Supporters gather to defend Bundy ranch in Nevada, FAA enacts no-fly zone

RT ^ | April 11, 2014

[Jim Robinson]

An intense showdown in the state of Nevada between a family of ranchers and federal agents continues to escalate after a longstanding land dispute two decades in the making came to a head earlier this month.

As RT reported earlier this week, hundreds of armed agents with the United States Bureau of Land Management and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have descended on the Clark County, Nevada ranch of 67-year-old Cliven Bundy to execute the court-ordered confiscation of nearly 1,000 cattle, according to his family, which the US government says have trespassed on federal property.

The Washington Free Beacon newspaper reported on Monday this week that 234 of the 908 cattle had been wrangled up by government agents and their contractors, and news of the dispute has since further propelled the story into the national spotlight.

According to a notice posted by the Federal Aviation Administration a no-fly zone was enacted for a 3-square-mile area around the site of the Bundy's ranch. That advisory would remain in effect from April 11 until May 11.

Local cowboys have retrieved some of the confiscated cattle according to several reports, and supporters of the Bundy ranch from around the region have flocked to Nevada to stand by their side.

Since the Beacon first reported on the standoff earlier the week, tensions have only worsened in Clark County. Video emerged online on Wednesday of the rancher’s son, Ammon Bundy, bloodied after being shocked by an electric Taser used by authorities, and Desert News reported that, according to Cliven Bundy, his own sister was knocked to the ground by officials moments before cameras began to roll.

One witness, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, told reporters that “Serious bloodshed was narrowly avoided” as a pregnant woman was also roughed up during the ordeal.

[nothingnew]

The border patrol uses beanbag rounds on illegal aliens crossing into this country, but is readying to use Apache attack helicopters here on US citizens. In case anyone wanted a sense of federal priorities.

Interesting observation. One with I hold to. We are all now Enemies of the State.

FMCDH(BITS)

[XRdsRev]

Perhaps Bundy sincerely believes that he has a right to use some of that land without interference but that doesn’t make it legal.

BLM/government management of those parcels is not something that recently happened and his family seemed fine with paying their fees until around 1993, so by precedent he acknowledges that the BLM and federal government control that land and are entitled to fees.

In addition he apparently has expanded his grazing to areas that his family had no historical use of. As soon as he did that, his whole “history” argument goes out the window. BLM is not innocent in this whole matter but it seems to me that Bundy and his family are opportunists who are looking for ways to get something for free and throwing excuse after excuse against the wall to see what sticks and gain sympathy and backing from people who may have other legitimate unrelated gripes about the government.

Unfortunately if Bundy ends up being a scammer, everybody who associates with him and his “cause” will end up painted with the same brush.