Militias ?mobilizing? to support embattled Clark County rancher in clash with federal rangers
 

http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/ne...ederal-rangers

BUNKERVILLE ? From near and wide, armed men are trickling toward Cliven Bundy?s ranch, where the rancher?s fight with the federal government has become a rallying cry for militia groups across the United States.

On Wednesday, that dispute teetered at the edge of deadly conflict, when Cliven Bundy?s family members and supporters scuffled with rangers from the Bureau of Land Management sent to protect the federal roundup of Bundy?s cattle on public land.

One of Bundy?s seven sons was shot with a stun gun, and Bundy?s sister was knocked to the ground; but no one was seriously hurt, and no arrests were made.

By late Wednesday, three militia members ? two from Montana and one from Utah ? had arrived at the ranch 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas. Other militia groups have inundated the Bundy household with calls and pledges to muster at the site. Their stated goal: to protect the Bundys from tyranny.


They say they are prepared for armed confrontation, but they insist they will not be the instigators if bloodshed happens.

Ryan Payne and Jim Lardy, members of the West Mountain Rangers, made the 12-hour drive from western Montana on Tuesday night. Payne is also a coordinator with Operation Mutual Aid, a national association that describes itself as a coalition of state militias.

?They all tell me they are in the process of mobilizing as we speak,? Payne said.

He didn?t put a specific estimate on how many militia members may come, but he said the groups expected are from places like New Hampshire, Texas and Florida and could number in the hundreds.

?We need to be the barrier between the oppressed and the tyrants,? he said. ?Expect to see a band of soldiers.?

Payne, 30, and Lardy, 49, both wore holstered handguns as they spoke, but they downplayed the display of firepower. They wear their weapons daily.

They say the goals are for no one to be harmed, the Bundy family to be protected, and the Bundy property restored.

For now, the militia members will camp on the Bundy ranch. They say the issue isn?t about cattle or grazing rights; it?s about constitutional rights.

?We?re not anti-government,? said Lardy, who cuts firewood for a living. ?We?re anti-corrupt government.?

Stephen Dean, 45, an artist from Utah, said he made the trip in hopes of heading off another Ruby Ridge or Waco, referring to deadly confrontations involving federal agents in Idaho in 1992 and in Texas in 1993.

A member of the People?s United Mobile Armed Services, Dean said he also carries weapons more powerful than his firearms: a camera and the Internet. Those tools will document the plight of the Bundy ranch and bring the issue to light, he said. ?I?m here to see it does happen differently.?

Serious bloodshed was narrowly avoided earlier in the day, when a BLM ranger shot Ammon Bundy, a son of Cliven Bundy, with a stun gun during a heated confrontation a few miles from the ranch house.

A YouTube video shows protesters and law enforcement officers yelling and threatening each other as trucks involved in the roundup attempt to drive through. The officers have stun guns drawn, and one is trying to push the crowd back with a barking dog on a leash.

Cheryl Teerlink, said Ammon Bundy was hit by a stun gun in his arm, chest and neck, but he shook off the first attempt to incapacitate him. ?I pulled the tasers out of him,? Teerlink said.

Shortly before that, Cliven Bundy?s sister, Margaret Houston, was thrown to the ground by a BLM officer, Teerlink said.

The incident unfolded near the intersection of Gold Butte Road and state Route 170, where protesters gathered after they saw BLM vehicles coming down from the range.

The Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service released a statement confirming that one protester had been stunned. The agencies said the incident started when ?a BLM truck driven by a non-law enforcement civilian employee assisting with gather operations was struck by a protester on an ATV, and the truck?s exit from the area was blocked by a group of individuals who gathered around the vehicle.?

According to the statement, peaceful protests have ?crossed into illegal activity? in recent days, with people ?blocking vehicles associated with the gather, impeding cattle movement, and making direct and overt threats to government employees.?

?These isolated actions that have jeopardized the safety of individuals have been responded to with appropriate law enforcement actions,? it said.

Federal law enforcement officers, also heavily armed, are providing tight security to contract cowboys from Utah who were hired by the government for almost $1 million to round up as many as 900 cattle that Bundy has left to roam on federal land despite not paying grazing fees for the past 20 years.

Two federal court orders issued within the past year called for the rancher?s livestock to be impounded from a vast swath of mountains and desert. That roundup began Saturday on almost 600,000 acres closed to the public during the operation.

Story continued http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/ne...ederal-rangers

Criminals plain and simple.

The rancher stole from all of us.

And of course no mention is made WHY this is happening.

So why doesn't he pay the grazing fees or just keep the cows on his own land? Sounds like he is just letting them roam on land he doesnt own?

Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.... BUNDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In reality 3 people have turned up and a lot of promises...

Yea exactly.. I have no issue with people standing up for their rights, but this sounds a whole lot like the guy was breaking the law in some way as the article seems to go out of it's way to not say why the BLM officials were rounding up his cattle. Sounds a lot like the rancher was abusing the usage rights of BLM land.

