Crime Statistics for previous years:
Thanks to Anonymous Burner who sent this in on January 1st – not a day I am usually reading much email, so it slipped through the cracks. Thank you for the reminder, and thanks to One Who Wants To Know for asking if I’d run out of things to complain about – sometimes a bit of motivation helps, particularly in these dark days of Facebook shadow-banning.
Pershing County are not the biggest fans of Burning Man, as you will see from the Lovelock Review-Miner article below. A quarter of the county’s population are incarcerated in the correctional facility, including (until just recently) OJ “The Juice” Simpson.
Most of the time, Pershing County is a safe place with a low crime rate. But in August and September, their crime rate spikes to amongst the worst in the country. Burners make the whole County look bad. Burners might think “well they should be happy to have us, we are great for the economy” but this is only true for Washoe County, where Reno is.
We used to be able to read about arrests at Burning Man in the Reno Gazette-Journal, but ever since they appointed Jenny Kane (of Chocotaco scoop fame) as their dedicated Burning Man beat reporter, stories like this seem to get hushed up.
Pershing County smashed through all previous records with a whopping 179 arrests in August and September 2017. Other than FOIA, there is no way to tell how many were for Burners, but based on the average for the remaining months of 4.9 we can safely assume it is 97%.
What sort of things were Burners getting up to? 1 forcible rape, 2 larceny (theft), 6 arson…the rest drugs – selling them, or possessing hard drugs. The Sheriff says they have confiscated guns from within Black Rock City and are concerned that the event organizers are not able to prevent guns coming in.
Looks pretty safe for stoners, you’re more likely to get a citation than an arrest. Be careful, though: even though marijuana is legal in Nevada, Burning Man takes place on Federal land – and we all know how much Attorney General Jeff “Smoke” Sessions loves weed.
The Cannabist: Can You Bring Weed To Burning Man?
Pershing County wants more money to cover the costs, which they incur longer than just for the period the gates are open. In a case of Allen vs Allen, BMorg says “$182,221 is enough” – ie, stick it where the sun don’t shine, Sheriff!
Burning Man’s spin-meisters made the argument that the legalization of weed would lead to reduced costs for the Pershing County’s Sheriffs Office. Looks like the cops responded with a record number of arrests – almost quadruple last year’s record setting 46, which was up 600% on the year before.
Once again, BMorg tries to pinch pennies from the LEOs, and the LEOs take it out on the Burners. A familiar pattern by now in this decade-long dispute.
From the Lovelock Review Monitor, story by Debra Reid (emphasis ours):
BLM requests public input on Burning Man
Thursday, December 28, 2017 1:00 AM
Pershing County residents and other concerned citizens are reminded that January 15, 2018 is the Bureau of Land Management’s deadline for public comment on the Burning Man festival.
The BLM must gather public input as it prepares an Environmental Impact Statement on the event. The EIS is required before the agency can issue another ten year Special Recreation Permit for the festival in the spring of 2019. The current SRP expires after the 2018 festival.
Black Rock City LLC, organizer of the event, is requesting that the new SRP allow expansions beyond the current maximum of 70,000 paid participants to a maximum population from 80,000 to 100,000 people on the playa, including ticket-holders, staff, contractors and volunteers.
To accommodate the larger crowd, BRC is also asking the BLM to expand the closure area. Some of the festival’s main attractions are the burning of massive structures, including a giant wooden effigy during the climax of the event. One Burning Man participant died at the 2017 event after he broke through multiple lines of security and leaped into the conflagration.
Nudity and drugs are not uncommon, making the event controversial in a conservative, rural county. Urban areas in Washoe and Lyon County benefit economically from the event while Pershing County supplies much of the law enforcement, incarceration and other services.
The 2013 Comprehensive Festival Ordinance Waiver, Law Enforcement and Settlement Agreement between BRC and Pershing County limits BRC’s costs for county services according to event attendance and integrated versus separate law enforcement command.
The ten-year agreement has become an ongoing source of contention between county law enforcement and festival officials. Even as the festival expands in 2019 and beyond, law enforcement payments to the county are restricted until the agreement expires in 2023.
