Cliven Bundy, a Nevada cattle rancher, has threatened a “range
war” with the federal government as its Bureau of Land Management
(BLM) has begun confiscating his cattle.
The BLM is mad at Bundy for racking up over $300,000 in unpaid
grazing fees he claims they owe for 150 square miles of scrub the
BLM legally owns; he hasn’t paid any since 1993.
As
the Los Angeles Times reports:
Officials say Bundy is illegally running cattle in the
600,000-acre Gold Butte area, habitat of the federally protected
desert tortoise. Last year, a federal court judge ruled that if the
68-year-old veteran rancher did not remove his cattle, they could
be seized by the BLM. That seizure began Saturday….Federal authorities have closed off the Gold Butte area and are
rounding up what they call “trespass cattle,” many of which belong
to Bundy. By Monday, 134 cattle had been impounded….Bundy says he “fired the BLM,” and vows not to pay one
dime to the agency that he accuses of plotting his
demise.A father of 14…Bundy has insisted that his cattle aren’t
going anywhere. He acknowledges that he keeps firearms at his
ranch, 80 miles north of Las Vegas, and has vowed to do “whatever
it takes” to defend his animals from seizure.
Bundy is the type who,
from his public statements, seems to believe in local and
county and state authority and not federal. He insists his family
has homestead rights to that land from the 1880s that predate the
federal government’s claims. Hundreds of Bundy
supporters have gathered in the past couple of days to protest the
BLM’s actions, but they’ve been taking the cattle
anyway.
Bundy has been reminding the press of Waco and Ruby Ridge
and other times when federal agents facing recalcitrant citizens
have resorted to violence.
As ABC News reported:
a spokesperson for the National Park Service were told
that Bundy supporters had reported seeing snipers present near the
Ranch. Asked whether snipers indeed were on the scene, they said
that law enforcement was in place, as needed, and that they could
not comment more specifically.
Reassuring!
Dave Bundy, Cliven’s son, was briefly arrested Sunday then
released, as he
told the Las Vegas Review Journal:
The 37-year-old said heavily armed federal agents roughed him up
and arrested him for exercising his constitutional rights on a
state highway in northeast Clark County on Sunday.“They got on their loudspeaker and said that everyone needed to
leave,” Dave Bundy said during an impromptu press conference
alongside his father outside a 7-Eleven on Las Vegas Boulevard. “I
stood there and continued to express my First Amendment right to
protest, and they approached me and said that if I didn’t leave,
they’d arrest me.”The younger Bundy said he was taking photographs and protesting
peacefully at the time.Natalie Collins, a spokeswoman for the Nevada U.S. Attorney’s
office, said Bundy was cited for misdemeanor charges of “refusing
to disperse” and resisting arrest.Earlier, BLM spokeswoman Kirsten Cannon said Bundy was taken
into custody to “protect public safety and maintain the
peace.”…Dave Bundy showed a Review-Journal reporter his scratched face
and swollen, scraped hands while describing his arrest.“Without any further questions, two rangers surrounded and a
third one approached me and they all jumped me, pulling different
directions. And then a couple other guys jumped in and they took me
to the ground,” Dave Bundy said. “… One ranger had had his knee on
my spine and the other one was on my head with his knee on the side
of my head and his other knee on the back of my neck.”Dave Bundy maintains his arrest was improper because he was
standing along the side of Route 170 in a state right-of-way. BLM
officials said the right-of-way is under their jurisdiction and
within an area their agency had closed to the public.
This
KCET.org article tries to make the preservationists case
against Bundy’s cattle.
The Bundy family’s collection of
YouTube videos making their case (hat tip to the Griggs Family
on that link).
from Hit & Run http://ift.tt/1g4kQ6R
via IFTTT