cannabisnews.com: Quiet Prevails at Pot Festival





Quiet Prevails at Pot Festival
Posted by CN Staff on August 17, 2002 at 17:17:33 PT
By Bobbie Hanstein, Staff Writer
Source: Lewiston Sun Journal 
Inside the mood was mellow and the numbers few. Dust stirred occasionally when a car did venture up the road to Harry Brown’s farm where Hempstock XII was in full quiet swing Friday evening. Marijuana leaf-shaped signs lined the road and a faint driving beat could be heard from the band on stage down on the pasture. Visibly absent was sponsoring Maine Vocals CEO and founder Don Christen.
Bail conditions resulting from Hempstock XI’s disorderly conduct charges prevented Christen from coming to town and running his show. Cyndi Ellen O’Connor, who lives at the farm, was barbecuing chicken and corn on the cob near the gate.“The numbers are way down, but there’s a committed group that are still willing to come,” she said. “A guy came up from New Jersey with a sign that said, ‘Starks or Bust.’”The police have made that a real possibility with a greater presence in town. Lt. Dale Lancaster of the Maine State Police said there will be nearly 30 law enforcement members from various agencies including probation/parole officers, the state’s liquor enforcement, sheriff’s deputies and state troopers throughout each of day of the festival. A law enforcement command post has been set up in the Town Hall, about a quarter mile from the festival entrance.Planes are scheduled to fly over so photographs can be taken and officials can estimate the crowd size. Roadblocks along Route 43 and Route 134 into town and the entrance to Harry Brown’s farm, the site of the festival, are set up at various times throughout the day and night. Police cars parked on the side of the road, with their blue rolling lights flashing, stopped every car, asked the driver where they are going and handed out a flyer warning not to, “drive under the influence” and have a designated driver.“Don Christen said 700 campers can stay, so he will be under the ordinance’s limit (of 750),” Lancaster said.Christen has since changed the total number of campers to 600.“But everybody else has to leave the grounds and get into their cars. It’s a big public concern. We don’t want intoxicated drivers creating carnage,” Lancaster said.The only incidents so far in the four-day event came when a 30-year-old man was arrested and charged with assault after hitting a trooper with his car at a roadblock Thursday night. Steven Luze of Smithfield reportedly became enraged about having to stop at a roadblock and drove through, striking Trooper Sean Currie. Currie saw the car coming and was able move partially out of the way, but, “he received a glancing blow,” from the car, Lancaster said. He was not injured and finished his shift.Harry Brown stood in a circle of friends near the back of the stage as the band, Mustard Seed, played vigorously on to a crowd of six or seven. Brown shook, visibly upset from what he said was “police harassment.”“They come in here like they own the place,” he said. On Friday, three or four police cars drove up and served him a search warrant that allows law enforcement officers to enter the site, unannounced, at any time during the festival. David Crook, district attorney for Somerset and Kennebec counties, came too.“I never thought I’d see the day when David Crook would set foot at my door,” Brown said, getting more upset. “That disturbed me. It made me nervous.”Among the handful of sausage and trinket vendors, Aaron Fuda had planted a few handmade signs into the dry grass in front of the family van calling for the legalization of marijuana. As the next band played on, he worked a felt tip pen over a rough piece of wood to finish, “To hell with your drug laws,” sign so he could put that one up too.Fuda, a veteran of nine Hempstocks, came in support of Christen’s festival after his Fuda Fest in Norway was raided last month by heavily armed law enforcement officers after an undercover police officer reportedly purchased illegal drugs.“All I want, all we want, is marijuana legalized,” Fuda said. “The roadblocks are ridiculous. We’re being treated like terrorists.”As an unmarked blue state police car driven by Sgt. Frank Poirior slowly moved though the festival campsites a little after 6 p.m. gatekeeper Chuck Cass, in a bright red T-shirt with a big yellow “staff” across the front, said they had sold nearly all the 600 camping tickets.The weekend passes to stay all night cost $60. The rest of the attendees will pay $20 for the four hours of music that will play until 10 p.m. nightly.The show, a former shadow of the loud, all-night events that used to draw thousands to the site, will be very quiet this year, Cass said, after a judge threatened Christen with spending 25 days behind bars and paying heavy fines if he goes over the town limit of 750 people for six hours, Cass said.“We have no intention of breaking the law,” he added.Source: Lewiston Sun Journal (ME)Author: Bobbie Hanstein, Staff WriterPublished: August 17, 2002Copyright: 2002 Lewiston Sun JournalContact: letters sunjournal.comWebsite: http://www.sunjournal.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Maine Vocalshttp://www.mainevocals.org/Starks Receives Application from Hempstock http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13282.shtmlVocals Ignore Ordinance http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10383.shtmlPownal Home To Concerts Promoting Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9520.shtml 
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Comment #6 posted by VitaminT on August 19, 2002 at 11:15:04 PT
Canaman
Thanks for that link!I'm looking forward to not joining and becoming a non member of such a wonderful non organization!Really!Imagine a world without authority!
