for distribution of ecstasy. Of the total citations, 102 were for drug related offenses (also down by 25% from 2002), 53 for violations of closure orders (down 10% from a year ago), and the remainder for miscellaneous violations.

Not sure if any of the "miscellaneous violations" were for sexual conduct.

by **Eric** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 10:48 pm

Kinetic II wrote:Wow...out of 30,500 people and with all that went on, that's the full sheriff's blotter? Amazing.

I wonder if any of the sex arrests were related to theme camp content...I'm thinking about the Jiffy Lube incident as I type this...we all know the sheriff is a little thin skinned on some issues.

The arrests happened at Space Virgins. I'm not one of the parties involved, but I'm friends with one of them, and have met the other two. I don't remember the full story, but basically they (3 gay men) were in the back room area of Space Virgins mostly naked and swapping some oral sex while straight couples near by did similar. When they left Space Virgins to go back to a tent for some "private time", they were arrested by Pershing County Sherrifs (I believe- this is from memory from a while back), told there were "photographs", driven some 2 hours away and held overnight in a cell. If I remember right the county choose not to press the charges at that time, but did not drop them. The charges were "Infamous Crimes Against Nature". Really. Months after the Supreme Court tossed laws like that out as being discriminatory.

Adrian is working on this for the Sex, Drugs and Cops issue of Piss Clear for next year, so you'll have the full story than. Really fucking annoying though- bust the gay boys for doing what straight people are doing near them as well.

It really (pun alert) sucks.

by **Patience** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 9:38 am

Damn. If you're going to get arrested, though, Infamous Crimes Against Nature is a great charge. Sounds big.

My only arrest to date is for obstruction and resisting arrest. Doesn't sound as cool. I've always wanted to get arrested for inciting a riot in a shopping mall. Someday...

by **BlueBirdPoof** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 2:05 pm

Hm. Infamous Crimes Against Nature. Petty Crimes Against Nature. High Treason Aganist Nature. Mopery Against Nature. Infamous Crimes For Nature. Misdeminors Against Nature. Infamous Crimes Against Prescriptive Grammarians. Fooling Mother Nature.

Maybe issuing citations is the way to go. . .

by **alienfry** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 2:34 pm

i'm having a hard time believing the story about the 3 people arrested from space virgins.

i just can't accept that shit like that happens.

are there any related news links? are they still dealing with the charges?

if there is something that i could do, even if it's small like writing a letter, i would.

by **Eric** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 11:25 pm

alienfry wrote:i'm having a hard time believing the story about the 3 people arrested from space virgins.

i just can't accept that shit like that happens.

are there any related news links? are they still dealing with the charges?

Doesn't matter if you accept it or not, it happens- but not _In_ Space Virgins- it happened as they left Space Virgins to go back to one of their camps.

One of the three has been a friend of mine for 3 or 4 years now, and I've met the other two. I've seen the ticket, and even went so far as to make out with two of them, just to ensure that they are really gay. (I know no bounds in my quest for journalistic excellence.) I'm not using any of their names as they haven't given me permission to do so, but will see if I can get them to post on this.

As I said earlier, Adrian is working on the story for Piss Clear next year. I have no idea if other media has the story or not- we tend to get a lot of information that doesn't get out through other sources.

I am still a newbie at BM, so you can take my word as you will, but feel free to contact Adrian if you want further verification.

by **Chai Guy** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 8:07 pm

Eric,

I certainly have no reason to doubt you, I look forward to finding out the details as they become available. I would also like to offer my support to those involved as well as a small financial contribution towards any fines or legal fees they may have or will incur. The people involved can remain anonymous, PM me if you think this would help. Thanks- Chai Guy.

by **Badger** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 8:33 pm

I would also like to offer my support to those involved as well as a small financial contribution towards any fines or legal fees they may have or will incur.

THAT just placed you in my personal Pantheon of Cool Chai-Guy.

You rock.

by **Eric** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 9:11 pm

Chai Guy wrote:I would also like to offer my support to those involved as well as a small financial contribution towards any fines or legal fees they may have or will incur.

I agree with Badger- you rock!

I don't think they plan on remaining anonymous- I just don't have their permission to post their names, and it was their arrest, not mine.

As for the state of the case- as far as I know Pershing County isn't actively pursuing the charges. Even so- the mere fact that something that could have been dealt with on playa (and was actively ignored in straight couples nearby) was blown up into an overnight jail stay for the 3 pisses the fuck out of me. Pardon the language.

