Elected through Terror

Untitled Part 12

I was in the Sheriff's Office on December 2nd when I was told that this was one of those days that the County Court was holding a regular Commissioners meeting. On the agenda was the Rajneesh Summer festival for the last week of June and first week of July 1985.

In Oregon if you have a meeting, in an area not otherwise authorized, of over 3000 people then you must obtain a permit from the governmental entity that oversees the location.

The Rajneesh had been scheduling a celebration every year since their arrival at the ranch. The festival was centered on the birth date of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. The festival would reportedly bring in about 15,000 people to the Ranch.

However, throughout the summer they would be having seminars that members would attend, some coming before the celebration, staying for the celebration and leaving afterwards. Others would come for the celebration and stay for some of the seminars afterwards. The celebration would take about two weeks. So people would be coming in slowly most of the time and the population would gradually build.

I went upstairs to the Circuit Court Room where the Commissioners' meeting was being held that day. I came in through the back and observed. The courtroom was packed out with every bench filled with Rajneesh and other citizens and the walls lined with other citizens. I had heard that this would be the case; it always was when the Rajneesh had an issue before the County Commissioners.

I had been told that the Rajneesh would come in and take over the first few rows of seating. If there were other citizens there they would force their way onto the benches and eventually force the other citizens off.

This day was not any different, a number of other citizens had arrived early and taken seats, the Rajneesh attempted their usual aggressive seating, but this time it was not working as well. There were a lot of determined faces on the other citizens of the county and they did not budge.

The Rajneesh were demanding that the County Commissioners make a decision on the Festival Permit that day. The other citizens were opposed to the decision being made that day and wanted it tabled until the new County Commissioner took office.

As the commissioners listened to both sides they decided to table the discussion of the issuance of the permit until the next meeting. That meeting would be held the last week of December and just before the other Commissioner was sworn into office. The Rajneesh were very upset.

As I turned to leave the room, the District Attorney came up to me and said, "You know that you have to approve the security for the festival don't you?" I said, "NO!" He said, "You can just approve what they are doing, it will be basically the same as it was in years past."

This was a real surprise to me, I had no idea that I would have to approve security measures and I didn't have the slightest idea what their measures consisted of.

I was not about to put my stamp of approval on security arrangements I had no idea about. I went down to the Sheriff's Office and the Sheriff confirmed I would have to approve the festival. "We never had any problems down there," he said.

However, there had been a death during each of the prior two festivals; one was an older and very ill man who came in by ambulance so he could die in the presence of Bhagwan.

The other was a young man who had attended the previous year and had drowned on the John Day River while rafting. Because of those deaths and the history of less than cooperative behavior from the Rajneesh, I wanted a good look at the security plans and then I had some conditions I wanted met.

When people come from all over the world and are unfamiliar with water safety, etc. accidents can happen. I, at that time, had no reason to believe the death was anything other than an accident. But I was wary.

I talked with the Commissioners and told them I had some concerns about the festival security and would be submitting a list of conditions to be met before I signed off on it. I then went home and began making the list.