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 Tom Crosslin - Nov. 10, 1954 - Sept. 3, 2001 Rollie Rohm - Dec. 27, 1972 - Sept. 4, 2001 |
On the Friday before Labor Day 2001, rather than face a bail
revocation hearing for holding an unauthorized marijuana rally
last August, Grover "Tom" Crosslin and Rolland Rohm
retreated to Rainbow Farm and, according to police, began burning
down buildings on their farm.
Police, claiming they had received an anonymous tip that the
fires were an ambush, built up forces on the perimeters of the
property, including a SWAT team and armored personnel carrier.
A four-day stand off ensued, Rainbow Farm supporters gathered
nearby to vigil, demand justice and a peaceful resolution of
the siege. FBI agents arrived on Monday, responding to police
reports of gunshots fired at aircraft.
A visible and outspoken proponent of marijuana law reform, Tom
Crosslin began sponsoring rallies at Rainbow Farm in 1996. Last
May, local law enforcement authorities used the traffic death
of a youth allegedly camped at Rainbow Farm the day before his
death as reason to search Rainbow Farm. Crosslin, Rohm and others
were charged with marijuana and firearms violations.
By mid-summer, the pressure on Crosslin and Rohm was mounting.
Crosslin faced 20 years in prison on marijuana and weapons charges,
was free until trial on a $150,000 bond, and the state of Michigan
was moving to seize Rainbow Farm under civil asset forfeiture
proceedings. A local judge issued an injunction barring Crosslin
from holding any further marijuana-related gatherings at the
campground. According to friends and family, the biggest blow
of all, however, was Rhom losing custody of his 12-year-old son
to Michigan child welfare authorities.
In mid-August, Crosslin defied the injunction, holding a small
rally at the campground. Police observing the property reported
they had seen Crosslin and Rohm smoking marijuana. Cass County
Prosecutor Scott Teter moved to have Crosslin's bail revoked.
Crosslin didn't show up for the hearing, and fires began to break
out on the farm.
Crosslin
was armed, wearing camouflage, and was accompanied by 18-year-old
Brandon Peoples when he refused FBI orders to surrender his weapon,
according to police who claim that Crosslin pointed his rifle
at them before he was shot and killed. Peoples, who was able
to get beyond police lines onto the property, suffered minor
injuries, was questioned by the FBI and released.
Rohm died early the next morning at the hands of Michigan State
Police who, according to their own account, had moved in to accept
his surrender. Police said Rohm agreed to surrender if he could
first meet with his son, but shortly before the agreed upon hour,
another fire broke out and Rohm emerged from the burning building,
armed and in camouflage. He refused to surrender his weapon,
police said, instead pointing it at them. He was then shot and
killed.
"If the goal is to get the public to react with outrage
to police use of force, the facts are not perfect here,"
said Keith Stroup, National Director of the National Organization
for Reform of Marijuana Laws or NORML. "With these laws,
you invite this kind of situation that ends up as a violent encounter.
These were two men who were ordinarily peaceable and peace loving,
not violent and crazy, but they were driven to behave in a hostile
and irrational manner. If the authorities had not done all that
they did to these men, they would not have reacted the way they
did."
Morel "Moses" Yonkers describes himself as a long-time
friend of Crosslin. "I started working with Tom doing housing
renovations in Elkhart," he told DRCNet. "He was always
talking about wanting to buy a big, beautiful, peaceful place.
Then he got a chance to buy Rainbow Farm, and he took it. I spent
eight years living on the farm with Tom and Rollie. "Tom
loved his freedom and wanted to help make everyone else free,
too," said Yonkers.
Two of Crosslin's neighbors place the blame squarely on Cass
County Prosecutor Scott Teter. "How does it feel to have
innocent blood on your hands, Teter?" asked a sign they
placed in their yard. The brothers told the local newspaper,
the Herald-Palladium, that the prosecution of Crosslin and Rohm
typified Cass County's intolerance. "I've got friends here
getting busted with seeds and stems," Lloyd said.
Tom Crosslin's funeral and memorial service were held on Saturday,
September 8.
Rollie Rohm's body remains in the county morgue pending results
of the Coroner's report that has not yet been made public. According
to a family spokesperson, Dan Wilson, a second, and independent
autopsy revealed that Rohm suffered three gunshot wounds. The
cause of death was suffocation, although none of the wounds were
fatal in and of themselves. Near the groin area was a three to
four inch wound; mechanism of injury consistent with the hard
kick of a boot. Some internal organs and his testicles were missing.
A third autopsy is pending.