Not sure what to think about this so far, but I do think the BLM sending all those idiot officers with tasers out and dogs barking is not the right way to deal with protesters.

We have a right to protest, no matter what the cause, people on this forum bash the Tea party because they have a different view, but they have the right to protest. I hope this doesn't turn into another WACO, because believe it or not, there wasn't any illegal guns found there and that's why they "Said" They raided them for.

Protesting and Obstruction of Justice are not the same thing.
:2 cents:

So I just searched this guy's name on google to see what pops up...



Fox News - Nevada officials blast feds over treatment of cattle rancher Cliven Bundy

Washington Post - The federal government moved some cows and Nevada?s governor isn?t happy about it

Daily Mail - 'It's a war zone': Pregnant woman and cancer survivor assaulted by feds in battle with southern Nevada's last rancher as private militias join the fight

Fox News insider - Nevada Rancher Threatens ?Range War? Against Government


Daily Kos - Cliven Bundy: right-wing extremist domestic terrorist lawbreaker

RT - Heavily-armed feds surround Nevada Bundy ranch, confiscate cattle (VIDEO)



It's no wonder most people are completely uninformed about most things related to anything political or govt. The media from every direction is pretty much useless and has to inject their own political argument via flashy headlines vs just saying what happened.

I don't know who is wrong or right -- but I do know it's getting harder for cops be dicks when an entire crowd is taking smartphone video. Just imagine if there was no video of the incident. There would be some tazed people laying all over the place.

Every law enforcement org should be videotaping every interaction they make with the public. It would probably keep cops in line more, and show exactly how something went down.

Lol at The Mail - 3 people have turned up...

They are trialling it here - They will all be wearing cams while on duty - It's a great idea...

Well after digging through a bunch of shitty articles...


It seems ranchers are allowed to use the BLM land for cattle grazing, but they have to pay a fee. This guy seems to be the only guy whom refuses to pay the fee as all the other ranchers in the area do pay it. Added to this this Cliven Bundy guy used to pay the fee but he stopped paying in 1993 claiming he had the right to use the land for free because of his Mormon ancestors.

He claims he owes 300k in fees the fed govt says it's closer to 1.1 mil in fees from 1993 to now and it's just short of 1k cows.

So it's a case of some guy thinks he can use public land for free to make money with out paying a dime because his ancestors did, but they don't own the land nor does he. On the flip side regardless if it's $300k or 1 mil that's a lot of money to pay in fees, but I guess we are taking over 20 years meaning 300k probably isn't bad if he had on average a thousand cows each of those 20 years. 1 mil is likely pretty excessive..

No they are not, unless the cops say they are. </sarcasm>


Holding up signs and taking video with cell phones are not Obstruction

It's like the government saying it's a fee, not a tax to get past certain laws that protect us!

Threatening war with the government and rallying troops to that cause while not complying with any lawful orders certainly is and preventing them from executing their duties is... just as are those that prevent them from doing so also breaking the law. So spare me the NRA anti government bullshit and idiotic analogies just because you are paranoid and afraid of police and the government. If you break the law, eventually someone shows up at your door to enforce it. It is exactly that simple.

If you rent a house from someone and stop paying rent, then the owner can evict you by court order. This is essentially what has happened. If the sherif then came to evict you and you tried to stop him, you would be obstructing a court order or what ever they call it.

He stopped paying for the right to use the land, so the BLM whom manages the land got a court order to have this guy remove the cows from the land. The guy refused to remove the cows, so now the BLM officials are removing them and confiscating them. It's not like this guy had no warning or no time to remove the cows, he's been doing it for 20 years and was told to remove them.

Do you realize that assuming he had on average 1k cows each of those 20 years that $300k is like $15 a cow per year? Do you really think that guy would find anywhere else to put his cows that was cheaper?

It's public land, but it doesn't mean any Tom, Dick or Hairy can just use it for free to profit. It's not like you or I could go set up shop for free on Any public land and start building a business. The guy had a pretty sweet deal if you ask me and he wouldn't even pay for that.

Fuck Bundy and the cows he rode in on. I can't believe some of the people on this board. Wait, yeah I can, that's why I put them on ignore.

I guess the best way to rob a bank is to carry a protest sign for some of you.

I don't think anyone has said they supported this guy in this topic.

bundy family = typical radical right wing freeloading maggots

this is hitting banoosh and OWS as of yesterday

tazering pregnant women is bad mojo

There is a time line here, the things you are talking about happened after the arrest at a protest, and how did they prevent the lawful orders?

NRA is about protecting the 2nd amendment, has nothing to do with this. Am I afraid of the government? Since they are watching everything written here and said on the phone! I have my concerns!

I didn't see that?..

Any pregnant women with a brain would have stayed away from a scene like that after her father had 'declared a range war' on the government.....