Pershing County Sheriff Jerry Allen contends that the festival requires year-round attention and much more than eight days of county law enforcement services due to accidents and crime that occur during the weeks of set up, tear down and clean up before and after the event.
BRC officials respond that law enforcement activities outside the eight day festival are not included in the settlement agreement and are part of the normal costs of county government.
BRC has refused to pay an invoice for $39,959.20 submitted to the county by Sheriff Allen for county law enforcement costs due to activities before and after the 2016 Burning Man event. BRC General Counsel Raymond Allen argued that those expenses were covered in a total payment to the county of $243,964.92, per the settlement agreement.
“The decision to allocate $182,221.83 to the Sheriff out of the total amount that BRC paid to the County in 2016 was an exercise of the County’s sole and absolute discretion under Section 4.1 of the Agreement and was presumably based on what the Commissioners determined to be the cost of supplying ‘reasonable law enforcement services needed’ for the 2016 event,” Ray Allen stated in a letter to the county. “If the Sheriff’s Office disagreed with the Commission and decided to spend more than the amount that was allocated by the Commission, that decision had no effect whatsoever on BRC’s payment obligations under the Agreement.”
Sheriff Allen and other county law enforcement officials say they have confiscated guns inside the festival and question the ability of BRC’s gatekeepers to keep weapons out of the event.
Now that recreational marijuana is legal in Nevada, that should reduce citations issued at the event, Burning Man Political Affairs Manager Marnee Benson said in a letter to the county.
“In 2016, 62 of the 152 PCSO citations issued in connection with the Burning Man event were for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana,” Benson stated in a February 1, 2017 letter.
“That is to say, 41 percent of Pershing’s citations were issued for conduct that is now legal in Nevada. We expect this will free up a significant amount of time and budget for PCSO in 2017.” [the arrest statistics for 2017 indicate otherwise – Ed.]
In his written comments on the event submitted to the BLM, Lovelock resident David Skelton said if Burning Man expands, it will be an increasing burden on Pershing County taxpayers.
“As Burning Man provides no economic benefit to Pershing County, to the contrary, if Burning Man left Pershing County and went elsewhere, there would then be an economic benefit, due to cost reduction,” Skelton said. “There are multiple locations the event can be held on either public or private lands outside of Pershing County.”
Written comments on the Burning Man SRP should be emailed by Jan. 15, 2018 to blm_nv_burningmaneis@blm.gov or mailed to the following address:
Attention: Burning Man Event SRP EIS
BLM Winnemucca District Office, 5100 E. Winnemucca Blvd., Winnemucca, NV 89445.
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“According to a recent tax return, Harvey was paid about $200,000 a year, but he still kept the rent-controlled apartment on Alamo Square, where he lived alone.” Not exactly living the elite lifestyle. I guess when you get to do what you love every day, money just isn’t that important.
It is solely two days after Larry passed, and you desire to argue. This is horrible news, all other items are minor in due of this news. In despite of major disagreements in regards of their managing of Burning Man, and lobbying for change to respect the awesome artists, volunteers, and Burner community, these items are minor, at present. We wish his friends, and his loved ones, peace in regards of his passing. RIP Larry.
In response to his comment, people might view the comments, below, and view the linked articles, and comments. My belief is a reporter, or a Burner, might pen an article upon the payments for the Burning Man trademarks due within the near future, or of their hiding of these payments, when it might be appropriate to pen an article in this manner. Jenny Kane, of the Reno Gazette Journal, and USA Today, penned, within her article upon Larry passing a discussion with Jerry James, whom conversed with Larry the day prior of the stroke, for the first time in twelve years. That was the time of the lawsuits in regards of the valuable Burning Man trademarks within 2007.
Joe Biden — ‘Don’t tell me what you value, show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.’
In these regards, my belief is it would be awesome might the remaining members of the BMOrg value the artists, and the DPW laborers.
RIP Larry. My belief is of the robot man should have a hat this burn, in addendum of a neon smiley face.
Goodbye, Larry.
