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Quad-City Times
May 21, 1996, Page 1A

Organizer: 'I ain't gonna let 'em stop Hemp Fest'

But he says it will move

By Jeff Ewolt
QUAD-CITY TIMES

      Despite the disturbance that landed him in jail and led to 30 other arrests, the Rock Island man who organized last weekend's Hemp Fest at Credit Island Park says he has no plans to discontinue the semiannual event and will move it to private property next time.
      "I ain't gonna let 'em stop Hemp Past," Robert Moldenhauer said Monday.
      Moldenhauer, 41, faces numerous charges, including criminal trespassing and marijuana possession, in the wake of the melee that broke out when police and fest-goers clashed Saturday afternoon. The event, promoted last week with fliers that included a hand-drawn map directing participants to Davenport's Credit Island, attracted as many as 400 people from across the Midwest. Davenport police said.
      Moldenhauer does not dispute police reports that list him as the event's organizer. He said he reserved a park shelter by paying $20, and then paid a $150 damage deposit at the request of the city of Davenport's legal department.
      During the past six years, he has arranged numerous other Hemp Fests in the Quad-Cities, he said. Some of the twice-a-year events have resulted in disturbances not unlike the one Saturday.
      But instead of bouncing around from one city park to another and being "hassled" by police, Moldenhauer says he intends to move future Hemp Fests to private property. If police try to intervene, they will be trespassing, he warned.
      "And we'll deal with trespassers the way trespassers should be dealt with," he said, declining to elaborate.
      He denied that the purpose of Saturday's event was to promote illegal drug use, even though the fliers intercepted last week by police suggested otherwise. The leaflets advised participants to "remember to bring a bud," a reference to marijuana cigarettes.
      Moldenhauer argues the fests are designed only to promote the benefits of hemp -- the plant from which marijuana is derived and to educate people about the government. He said police quashed Saturday's fest, not because of its hemp theme, but because they wanted to censor his views.
      "They intended to shut it down primarily to silence me," he said.
      "The government doesn't like to hear what I have to say because it exposes them as extortionists."
      Police, who had a command center set up across the street from the park, said they were there only to monitor the situation and enforce the law.
      They moved in after observing four people share a marijuana cigarette.
      The problems began when the crowd lashed out against the arresting officers.
      Some fest-goers formed a circle around officers, yelled obscenities and threw bottles at them.
      One officer suffered a broken leg while trying to restrain one of the participants.
      The 36-year-old officer was recovering Monday at a Davenport hospital after he underwent surgery Saturday afternoon.