"One DPW member was issued a $275 ticket for urinating on the playa, and threatened with being forced to register as a convicted sex offender." Lots

"One DPW member was issued a $275 ticket for urinating on the playa, and threatened with being forced to register as a convicted sex offender." Lots and lots of stuff goes down at Burning Man that could get you registered as a convicted sex offender if that stuff occurred back in the normal world. However, it's a sexually charged event and everyone who goes to the event knows this before they go and the event occurs far far away from the normal world. To be out there charging people for acts that are within the social norms of the event, especially in a way that is going to follow them back to their life where ever they happen to live is pretty shitty. TBH I don't get why public urination deserves more than a ticket as deterrence. Listing someone as a convicted sex offender is quite frankly absurd for such a benign infraction. "If the cops would leave their badges and guns at home and just be burners like everyone else in BRC, we’d welcome them just like we welcome anyone else. We’d even build them a Donut Camp!" Not exactly the best comment to make if you don't want to attract the ire of law enforcement. It may be a playful jab that burners will get and consider not that big of a deal. But some tough guy LEO with a hard-on for prosecuting hippies is going to see that as an excuse for going there and ticketing people. It's now a known phenomena that police officers in many parts of the country will volunteer at major events like political summits where they it's likely that they might get a chance to crack some skulls. When you teach people new paramilitary skills, they are going to want to jump at opportunities to practice on real life human beings.