Burning Man is trying to expand the number of people that can experience the event. They are negotiating that with the BLM. That will require a massive upgrade of the current infrastructure which is bending under the weight of the current population. That will require money. As you point out, the extra money is in the bank, not in the pockets of the founders. That money is there to fund expansion. They are being responsible. The founders don’t even have access to that money if they wanted it. The founders have always said the intellectual property will be gifted to the community once they are convinced the board will not try to exploit it for financial gain. The founders have had the opportunity to exploit it for years now. How many Burning Man tee shirts have you purchased from the founders? If they are in it for the money, why are they refusing to take advantage of the opportunity to cash in. As for Fly Ranch, have you bothered to tour the ranch? If you had you would know it is not a suitable place to hold an event of 100k people. I believe they did hold a much smaller event years ago at a place nearer to Fly Ranch. That is not what the event is now.
Upon the big meeting in San Francisco on 1 April 2011, in regards of the change of Burning Man from a LLC to a 501(c)3, Larry Harvey stated, in the manner reported by @sfscribe, the Burning Man reporter, and editor, of the prior San Francisco Bay Guardian newspaper, upon their plan to sell the Burning Man trademarks and other IP of the history of Burning Man to the Burning Man Project:
‘In May, he said the LLC will file papers to create the nonprofit, which will initially be run by the current board members and at least seven more directors selected by that board. In about three years, depending on how the new nonprofit forms up, the LLC will turn over management of Burning Man, while holding onto control of the logos and trademarks for another three years after that, Harvey said. And that’s when the six board members will officially cash out.’
They started their Decommodification LLC, purposed to own the valuable trademarks and other IP of the history of Burning Man, and, in due of their prior comments in regards of these matters, it in now of the time of when the six of them are to sell the valuable trademarks, and other IP, to the Burning Man Project. Within their 2016 Afterburn Report, they hid the 2016 ledger from Burners in due of their excuse of it was not fully audited, but my belief is, at present, the 2016, and 2017 ledgers were outside audited within 2018 January, in due of they are of the need of an outside audit within each two years.
The Burning Man Project bylaws state any person might walk into the Burning Man Project headquarters on Alabama Street, purposed to view, and copy, the minutes of the Burning Man Project board, including of numerous other items included within the minutes. A prior commenter upon this blog, from whom you, perchance, might be quoting your Kool Aid rubbish, stated the financial statements are available at the Burning Man headquarters, in the same manner, in due of California 501(c)3 law. My belief is the details in regards of the Burning Man Project buying of the Burning Man trademarks, and other IP of the history of Burning Man, is stated in the manner of a liability, or payment, upon the 2017 ledger, and, perchance, upon the minutes of the Burning Man Project board.
Any Burner, reporter, or donor doing due diligence prior of a donation, or, perchance, any of the numerous pissed DPW workers, or pissed artists, in due of the horrible manner of which Burning Man treats them, might walk into the Burning Man Project headquarters purposed to gain this information upon their second cashout, and report upon these matters. Guest posts are most welcome on burners.me, and, in addendum, numerous newspapers, magazines, and websites, whom have priorly reported upon Burning Man might do so.
The IP transfer is supposed to happen this year, but we won’t see any of this years financial information until at least 2020. Based on past performance, I expect the details to be obfuscated even then.
Thank you, burnersxxx, they do go to great effort to hide their conflicts of interests, and attempt to delay, and obfuscate, the details as much as they might.
There was never an intention for the LLC to “sell” the intellectual property to Burning Man. The purpose of forming the LLC was to make sure there was no intention by the board to exploit the intellectual property for profit. Once the founders are satisfied that is the case, the intention is to gift the IP to the Burning Man project. Obviously the founders currently have the right to exploit the IP for profit now and have never done so. What evidence is there that they intend to profit off of it now?
Most important, it does not appear Larry is doing well, this is horrible news, all other items are minor in due of this news. In despite of major disagreements in regards of their managing of Burning Man, and lobbying for change to respect the awesome artists, volunteers, and Burner community, these items are minor, at present. We wish him, his friends, and his loved ones, peace in regards of the difficulties.
In regards of the comment,
Yet Harvey and the other board members, such as Michael Mikel and Marian Goodell, insist that the board plays an important role in shepherding the event and the culture that has grown up around it, which is why they plan on waiting three years to turn control of the event over to the new nonprofit, the Burning Man Project, and another three years after that until they liquidate their ownership of the name and associated trademarks and are paid for their value.
