Battle of Gideon Park

Battle of Gideon Park
For more about gideon, or Gideon the location; see Gideon Park “The Battle of Gideon Park was gruesome, and should never have happened.”

-Ronnon Peltern (Gnome, Gnome City Councilman, and Gideon Historian)

The Battle of Gideon Park was a battle and important sub-war of the '''Great BI-Parks War. '''It lasted from the June to the September of 2019. Because of the complexity and groups involved in the long battle not involved in the overall BI-Parks War, it has been declared a subwar. The war had many different groups in it, fighting over Gideon Park and the surrounding area, including the Gideon Forest and Grow Avenue.

Inciting Events and the Reggie Riots (June 3 - June 15)
In the early days of the battle, tensions have already heightened with the 22-19 High School Students and the Bainbridge Island Parks and Recreation District, from the previous battles of the BI-Parks War. BI-Parks argued that the high school students have been using the park for illegitimate reasons, which many students declined. One day, around five or so high school students arrived at Gideon Park after school. While playing on the swing, one of the students reportedly flipped the swing all the way around, making it almost unusable until it was fixed. Daniel Hamlin, Gideon Park's infamous groundskeeper, witnessed the event and proceeded to yell at the students. The students left, but returned the next day with large numbers. They labeled Daniel as an authoritarian, fascist, dictative ruler of Gideon Park, and started protesting. After a couple of days of protests, the once peaceful protests turned to rioting. The riots and protests have been dubbed the Reggie Riots, named after Council-member Peltier's son, Reginald Peltier. This broke the Gideon Baby Swing, an important attraction of Gideon Park, tearing off the front half of the swing. Dan Hamlin retaliated by using his shotgun to fire the first shot of the war towards the protesting teens, and the teenagers dissipated, but would return, inciting the Gideon park subwar.