Last weekend was another “beach burn” gathering of San Diego Burning Man folx at South Shores boat ramp (near Sea World). This is a seldom-used beach area on the backside of the boat ramp parking lot, in a back corner of Mission Bay across from Fiesta Island (where the drunken louts and tweakers seem to hang out). We like the area because we can play drums and wear wierd costumes and burn effigies and noone seems to bother us much.
At about 2130 people were still arriving, and we were standing around the fire chatting, and the local LEOs (Law Enforcement Officers) showed up. “What kind of a party is this?”; none of us were sure what sort of answer they were looking for. One person had driven his truck out, to drop off firewood, speakers, and green blinkey lights; hadn’t made plans to drive back to the parking area so he got a ticket for parking on the beach; another person got a ticket for having a glass container (alcohol also isn’t legal on the beach in SD but they didn’t seem to hassle anyone about that). They didn’t seem to notice that several of us were wearing chef’s toques.
As they were walking off, the LEOs stumbled across a small cache of fireworks – not bottle rockets or m80s, but (apparently) actual small tube-launched “stars”. At previous gatherings there have been occasional displays of these; they seem to be done safely, by someone who knows what they’re doing, and though I guess we all know they’re illegal, they’re also very cool and the general ethos among the group is to ignore “victimless crimes”.
Not so with the San Diego PD however. Who reacted to the discovery by telling us that if the person who owned the fireworks didn’t come forward we’d all be cited (which they might have been able to do, but most likely would not have stood up in court). Strangely, no one came forward. So the LEOs confiscated the fireworks (the expected result).
As they were driving off, they came across the OTHER box of fireworks. This one somewhat larger and (apparently) prepared for an impressive time-performance presentation. This time the reaction from the PD was “We aren’t going to give out any tickets here, we just want whoever built this to come forward and defuse it or tell us if we have to call the bomb squad.” Several more police cars showed up. Strangely, no one came forward. At that point we all sort of gathered up our chairs and blankets and wandered off. The last of us to leave could overhear the police laughing and exclaiming how impressed they were with what they had found.
No one was there long enough to hear them say “Dude, they’re gone – let’s spark this up!”