(edit: fixed my crappy spelling)

by **Raheer** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 10:39 pm

Eric wrote:As for the state of the case- as far as I know Pershing County isn't actively pursuing the charges. Even so- the mere fact that something that could have been dealt with on playa (and was actively ignored in straight couples nearby) was blown up into an overnight jail stay for the 3 pisses the fuck out of me. Pardon the language.

(edit: fixed my crappy spelling)

The way I've always seen it is: Pershing County is, to quote The Hat, 'The middle of Bumfuck, Nevada'. It's a county who's largest city, at least for the fifty-one weeks each year that BRC isn't there, has a population that could easily fit inside my grade school with room to spare. It's in the middle of Conservative Country. And it's sherriff is elected.

So what does all this mean to folks like you and me? Well, it means that, even if the sherriff LIKES Burners, he's got to appear to be hard on 'them naked-ass liberal fags whats runin' our God fearin' country!' (Quote from random person at petrol station in Gresham, Oregon), or he'll never win reelection! Hence, at least in my view, (ymmv), the arrests for gay sex, but no prosecution thereof. That way, the sherriff looks tough on liberalism, but really lets us do our own thing.

Then again, I may be talking out of my butt. (Which may explain why my hemroids have been growing vocal cords as of late...).

Raheer the Analinguist[/list]

by **dragonfly Jafe** » Fri Nov 21, 2003 4:48 pm

(snip)

The way I've always seen it is: Pershing County is, to quote The Hat, 'The middle of Bumfuck, Nevada'. It's a county who's largest city, at least for the fifty-one weeks each year that BRC isn't there, has a population that could easily fit inside my grade school with room to spare. It's in the middle of Conservative Country. [i]And it's sherriff is elected.

(snip)

Too bad we could not get a BM-friendly sherrif elected in Pershing county. What are the residency requirements for voting in Pershing county? Maybe we could get a bunch of BM'ers to "move" to Pershing county for the elections - it works for college towns and Hillary.... :wink:

regards, Dragonfly Jafe

by **Chai Guy** » Fri Nov 21, 2003 5:58 pm

My speculation would be this:

A few of Pershing County's Finest are out on patrol and witness the alleged incident. Now they have probably seen a bunch of hetero stuff and were really into it (in '98 I watched a sherrif's vehicle follow a bar car and videotaping a sexual act taking place on the bar car, it was obvious they weren't conducting "surviellance", as they were laughing and shouting encouragements to the participants). So then they run across these three guys and in order to prove their own heterosexuality, bust them and haul them off to jail. I think this was a decision that was made at the "field" level by some homophobic LEO's and not the sherrif elect. I could be wrong of course, but that's my speculation.

Website · by **ICANAndIWill** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 10:07 am

But as I spent months back in the real world, the impact of the story seemed to lessen.

Eric just pointed me to this thread, and I'm more than happy to step forward as one of the three participants in the fabulously named "Infamous Crimes against Nature".

All three of us were outraged that we would be targeted at burning man, of all places, for "committing" actions that we were sure had been replicated all over the the camp over the course of the week.

The three of us met by intoxicated coincidence on the mattress within space virgins and continued to play there for half an hour.. eventually naked and doing several things short of copulating. We eventually broke to get some water (see, true playa story!) and, fully re-dressed, went outside to get unexpectedly redressed.

As Chai Guy just speculated, so did we.. without ever knowing exactly how and why the arresting officer came to possess pictures documenting "public inappropriateness" (we were never shown the pictures) we assume that some individual, either that officer or an offended burner, decided that what we were doing was somehow worse than all the other thigns that are accepted at burning man.

Luckily for us, the next morning (who thought I would spend 1/4 of my BM time in jail?) the judge ruled that there was not enough probable cause for an immediate trial, so we were returned to the camp. Otherwise we might have spent thrusday night through tuesday morning (it was labor day monday!) simply waiting for a preliminary trial. I think the judge, and probably several of the assisting officers and sheriff staff, realized what shaky grounds we were arrested on, however we probably had to go through due process rather than immediately releasing us and poitning out how inappropriate our arrest was.

We have not heard any further from Pershing County, which means a) probably no followup will ever happen from them b) I have no documented evidence of my arrest (Eric actually hasn't seen a ticket as we were never given one to keep. I have the toothbrush & comb from jail and my word as proof.)

And as for those who doubt this situation could exist at burning man.. everyone who hears about our arrest has the same response. Kind of sucks when you think you are acting reasonably within the community you are living in and find out that others are willing to ignore those standards and toss you in jail overnight.

Ever since returning, the only fight we have hoped to fight was to follow up with those who enabled the arrest and do what we could to make sure that Burning Man wasn't a place that would target people, especially homos like us, for behaviour that is tacitly supported by the standards of the community.

by **blyslv** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 10:53 am

Chai Guy wrote:...
So then they run across these three guys and in order to prove their own heterosexuality, bust them and haul them off to jail.