Love, Light and Peace
Memorial Message by Kevin Zeese, President, Common Sense for Drug Policy
I am sorry that I cannot be in Vandalia to join you in remembering
Tom and Rollie - two compatriots who were not afraid to stand
up and call for an end to the senseless war on drugs. I had planned
on attending this Memorial to remember their work at the Rainbow
Farm - concerts, hemp fests, advocacy, community outreach - but
the events of recent days have made air travel impossible. But
I am with you in spirit and have asked a friend and colleague
- a fellow Journeyer for Justice - to read this statement.
Obviously, I do not know what
happened on the day Tom and Rollie were fatally shot by police
agents - none of us here know what actually happened. Indeed,
I encourage all of you who cared about Tom, Rollie and their
work to use your voices and influence to ensure that there is
a thorough investigation of the circumstances surrounding their
deaths. We need to know the truth so that deaths like these do
not occur again.
We do know that if there were no war on marijuana, Tom and Rollie
would be here with us, planning the next concert on the Rainbow
Farm. We also know that they had been peaceful people who seem
to have been changed by the marijuana war - the threat to their
liberty and property was too much and they courageously fought
back. In their honor we should continue our advocacy against
the war on drugs. It is time for this war to end - we should
not be fighting an unjust war against our fellow citizens over
what they put into their body, or how they want to affect their
consciousness.
We also know that the prohibited drugs are one of the biggest,
multi-billion dollar industries in the world. Thanks to prohibition
we have created a market that fuels crime, violence and terrorism
around the world. As Interpol has reported "Drugs have taken
over as the chief means of financing terrorism." So if we
want to injure terrorists, we need to end the war on drugs that
provides them with the fuel for their violence.
The tragedies of recent days, the tragedy of Tom and Rollie and
the tragedies of the other drug war deaths in the US and around
the world bring to mind the words of Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. from his book "Strength of Love:"
"Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper
darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot
drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive
out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence
multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a
descending spiral of destruction . . . ."
Let us all pledge to stop the hate with love, drive out the darkness
with light and never resort to violence. Tom and Rollie's death
highlights a lesson we must all learn - non-violent resistance
is the only sensible and strategic approach to ending the violent
war on drugs. We must stop the spiral of destruction by constructing
sensible and peaceful methods of dealing with marijuana and other
drugs. And, we must not forget Tom and Rollie.
Some do not go gentle into the dark night
Funeral services for Tom Crosslin were held Saturday, September 8, in Elkhart, Indiana. Rohm's body is undergoing a second autopsy at the request of his family; his funeral arrangements have not yet been announced . . .
By Nora Callahan, Executive Director, November Coalition
The first years of my brother's imprisonment, before we worked
with the November Coalition, in letters, long ones back and forth,
we discussed many aspects of the war on drugs. One such aspect
was the "unintended consequences" of this actual war
on people.
Gary would explain to me, "Kid, deal is, when folks know
what the tunnel they are staring down really looks like, it will
go a lot different. Hell, I didn't know that the government was
handing out 25-year prison sentences as if they were candies.
When people know - some won't go gently into this dark night.
"Law terms are often written
in Latin, and the common person can't understand it. People rendered
penniless due to civil asset forfeiture can't get a lawyer to
interpret this dead language, much less use it to defend you.
They get an over-worked public servant, just out of law school
- who may not remember your name, much less anything about your
case. They keep you in jail - you can't work on your case from
jail! They win. If you don't cooperate or can't, they can take
any drug charge and give you 20 years to life - if they want
yours over with bad enough. If you have valuable property - a
person is really up against a wall. There's extra incentive for
the police to play hardball. People will get more desperate when
they realize what the score is, real dangerous for the police,
too. More people will have guns - just because they won't go
gently into that dark night."
I didn't know that the first time we discussed these things that
Gary's thoughts would cover the repeated questions of 'why' after
losing these dear friends. But it was that sort of discussion
that led to the forming of November Coalition, and Rainbow Farm
was on the list of early places outside of Washington State that
invited us to 'share a message from the prisoners of war in America.'
Volunteer Sam Reeves and I traveled from Washington State to
Vandalia, Michigan to join others at the Rainbow Farm campground
for a Memorial Day weekend gathering in 1998. Tom Crosslin and
Rollie gave us time on their stage, and our booth attracted the
heaviest foot traffic on the grounds.
Our message stayed after we departed. When Sam and I returned
to Washington, Rainbow Farm constructed a permanent "Jail
Cell" information booth devoted to prisoners of the war
on drugs. Tom and Rollie were part of us; they will be missed,
but our memory of their lives and devotion will stay. They did
not go gently into the dark night.