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Comment #5 posted by canaman on August 19, 2002 at 11:03:22 PT
by the way .....
These people...family...have alot of experience dealing with police and many great links.http://www.welcomehome.org/rainbow.html
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Comment #4 posted by VitaminT on August 19, 2002 at 11:01:12 PT
freddybigbee
You eloquently express the feelings I've carried around for years. When I was A kid, I was taught to trust the friendly man(or woman) in blue and to know they were looking out for our safety. But the the War on Drugs makes them seem like fanatical soldiers; Citizens become objects of suspicion. Since I wear my hair long, and/or am married to a Black woman then I'm automatically a suspect even when there is no crime to investigate. The way I've come to view cops, some of them really are fanatics maybe 5-10%. So how can I trust any of them? They all carry guns! When I see a cop, there's a 5-10% chance that he's a raving maniac with a Pistol! Not only that, he has a Police Union willing to defend him to the end right or wrong no matter what, and a Prosecuter who could give a shit if he blows my brains out!The whole system is SCREWED UP and I believe it is because of the reasons you cite: Politicians use them as tools to divide and conquer. Cops are widely distrusted by peaceful, law abiding citizens who, absent the War on Drugs, would be among their most ardent boosters!
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Comment #3 posted by canaman on August 19, 2002 at 10:45:23 PT
Video-Record these illegal police actions 
if you can. I was at a Rainbow Gathering back in the '80's and the police had a roadblock set up with dogs and all. Just as they where ready to go thru our car a truck with about 6 rainbow folks came over the hill, camera rolling. You would of thought the cops where criminals the way they packed and ran off. Expose the truth!
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on August 19, 2002 at 09:56:09 PT
freddybigbee 
Thank you for sharing your experience at Hempstock. What you said is so true. You said: As for the USA, when police become tools of the politicians rather than keepers of the peace, the country is in crisis.
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Comment #1 posted by freddybigbee on August 19, 2002 at 09:52:11 PT:
Harrassment
"Police cars parked on the side of the road, with their blue rolling lights flashing, stopped every car, asked the driver where they are going and handed out a flyer warning not to, “drive under the influence” and have a designated driver."That's putting it mildly. When the State Police officer asked me to open my trunk so he could "take a look" I told him no, I don't want you in my trunk, I have a right to privacy. He responded "Do you want me to bring the dogs over, they're right over there, I'll bring the dogs over." Then he became belligerent, loud and in my face, accusing me of being "defensive" and raising my voice. He was actually trying to incite me to do something illegal. All the while a DEA guy that looked like he wanted to kill me was glowering at me from a short distance away, looking for the slightest sign of nervousness that would probably justify a warrantless search.Suffice to say that my opinion of the Maine State Police went from excellent to poor. In the past they have always been professional, courteous, good-natured public servants. Now they have become political pawns, working to crush legitimate political dissent. In fairness to them, they were just following orders from "above." Nontheless, it will take a long time for them to re-earn the respect they lost at Hempstock this past weekend.As for the USA, when police become tools of the politicians rather than keepers of the peace, the country is in crisis.It seems like the police are maybe the biggest losers in the war on some drugs. The schedule-one lie and mj prohibition are used as a wedge between police and their community. Divide and conquer. Instead of being heroes that keep us safe from thugs, admired and loved by the cummunity, the police become a threat to decent citizens. The pols in Washington cement their grasp on power by destroying the love, peace, and harmony that our communities could enjoy without the WOSD.When will these laws change?
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