Or maybe they were hoping for some quality one on one time?

by **jbelson** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 7:44 pm

The suprising thing is that this happened in a state with legalized prostitution. You would think that Nevada was a little more liberal. Drugs, understandalbe. But a blow job? Come on.

by **dj big E** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 10:12 am

Just out of curiosity lmao were the boys put in the same cell :twisted:

? and by the way prostitution is legal in all counties in nevada but clark county which is were las vegas and laughlin arewere pushing for it since theres more prostitution in our county done illegally and tax free than all the other counties combined.Lately it seems that cops as a whole are willing to overstep theyre legal boundries in general i am in 2 count them 2 court cases against the las vegas metro police department.Were they violated my civil wrights hopefully the judges will do theyre job and abide by the laws of nevada and the constitution.Anyways back 2 you guys i would like a little more details such as the dimeanor of the police,were brc rangers or anyone from brc made aware of this as it was going on if so what were theyre actions etc.I want the details lmao is it illegal to recieve oral in public weather bi or hetro because i witnessed i would guestamate about 1000 acts lmao sex on the playa was everywhere this year lmao . cya on the playa dj big "E"

by **ecliptic** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 11:50 am

Hey Big E, good luck with your court cases, Lmao.

by **pan78** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 6:16 pm

My name is Nickolaus and I, like Will, just got the word of this thread, and yes, its all true. I think about all of the main points have been covered.(Thanxs Eric and Will) We were NOT arrested in the act. We were (HARD)LY in public.We have also not been prosecuted and I believe they said they had 90 days to do so. As bad as I want the paper that says Infamous Crime Against Nature on it, I have been waiting to contact them until after that time (which will be this week I believe)...Betwixt the three of us we've contacted Lambda Defense, local human rights groups and the ACLU of OR and NV( NV never replied to me) -it seems that what we've heard is that states have some time to get homophobic and otherwise discriminatory charges off the books. We had also heard that if we were to challenge this in court we could possibly face other charges as what we did could be (mis)interpreted to fit other charges. However we are not going to court and I was pretty sure of that after we left- I doesnt make the experience any less demeaning or less violating.
Couple more things:
****If anyone has any insight as to whether or not this arrest would come up on a criminal hhistory check or if you can even have something like this expunged-not being prosectuted-I(&we) would really appreciate any information( please be sure of any info).
*** everyone who heard about this, especially long-time burners, has been outraged and in disbelief-us too. That it happenned at all is terrible. That it happenned at BM, what is thought of as a true safe place for freaks, is really astounding. I feel like this is something that BM should take some official interest in, but despite several emails we've been given the run around and ignored, and that sucks. I am really looking forward to Piss Clear's coverage on the topic and trying to find ways for others to avoid such situations-if they can be avoided.

***Thanks for entertaining my rant***
Chai guy, Thanks thats really sweet.

by **pan78** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 6:32 pm

Hey Big E
as far as I know BRC Rangers were not made aware. As it was happenning I made a very big deal and made it very clear to all around that we didnt know what we were being arrested for- They didnt tell us until right as they were loading us in the padywagon, when they told us they ad pictures :shock:

. Thier demeanor was pretty calm. We still dont know if the cop in the Metallica Tshirt saw us or if some one inside Space Virgins complained. Good luck to you in your legal pursuits.
By the way, lmao means what?

by **Badger** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 7:00 pm

If anyone has any insight as to whether or not this arrest would come up on a criminal hhistory check or if you can even have something like this expunged-not being prosectuted-I(&we) would really appreciate any information( please be sure of any info).

Just for piece of mind I'd contact Lambda again and ask if a conviction in Nevada might possibly result in your name(s) being entered into any sort of database that suggests sex offender.

by **Eric** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 10:38 pm

ICANAndIWill wrote:b) I have no documented evidence of my arrest (Eric actually hasn't seen a ticket as we were never given one to keep. I have the toothbrush & comb from jail and my word as proof.)

oop.
me bad.
And I would swear I wasn't on mind-altering subsances that day.

Further proof of why the police like to interview witnesses right away. I heard about the ticket & I could swear on a naked boy that I had seen it.

Welcome to the board darlin'!

ePlaya

Who got a ticket for sex in public?

Who got a ticket for sex in public?

disgusting

Re: disgusting

Not embarrassed to reply

hmmmmmmmm

I.C.A.N. and I did

Shock and Awe

Re: Not embarrassed to reply

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