The tribal police rammed straight through the blockade. Photo / @MichelleLhooq
The tribal police rammed straight through the blockade. Photo / @MichelleLhooq
Dramatic video has captured the moment armed police rammed their vehicle through a blockade set up by eco-protesters outside the Burning Man festival in Nevada before arresting the protesters at gunpoint.
The protesters, from the Seven Circles activist group, had caused a line of vehicles to back up on the road to the event, a popular counter-cultural festival held annually in the Nevada desert.
Warning: Offensive language
A large trailer, festooned with signs calling to “abolish capitalism” and for a “general strike for climate”, was used to block the highway and some of the group had chained themselves to it.
Video shows irate festival-goers remonstrating with the activists, with many suggesting they were targeting the wrong event and one labelling them “assclowns”.
Some of those waiting motorists attempted to move the blockade themselves, while others in four-wheel-drive vehicles attempted to drive around it as the scene became increasingly tense.
It was then that rangers from the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal police force arrived, wasting little time before ramming their vehicle through the blockade.
One of the group was forced to the ground at gunpoint before she was straddled by one of the rangers as another ranger handcuffed her ankles.
“We have no guns at all,” one activist cries. “We’re environmental protesters.”
Protesters were arrested at gunpoint. Photo / @MichelleLhooq
The rangers informed the group that they were “trespassing on tribal land” before taking several protesters into custody.
The Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal police said in a statement that the activists were told to move before decisive action was taken.
Five activists, four Americans and one Maltese, were cited and released, police said, adding that the conduct of the ranger who drove through the blockade is under review.
Full video, offensive language warning:
The group said they targeted the festival because of the “popularisation of Burning Man among affluent people who do not live the stated values of Burning Man, resulting in the commodification of the event”, the New York Post reports.
They also said they wanted to call attention to “capitalism’s inability to address climate’s ecological breakdown” and said Burning Man’s aim of becoming carbon-negative by 2030 is “insufficient to tackle the pressing crisis”.
Videos of the incident were widely shared online, with many praising the actions of police and others describing them as brutal.
