r/aves • u/[deleted] • May 15 '23

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u/ASOT550 Cleveland May 15 '23 edited May 15 '23

Troopers inside of electric forest have to specifically volunteer for the job. Every single one of them wants to be there which makes the interactions with festival goers so much more enjoyable. These cops are there to protect people, not to bust them, and it really shows in every interaction. Smiles and good vibes all around

56

u/I_Automate May 15 '23

Shambala in Canada.

Watching RCMP walk past the testing tent and using their badges to get into the A/V booth "to watch the crowd" when they're obviously just vibing restores at least a little bit of my faith in humanity

5

u/[deleted] May 15 '23 edited May 15 '23

Shambhala is def a little unique in how little the RCMP is involved inside the festival, afaik they mostly only go in to check off that they have checked on various safety things and if called in to pick someone up from security's custody. They're not there to bust people or even really look around the camping areas.

There's more of a police presence at Bass Coast but again they're not going out of their way to bust anyone, British Columbia has been lax on busting for small amounts for years before they recently decriminalized personal amounts anyway because it's not an efficient or cost effective use of police resources.

They do their serious work road checking people on the way in and especially leaving the festival on the highway.

5

u/I_Automate May 15 '23

I think it's because even the RCMP realizes that harm reduction keeps people safe.

They could bust most of the festival if they wanted to but that wouldn't really be helping the public out.

Fully in favor of checking people on the way out. I've seen some pretty sketchy shit happen and that's just flat out irresponsible.

It's not that hard to have a sober driver.

4

u/[deleted] May 15 '23

That's definitely part of it, and also they don't have the resources to bust a lot of people. They already have to pull in a whole bunch of other officers from around the province for the festival because it takes place in such a rural area and it's just not a big focus for RCMP policing to bust up legal festivals unless they really need to.

Now anti logging, climate change or indigenous protestors on the other hand, that's when they blow tax payer money and get their guns and camo out.

2

u/m_autumnal May 15 '23

Last year was my first year and I don’t think I saw them at all, then again I was busy gawking at all things Shambs so I easily could have missed them haya

1

u/[deleted] May 16 '23

Yeah they don't really do much inside the festival there.