Posted August 29, 2023 at 6:41 p.m. ET
Updated August 29, 2023 at 10:55 p.m. ET
This image provided by Maxar Technologies on August 29, 2022 shows the Central Camp and Ring Road Rods at the Burning Man Festival in Black Rock City, Nevada. A tribal ranger’s conduct is under review after he pointed a gun Sunday at environmental activists and plowed his patrol vehicle through their blockade on the road leading to the annual Burning Man counterculture festival in the Nevada desert. (Maxar Technologies via AP)
NIXON, NEV. — A tribal ranger’s conduct is under review after he pointed a gun Sunday at environmental activists and drove his patrol vehicle through their blockade on the road leading to the annual Burning counterculture festival Man in the Nevada desert.
The incident occurred on a stretch of rural highway on the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe’s reservation in northwest Nevada. The protest drawing attention to climate change halted traffic as participants headed to the Black Rock Desert, north of the reservation, for the opening day of Burning Man.
A press release from tribal Chairman James J. Phoenix described the incident as that of a park ranger using his patrol vehicle to clear “debris” from the roadway after climate activists refused to leave.
Videos posted on social media, however, showed that the ranger crashed his vehicle into the blockade — a metal caravan frame to which some demonstrators had chained themselves — then returned to the activists while announcing through a bullhorn : “I’ll eliminate you all!”
Phoenix declined to answer questions Tuesday from The Associated Press, including about which agency is leading the review of the ranger’s conduct and whether the weapon pointed at the activists was a handgun or a Taser.
“We’re at the bottom of the lineup, we’re there,” Phoenix said.
The ranger, whose name was not released, then got out of his vehicle, drew his gun and yelled at protesters to get on the ground, according to videos taken from multiple angles. The ranger approached a woman as she lowered to the ground and grabbed her arm, pulling her down and kneeling on her back.
Other protesters can be heard in the videos repeatedly announcing that they were unarmed and “non-violent.”
“We have no weapons,” shouts Emily Collins, one of the activists who had chained themselves to the blockade.
Seven Circles, the coalition that organized the protest, called the ranger’s actions excessive in a statement released Tuesday.
“This excessive response is a snapshot of the institutional violence and police brutality experienced by all those actively working to bring about systemic change in the United States, including the climate movement,” the statement said.
According to the tribal chairman, rangers cited five of the protesters, who came from New York, Washington, California and the European country Malta, to travel to Nevada. The president did not specify why they were cited.
Collins and his partner, Tom Diacono, came from Italy to participate in the protest, choosing not to attend Burning Man this year after attending the festival for many years.
“The planet is burning,” Diacono said. “It’s a bit absurd to continue the festival when the planet is begging for change.”
Diacono said they parked the trailer across the two-lane highway, placing signs around their blockade that included a call for a ban on private jets. Diacono expected to anger some festival-goers by causing traffic jams, but the outcome of the protest completely surprised him, he said.
“If you asked me to imagine 100 scenarios,” Diacono said, “the police ramming their truck into us was not one of them.”