They, later, changed the ‘liquidate their ownership of the name and associated trademarks and are paid for their value’ to five years after the Burning Man Project became in control of the event. This is of the meaning of they are to be paid for the trademarks, and other IP of the history of Burning Man, at the end of 2018, or at the start of 2019.
Thank you for your kind words about Larry. They had the right to make $1.7 million each when they moved to the non-profit. They each took $49,000. I hope no one ever unfairly suspects you the way you unfairly judge them.
If they were all as altruistic as you say, there would be no need to pretend they were becoming more transparent while actually reducing the amount of financial information they share. Surely you do not believe that by 2018 it is impossible for them to get audited 2015 accounts? A Balanced Perspective has done a very good job of examining the missing tens of millions.
As for unfair judging, you are obviously new to this site, and the consequences of creating it.
You keep saying that and it has to be a lie. A non-profit by definition has open books.
Thank you, burnersxxx. Might you have noticed the similarity of his arguements to the arguements of a prior commenter, prior of his assimilation of the Official Unofficial Burning Man Group for the Borg? It must be most difficult of the Borg to gain donations when they hide the cash they are taking towards their pockets, from donors of cash, stock, art, labour, and entertainment towards their ticket buyers. I must thank him for permitting the knowledge of their second cashout, of their priorly stated payment, from the Burning Man Project, to the six of them, to become known by tens of thousands of more people, in due in reply towards his comments. By appearances, in due of your article, burnersxxx, the Reno Gazette Journal removed Burning Man from their menu, and my belief is people are querying the BMOrg in regards of the payments for their privately owned Burning Man trademarks, and other IP of the history of Burning Man.
Kudos to the artists with their art at the Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C., in due of curator Nora Atkinson, and the awesome artists listed within this article. This article does not state the usual rubbish of how good it is that Burning Man does not pay the costs of the artists from their precious cash. Might any person not agree, you are most welcome to donate to the BMOrg Click and Pledge towards the costs of the 2018 Temple.
179 arrests is .29% of 60,000. That’s a pretty fucking good ratio.
It’s not, ‘Black Rock City’, it’s now, ‘Rocks from African Descent City’. Stop being racist, cis scum.
https://res.cloudinary.com/teepublic/image/private/s–MXQKdfau–/t_Preview/b_rgb:191919,c_limit,f_jpg,h_630,q_90,w_630/v1514861682/production/designs/2245498_1.jpg
It is a shame that many of the police view Burners solely as targets, of both the Pershing County Sheriff Deputies, and of the BLM Rangers. Most Burners are of the belief they have white privilege, but, in Black Rock City, and, in particular, on Gate Road near to Greeters, and near to the crowds at the 10:00 and 2:00 sound camps, white Burners have no more privilege than black people in Ferguson, Missouri, most especially in due of a sheriff whose beliefs are most similar to sheriffs within the U.S. South of the 1950s and 1960s.
In regards to the chart on Sales (drugs), I am curious as to which drug was the 105 within August, and the 46 within September. Might it have been, in actuality, possession of marijuana of higher than one ounce, of which the police termed it for sale in due of the amount, most especially upon Gate Road, of which it is easy peasy for the police dogs to smell the marijuana within the stops of vehicles the police desire to target? Many people know of what is occurring, my belief is the Borg, and their social media crew, must permit discussion upon this issue, purposed for Burners to protect themselves from being targeted by the police for arrest. Might any Burner desire to comment with the information upon what, in actuality, is occurring?
In regards of the payments to Pershing County and their police, within the contract is Burning Man is to pay Pershing County the costs of the police, their court, and their prison for ten, or fifteen, specific crimes, in addendum of the $243,964.92 paid to Pershing County. My belief is, thusly, the police are arresting Burners, in place of solely a citation and a plea bargain for littering for near to $700, in due of the bigger cash payments to them and their mates in Pershing County.
Thanks ABP, I agree, the incentives are skewed against Burners – and for what? $50k? For the sake of just 50 Commodification Camp tickets, BMorg increases the risk for the 90%+ of Burners who take illegal drugs at Burning Man.
