Posted on 03/02/2013 12:48:31 PM PST by george76
Multiple rural county sheriffs from Utah testified Thursday about the abusive use of police power by Bureau of Land Management rangers or forest protection officers with the U.S. Forest Service.
They are asserting it is time to rein in the authority the agencies should have never been allowed to exercise.
Sheriffs from San Juan, Kane and Garfield counties spoke in favor of HB155, sponsored by Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, which proposes to limit BLM rangers and forest protection officers from exercising police power over state and local laws unless someone's safety is at risk or federal contracts are in place with local police agencies.
"You cannot use our (laws) to arrest our people and issue citations," Noel said. "We don't believe they ever had that authority. Our chief law enforcement officer is the locally elected sheriff who is accountable to the people every four years."
Noel tapped the expertise of Mark Ward, an attorney with the Utah Association of Counties, to explore the legal ramifications of the bill and where police power appropriately rests over federal, state and local criminal behavior.
(Excerpt) Read more at deseretnews.com ...
BLM has been out of control for some time. Feds are always power hungry.
Three southern Utah county sheriffs described heavy-handed police tactics that they say have become common where ever BLM rangers and Forest Service officers patrol.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/55921992-90/federal-officers-law-utah.html.csp
Garfield County Sheriff James Perkins had with overzealous federal employees over the past few years, and his concerns have gone unanswered.
Smith said he’d been to Washington, D.C., four times, and one exchange devolved into a screaming match with top officials of the U.S. Forest Service.
“For the last few years, their whole agenda is: We don’t want to work with you anymore, we don’t have to work with you anymore, and we’re not going to work with you anymore.”
I'm sure there's more but I'm aware of one in So Oregon, Josephine County Sheriff Gil Gilbertson wanting some answers over a year ago. He was getting a lot of complaints from county residents being harassed by Feds.
More Sheriff's should be speaking up for the 10th Amendment.
OREGON SHERIFF GIL GILBERTSON CONTINUES STAND AGAINST U.S. FOREST SERVICE
http://www.newswithviews.com/NWV-News/news287.htm
Or else we can just toss out the 10th Amendment.
Thanks for the ping, George!
Sheriffs ... spoke in favor of HB155, sponsored by Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, which proposes to limit BLM rangers and forest protection officers from exercising police power over state and local laws unless someone's safety is at risk or federal contracts are in place with local police agencies.
"You cannot use our (laws) to arrest our people and issue citations," Noel said. "We don't believe they ever had that authority. Our chief law enforcement officer is the locally elected sheriff who is accountable to the people every four years."
Noel tapped the expertise of Mark Ward, an attorney with the Utah Association of Counties, to explore the legal ramifications of the bill and where police power appropriately rests over federal, state and local criminal behavior.
One could add the National Park Service to the government employees that have a superiority complex with respect to the taxpaying US citizen. Many of them act that the NP system is for their pleasure and employment and act as if the NPS is for them to prance around and keep the public away. The military has a paltry amount of benefits compared to the NPS.
If that indian reservation has “separate nation” status, a serious question arises. Can the Sheriff allow jailing of a USA citizen by a foreign power or the agents of said foreign power.
I doubt the tribe agreed in writing to follow American/Utah laws, as they make a great deal of their ‘sovereignty’ and ‘separate nation’ status.
It would appear the inter-agency agreement is a de facto removal of the rights of any American ‘charged’ by the reservation police.
Indian ‘law’ is totally different than US law. For example, an Indian drove his girl friend’s SUV into a canal with several children inside. He did a “Swimmer” but they drowned.
Despite agency agreement about felonies being dealt with in Federal court, the Indian “Swimmer” never saw the inside of a Federal Court.
Abuses by Tribal Police would be similarly difficult to redress.
Problems, problems.
My fiancee’ could write a book about BLM thugs. He has had to run them off his claim in the past and one had to be disarmed because he started waving a weapon around a hunting party. They took it into town later that day and turned it in to the local sheriff. They are totally out of control.
Some in Wyoming have also begun to get a bit “brassy”. I have run into them on occasions but nothing got out of control and no “citations” have been issued. Play by the rules as close as possible and they will leave you alone.
Last September, Gill and five other local sheriffs spoke to
an almost standing room crowd at the fair grounds. Subject
was local sovereignty and was sponsored by the National
Constitutional Sheriffs Association, LLC and Veritas Research
Consulting.
www.veritasresearchconsulting.com
Read “Eco-Fascists: How Radical Conservationists are Destroying our National Heritage” by Elizabeth Nickson.
The book is replete with examples of the BLM, Dept. of Interior and Forestry Services overstepping their authority in an attempt to crush communities and families that will not be coerced by their nazi-style thuggery.
The author intersperses her personal experience with them while traveling across the country and documenting cases in places as diverse as the Adirondacks, Crescent City, CA., Las Cruces, NM, Oregon, Wash., Texas, Colorado Springs and Wyoming. Showing how intertwined the tentacles of these government orgs are with their ENGO compatriots, and what they are attempting to achieve, i.e. Agenda 21 among other things.
I have to say that here in the South the rangers are extremely nice, very helpful and I have never had a bad experience nor have any of my friends or acquaintances.
The out of control Feds. Goes hand in hand with ICE releasing illegals in AZ last week. No notice, no warning. Just opened the gates...
A few comments from the link posted.
SLCynic
Law enforcement at all levels is stretched pretty thin in the rural areas of Utah. Too much land, too few officers, and an increasing number of users. We should be looking for ways to better use the law enforcement resources we have. That means more flexibility and fewer restrictions.
BobWired
Apparently their law committee needs someone on it that actually knows the law. I do believe the federal Assimilative Crimes Acts covers federal authority in enforcing state laws on federal property. Then there’s the Code of Federal Regulations. Now, if you commit a crime on federal land they’ll ticket you and you’ll appear in front of a federal magistrate instead of the local judge. Big ‘DAH’ goes out to our very good intention lawmakers on Capital Hill. Flippen morons.
Hail_to_the_chef
Silly Feds, this is not America, it’s the Kingdom of Utah , Gayle Ruzicka is Queen of the North, Emperor Noel is King of the South. He is the Supreme Law over all where the High Queen does not reign.
It is way past time for Sheriffs to realize that they trump everybody.
I believe way too many federal agencies have way too much police powers and over time they have taken in jurisdictions far outside of the specific federal property they are assigned to. For example should a federal agency cop from BLM be authorized to do a traffic stop on a highway not within their boundaries? IMO no. They just like Citizen Joe should contact local officers.
Arrest, try, and jail them.
I’ve had run-ins with the BLM nazis in the past...what a bunch of arrogant A-holes they are. I served on a public lands advisory committee for awhile and the meetings which were attended by the local district FS ranger and blm manager always had an armed blm idiot lurking in the background.
Complete jerks...wash-outs from legitimate law enforcement jobs so they end up trying to bust people for driving across the sagebrush.
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