UPDATE: Up to 5,000 Armed Militia Members Will Be Arriving in Bunkerville, Nevada Sometime Today
Posted on 04/10/2014 10:35:30 AM PDT by bimboeruption
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that two militia members from Montana and one from Utah have arrived at Cliven Bundy’s ranch.
“We need to be the barrier between the oppressed and the tyrants,” Ryan Payne of the West Mountain Rangers told the Review-Journal. “Expect to see a band of soldiers.”
Payne said that militias from New Hampshire, Texas and Florida are likely to join and stand with Bundy and stay at his ranch.
“They all tell me they are in the process of mobilizing as we speak,” Payne told the Review-Journal, adding that hundreds of militia members are expected.
The Review-Journal also reports that Bundy’s son, Ammon Bundy, was shot with a stun gun by law enforcement officers Wednesday and that the rancher’s sister, Margaret Houston, was pushed to the ground.
“I pulled the tasers out of him,” Cheryl Teerlink told the Review-Journal.
Lawmakers are adding their voices into the fray, criticizing the federal cattle roundup fought by Cliven Bundy who claims longstanding grazing rights on remote public rangeland about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.
Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada said he told new U.S. Bureau of Land Management chief Neil Kornze in Washington, D.C., that law-abiding Nevadans shouldn’t be penalized by an “overreaching” agency.
Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval pointed earlier to what he called “an atmosphere of intimidation,” resulting from the roundup and said he believed constitutional rights were being trampled.
Heller said he heard from local officials, residents and the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association and remained “extremely concerned about the size of this closure and disruptions with access to roads, water and electrical infrastructure.”
The federal government has shut down a scenic but windswept area about half the size of the state of Delaware to round up about 900 cattle it says are trespassing.
BLM and National Park Service officials didn’t immediately respond Wednesday to criticisms of the roundup that started Saturday and prompted the closure of the 1,200-square-mile area through May 12.
It’s seen by some as the latest battle over state and federal land rights in a state with deep roots in those disputes, including the Sagebrush Rebellion of the 1970s and ’80s. Nevada, where various federal agencies manage or control more than 80 percent of the land, is among several Western states where ranchers have challenged federal land ownership.
The current showdown pits Bundy’s claims of ancestral rights to graze his cows on open range against federal claims that the cattle are trespassing on arid and fragile habitat of the endangered desert tortoise. Bundy has said he owns about 500 branded cattle on the range and claims the other 400 targeted for roundup are his, too.
BLM and Park Service officials see threats in Bundy’s promise to “do whatever it takes” to protect his property and in his characterization that the dispute constitutes a “range war.”
U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, noted that BLM officials were enforcing federal court orders that Bundy remove his animals. The legal battle has been waged for decades.
Kornze, the new BLM chief, is familiar with the area. He’s a natural resource manager who grew up in Elko, Nev., and served previously as a senior adviser to Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Reid aide Kristen Orthman said her boss “hopes the trespassing cattle are rounded up safely so the issue can be resolved.”
Sandoval, a former state attorney general and federal district court judge, weighed in late Tuesday after several days of media coverage about blocked roads and armed federal agents fanning out around Bundy’s ranch while contractors using helicopters and vehicles herd cows into portable pens in rugged and remote areas.
“No cow justifies the atmosphere of intimidation which currently exists nor the limitation of constitutional rights that are sacred to all Nevadans,” the governor said in a statement.
Sandoval said he was most offended that armed federal officials have tried to corral people protesting the roundup into a fenced-in “First Amendment area” south of the resort city of Mesquite.
The site “tramples upon Nevadans’ fundamental rights under the U.S. Constitution” and should be dismantled, Sandoval said.
BLM spokeswoman Kirsten Cannon and Park Service spokeswoman Christie Vanover have told reporters during daily conference calls that free-speech areas were established so agents could ensure the safety of contractors, protesters, the rancher and his supporters.
The dispute between Bundy and the federal government dates to 1993, when land managers cited concern for the federally protected tortoise and capped his herd at 150 animals on a 250-square-mile rangeland allotment. Officials later revoked Bundy’s grazing rights completely.
Cannon said Bundy racked up more than $1.1 million in unpaid grazing fees over the years while disregarding several court orders to remove his animals.
Bundy estimates the unpaid fees total about $300,000. He notes that his Mormon family’s 19th century melon farm and ranch operation in surrounding areas predates creation of the BLM in 1946.
Since the cattle roundup began Saturday, there has been one arrest.
Bundy’s son, Dave Bundy, 37, was taken into custody Sunday as he watched the roundup from State Route 170. He was released Monday with bruises on his face and a citation accusing him of refusing to disperse and resisting arrest.
A court date has not been set.
His mother, Carol Bundy, alleged that her son was roughed up by BLM police.
Meanwhile, federal officials say 277 cows have been collected. Cannon said state veterinarian and brand identification officials will determine what becomes of the impounded cattle.
Bump!
You suggest this guy is a squatter because he had some cows and goats graze on some dusty land?
As government gang bangs the American people 24/7?
What about the tens of millions of squatters the feds force us to pay for?
We pay hundreds of *billions* to government each year to protect and secure our borders. Yet we get absolutely nothing in return except a massive tax bill to subsidize tens of millions of illegals running through our streets. Forced to pay for their housing, food, healthcare, social services, schools..etc.
What's up with that?
It’s usually used with rioters or people blocking traffic. In the South, the charge is “Lookin’ at stuff we tole you you ain’t supposed to be lookin’ at”.
The sheriff should arrest and jail the person that assaulted the rancher’s son with the stun gun.
And, in fact, Nevada disclaimed those lands when it became a state. See my post up thread.
holder and obama would love this to escalate into a distraction from their current troubles. I expect an escalation by fedgov.
UPDATE: Up to 5,000 Armed Militia Members Will Be Arriving in Bunkerville, Nevada Sometime Today
According to the family, the fees were originally supposed to be used only to assist the local ranchers. But it transformed into being used against them. Please see post #5.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3142927/posts?page=10#7
You are correct. The feds can not own anything other than 10 square miles and military, ports, et al.
So, now for those who claim that the feds can own land. How come that this land is then managed under a trust?
That may be the legal nub of the matter,
but I’m thinking this has more to do with
“we’re fedup with the fedgov”.
Not so. Check your facts at post # 55.
It is not over yet, shooting people will be the next thing they do. Obama and Holder , particularly Holder is taking heat. They need an incident to take the attention off Holder and the IRS. Somebody is about to die.
WOW!
You know it's not that simple, tax. This is about the history of that region, open range, government control, and a clash between the old ways and the government.
“First Amendment area” were called “First Amendment Zones” yesterday.
Let me remind you that we’re talking about BLM mindset.
Those bugger eating bureaucraps.
And of course under Obozo the Constitution and the Freedom of Expression of the 1st Amendment mean absolutely nothing.
God please make the Militia’s see that they don’t need to provoke a train wreck. Obozo would just love that.
The best result is for the Congress and Senate members from NV and UT to put pressure on the Bureaucraps to back away.
Agreed.
I believe it.
Totally agree. I will be shocked if this does NOT escalate.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.