How exactly is bmorg doing that? You think if the org gave into the sheriff’s extortion he wouldn’t come back for more. How many of those arrests actually improve public safety as opposed to promoting a conservative agenda. How mush money would it cost the county if all they worried about at Burning Man was public safety and violent crime. Giving into these extortionists is what would put the community in danger.
The same situation has been going on for years. There is plenty BMorg could do, including moving the event to the $7 million ranch they were just gifted. Or just shut up and give the Sheriff another couple of hundred grand. They have increased ticket prices to $1200 and revenues to more than $40 million, why shouldn’t the local authorities taste some of that? Pay The Man the money and let the Burners party in peace.
Burning Man does not have an extra couple hundred grand lying around. No one is getting rich off of Burning Man. You tried for years to prove that and failed, even once the figures were all publicly available. Turns out it cost s shit ton of money to create the infrastructure for a city of 80,000 people. Who knew. Paying off the sheriff for a service we don’t need will only encourage him to continue his extortion and put more Burners at risk. Fly Ranch is not a suitable place to hold the event and was never intended to be a place for the event to take place. The playa is public land intended to be put to public use. We are the public and we use the land responsibly with care to create something beautiful.
You are outing yourself as a complete liar, like most of the Burning Man organization you seem to represent. As you point out, we have publicly available figures now. The most recent available information shows that BMorg has $8.5 million cash sitting in the bank, and added $1.5 million to their stack between 2015 and 2016.
https://burnersxxx.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/screenshot-2018-03-29-11-05-46.png
So $200k to pay off the cops is nothing to them.
Your statement that “Fly Ranch is not a suitable place to hold the event” is also false, since that has already happened.
He might be correct in regards of Burning Man does not have an extra couple hundred grand lying around, after the Burning Man Project buys the Burning Man trademarks, and other IP of the history of Burning Man, from the six BMOrg members, my belief is we should learn of this in the near future. That might be the rationale of why they pay jack shit from their near to $40 million of ticket revenues towards the costs of the artists, and the rationale of why they pay the DPW workers whom build the city, and clean the playa, jack shit.
They even desire the Burning Man community to donate $143,600 dollars, towards the Burning Man Project, to construct the 2018 temple in due of they do not desire to pay the costs of the 2018 temple from their precious cash.
You’re right ABP, the coffers may have been looted – or set aside for a planned looting.
Burning Man is trying to expand the number of people that can experience the event. They are negotiating that with the BLM. That will require a massive upgrade of the current infrastructure which is bending under the weight of the current population. That will require money. As you point out, the extra money is in the bank, not in the pockets of the founders. That money is there to fund expansion. They are being responsible. The founders don’t even have access to that money if they wanted it. The founders have always said the intellectual property will be gifted to the community once they are convinced the board will not try to exploit it for financial gain. The founders have had the opportunity to exploit it for years now. How many Burning Man tee shirts have you purchased from the founders? If they are in it for the money, why are they refusing to take advantage of the opportunity to cash in. As for Fly Ranch, have you bothered to tour the ranch? If you had you would know it is not a suitable place to hold an event of 100k people. I believe they did hold a much smaller event years ago at a place nearer to Fly Ranch. That is not what the event is now.
https://burnersxxx.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/img_9544.jpg
No capital is required to expand the population. All the equipment is rented, the workers are volunteers.
The purpose of the Burning Man Project is Social Engineering, not financial gain.
Sneaky. You showed your hand at the end there. “The purpose of the Burning Man project is not financial gain”. In other words you’ve been saying for years people were getting rich off of Burning Man and now that the world can see you are full of shit, you change your tune.
“The purpose is social engineering”. Well no duh! What gave it away? All those thousands of people saying they go to Burning Man so they can learn how to change the world, bring the principles into everyday life. Did you think this was some kind of secret? All counter-cultures exist to change the world as they see it.
Try to keep up, troll. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlCMRB0IWgA
In case you have issues with math and finance (surprising) it takes capital to rent stuff. If you have more people you have to rent more stuff. More stuff costs more money. I know that sounds terribly complicated.