ABSTRACT
Burning Man is patrolled by the nonviolent, conflict-resolution trained Black Rock City Rangers, but it is also patrolled by multiple federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. For an event of this size and scope, it is no surprise that its organizers feel the need to afford themselves some protection by stating the obvious, that burners must comply with the laws of these agencies. While Black Rock City is a Temporary Autonomous Zone, that concept does not extend from the conceptual to the legal. Tensions often run high between burners and law enforcement. Ludic behavior can be a useful tool for bringing new strategies into efforts to challenge a faltering system, but takes the idea of serious play one step further by introducing more serious risk. Encounters with Law enforcement do not generally include an invitation to play, and even slight missteps can have dire consequences. But while the division between “us and them” is an omnipresent specter, this has often temporarily crumbled away in moments within which individuals have risked their safety by reaching toward structures of power in an attitude of play, and officers have risked their relative security by accepting the game.