Just about the last few paragraphs tell why. He is allowing his cattle to graze on federal lands and has not paid grazing fees for 20 years.

You know because someone else was eating that scrub and grass.

http://www.infowars.com/feds-assault...dy-supporters/

Bureau of Land Management agents assaulted a cancer victim, set a dog on a pregnant woman and tasered Ammon Bundy during a confrontation yesterday as the dispute between Nevada cattle rancher Cliven Bundy, his supporters and the feds threatened to boil over.

WHO the fuck turns a trained dog on a pregnant woman? Shouldn't she be safe around trained federal agents?

The Bundy family is currently under constant surveillance by around 200 armed federal agents in a military compound near the ranch.

Little overkill here?

Yeah, they say he owes 1 million dollars, he says more like 300k and the BLM spent 996k to have the cattle removed, makes sense right? LOL

her father declared?

did they move snipers in on the local government leaders?

is the ATF just itching to set some houses on fire?

maybe you should stick to wine and bum sex references.

PETA should set in, they are removing the cattle with dump trucks and back hoes

Notice there's no Rochard in this thread, he's driving over there as we speak :)

I was quoting from another source - Hence the quotes...

Govt agencies manage to make things cost more than anyone else ever could. I was down on Padre island last week and the oil from the Houston barge spill was starting to wash up.

I had been camping on the beach and I decided to leave only to find out I was locked in. Turns out they locked the gates and didn't let anyone new in, but didn't bother to tell anyone that was already there.. :error

Anyway I waited at the gate for a bit and saw at least 20 separate govt cars & trucks show up from various branches of Texas state govt and the federal govt. All of them were suit and tie types and one crew cab truck showed up with 5 actual workers whom were there to do the actual cleaning..

Here's where I think the BLM loses any credibility

They say they are protecting the local tortoise there and they are saying he hasn't paid any grazing fees. I want to ask, which is it? Is this about protecting a tortoise or about the fees, because you surely can't protect the tortoises by charging fees for grazing rights?

And here again, I would ask how do you defend fees when you are spending $996k to have the cattle removed(killed), not counting the 200 federal agents and their cost, sounds like a lot of bull shit to me!

too bad they didn't have this kinda response for Katrina, or basically any of the recent natural disasters

A fellow at Forbes by name of David Blackmon offers a level-headed analysis, filed in a different cabinet as it were, of what many consider to be the by-and-large unreported substance of the enmities:

The dispute in question goes back to 1993, when the BLM cut the grazing rights of the rancher in question, Mr. Cliven Bundy, from a herd of thousands of head of cattle to one of no more than 150 head in order to ?protect? a species of desert tortoise that inhabits the same area of the state. Most mainstream news media reports on this story naturally did not inform their readers of this fact, or of the fact that this tiny herd allotment would be spread over the 158,000 acres of land to which Bundy held the grazing rights.

Thus, by effectively slaughtering the bulk of Bundy?s herd in such a blunderbuss way that the varmint interest is scarcely served, BLM can be understood by reasoning folk to have attempted to run Bundy -- and other ranchers -- off the land entirely. Here again is Blackmon:

When one understands these key facts, one realizes that such a tiny herd of cattle on such an enormous space would have no impact at all on the desert tortoise or any other plant or animal that lives there, and that no rancher could possibly make any sort of a living running such a tiny herd. Thus, the obvious conclusion is that BLM rendered its absurd decision with the clear expectation of running the Bundys off the land entirely. And that is a very reasonable conclusion to reach. After all, Mr. Bundy is in fact the ?last man standing? here ? the BLM strategy has worked so well that every other rancher with grazing rights in the region has given up and abandoned what had been their family?s way of life, in many cases, for generations.

Thus, BLM?s regulatory determination and implementation was very arguably, in the language of judicial review as it applies to administrative ?lawmen,? ?arbitrary and capricious? -- and therefore unlawful, whether a federal court has so declared or not.

So until you live in Nevada like I do you really can;t speak on it....

but this is fucked up of BLM... I hope Bundy and his family can muscle thru this

I've been around BLM problems when I lived in Shasta County, they are a bunch of cunts. Was part of an outdoor gun range that had been their for decades with no problems till they decided to make it a problem.

Thanx, I have been looking for a better explanation of what happened. Probably ran by a vegan!

Wait, the BLM says Bundy owes 1 million in grazing rights for 150 cattle? Price of beef really went up I guess?

I know you and I are complete polar opposites politically, but this is that rare case I agree with you.

It's not about his owing of the grazing fees. It's about how the feds stormed in and acted.

Should he have paid the grazing fees? Yes, although I feel it's stupid to charge someone for using public lands (that no one else gives a fuck about anyways), but it's no reason to overreact the way they did. I don't care which administration, republican or democrat, the feds have gotten worse over the last 12-15 years. People are getting tired of the abuses and excuses. This issue goes beyond a couple rightwing nutjobs in militia gear.

Look for more of this type of thing to happen.