---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2002 12:11:42 -0800
From: radtimes <resist@best.com>
Subject: Murder at Rainbow Farm
Murder at Rainbow Farm
http://civilliberty.about.com/library/weekly/aa011102a.htm
Dateline: 01/11/02
Grover Crosslin and Rolland Rohm are two more victims of the war on drugs
By J.D. Tuccille
According to Cass County Prosecutor Scott Teeter, the FBI and Michigan State
Police were perfectly justified when they gunned down Grover "Tom" Crosslin
and Rolland Rohm. The two hadn't actually done anything violent to merit the
attention of law enforcement authorities, but they didn't knuckle under when
police laid siege to Rainbow Farm Campground, their home. Prominent figures
in the counterculture, the two were wanted for advocating and dealing in
disfavored intoxicants. In the eyes of Teeter, the men's resistance to
police efforts to kidnap them and steal their property was enough to
legitimize a death sentence.
Rainbow Farm Campground was a well-known refuge for modern hippies and
marijuana smokers. The property was reportedly once rated by High Times
magazine as one of the nation's best places to catch a buzz.
Not surprisingly, the very characteristics that won praise from the tie-die
set also attracted the attention of America's fanatical drug warriors. Both
Crosslin and Rohm were arrested on drug charges in May and were free on bail
at the time of their deaths. The property itself was targeted for civil
forfeiture -- a variety of legalized theft by the state that has become
extremely controversial in recent years. Officials also took away Rohm's
12-year-old son and introduced him to the dubious hospitality of the foster
care system.
The standoff between the property's legitimate residents and police
apparently began when Crosslin began burning structures at the campground in
order to keep them out of government hands. He then reportedly fired on a
news helicopter that buzzed the land -- and later a police aircraft.
Crosslin was killed after visiting a neighbor's farm to get food and
supplies. He stumbled upon FBI snipers in the woods and was shot in the
ensuing confrontation.
Seemingly having concluded that his time was up, Rohm resumed burning
campground structures. He then left the main house and, in what sounds like
the sort of suicide called "death by cop," pointed a gun at police. State
police snipers obligingly killed him on the spot.
Apologists for the police will say, as did Teeter, that the officers were
only doing their jobs. Arguably, they fired only in response to actions
taken by Crosslin and Rohm.
But the police and the FBI had no right to be harassing the two men or
interfering in the peaceful if eccentric festivities at Rainbow Farm. Nor
did the authorities have any right to target the property for outright
theft. And taking Rohm's son away because of his activism on behalf of
mind-altering substances was nothing more than kidnapping. The arrests,
forfeiture proceedings, siege and killings were all done in the name of the
War on Drugs. To enforce the state's distaste for certain intoxicants, the
authorities pushed two men so far that they finally fought back.
Crosslin and Rohm may have turned despondent and violent in the end, but who
can blame them? They were defending themselves against true believers who'd
rather destroy lives than let adults get high.
The police and FBI agents on the scene may have been following orders and
enforcing the law, but those orders and laws are evil. I've said it before
and I'll say it again: people are responsible for their actions at all
times. When ordered to arrest people for engaging in peaceful activity, they
have an obligation to refuse the order. When told to lay siege to the
property of people who have caused no harm to others, they must say "no."
Grover Crosslin and Rolland Rohm were murdered. They were murdered by cops
just following orders, by lawmakers who put evil statutes on the books, and
by a mealy mouthed prosecutor named Scott Teeter who tried to excuse the
bloody mess.
As long as fanatics are permitted to wage "war" on peaceful activities, the
body count will continue to climb.
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