Posted on 11/16/2017 3:53:55 AM PST by Nextrush
LAS VEGAS-Ryan Bundy, leaning his arm on a courtroom podium, told jurors Wednesday that his remark to do "whatever it takes" wasn't a threat but a statement of his determination to protect his family's rights as the government prepared to round up his father's cattle.
"We own the grazing rights. We own the water rights on that area, and we don't pay rent for something we own," he said in an hourlong opening statement as the federal trial continued in the April 2014 armed standoff near his father's ranch.
Ryan Bundy, his father Cliven Bundy, brother Ammon Bundy and co-defendant Ryan Payne have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, assault on a federal officer, weapons and other charges in the confrontation.....
He said the government won't be able to prove his family meant to harm the government. Instead, he said, they were standing up for their rights.
"There was no conspiracy to impede, to injure, to harm," said Bundy, who is representing himself. "No, we were just trying to protect our life, our liberty, the rights we do own, our livelihood, our heritage."
He characterized the government as abusing its power and called those who came from across the country to support his family "heroes" for saving their lives.
Bundy said his family was skeptical of the US Bureau of Land Management and believed its true intent was to manage his father out of business. He noted that the bureau had successfully rounded up about 400 head of cattle, so he questioned how he, his father, brothers and co-defendants could be accused of preventing the impoundment.
By early April, he said federal sniper's trained rifles on him and the Bundy ranch and officers harassed members of his family, including brothers David and Ammon and an aunt.......
(Excerpt) Read more at oregonlive.com ...
The defense has picked up a lot of information on Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and FBI snipers deployed around Bundy Ranch and on the live feed from surveillance cameras which was up for at least four days in early April 2014.
The prosecution was ordered to give the defense information on that with a deadline last weekend.
I have something up on "Nextrush Free" blog which I will expand and update within the hour.
Bowe Bergdahl is an enemy our government treated like a hero.
Something wrong with this picture?
Great and true statement. Get ‘em Bundy. History in the making.
Agreed!
Paying Rent on something one Owns!
Works for Me!
Oh no, speaking truth to big money RENT SEEKERS could get you killed. They do not want to work for a living, that is why rent was created. Feudalism in peril.
Well then I assume producing some sort of deed or title to the grazing and water rights would make this whole thing go away, right?
The land deed for a parcel that holds water rights is included on the deed in Nevada.
There are irrigation rights-—water rights-—and DOMESTIC well water rights in Nevada. ONLY Domestic well water rights cannot be separated from the land & sold to others. Not so with the other water rights.
Water rights here in Nevada go back as far as 1852.
The Feds know this-—they just don’t care.
The Feds already lost a large case with Wayne Hage in Tonopah & they have yet to PAY the bill they owe to his estate. Over $14 million + interest.
The valley that the Bundy ranch is in once had 51 other ranchers. The Feds—with Dirty Harry Reid in the background—drove all the others out of that valley. The Bundy’s are the only ones who refused to leave. The water aquifer under that land is what Las Vegas wants to keep growing their city. Bundy wrote checks to Nevada for his grazing rights. They never cashed the checks.
This is a long saga. If you would like more info-—contact Range Magazine in Carson City, Nevada.
Yet nearly every home "owner" in the United States is subject to perpetual property taxes that if not paid allows the state to take the property. Sounds like renting to me.
Individual property rights in the US is a myth because we allow states to tax property in perpetuity.
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