11/20/2025
"Just days before the event the city pulled the group’s permit, claiming that the group planned on giving out ‘free ma*****na.’
David Burnis clarified at a press conference, “This is an organized protest against current ma*****na laws. We’re pretty sure people will bring their own.”
Burnis declared that the Yippies were going to gather with or without a permit, and that they would not allow their people to be passively hauled off to jail. “What we are suggesting is passive resistance. If one of our group gets led to jail, we will physically hang onto him.”
Lines were drawn. A letter signed by 18 inmates of the Mesa County Jail and sent to the Daily Sentinel, summed up the situation. “Protest to any law not representative of the people as a whole, is provided for in the bill of rights. We wish to appeal to the law enforcement agencies as well as demonstrations, to keep their heads in confrontations which will in all probability be unavoidable.”
By noon around 500 people had gathered in Lincoln Park. Moments after the event officially started the chaos began.
“We assumed the local police would stand around the outside of the crowd and pick people off, but that’s not what they did. They walked INTO the crowd,” said Lance. “Me being Yippie I followed them, [the cops] walked over to this poor little college kid, and [the cop] goes ‘this one’ and when they grabbed him, So I grabbed him, and bear-hugged his legs… and I wouldn’t let him go.”
By The People’s History of the Grand Valley In recent weeks, the resistance in Portland has leaned heavy into the idea of tactical frivolity. They have deployed inflatable frogs, naked bike r…