Nevada Squatter Cliven Bundy Says His Battle for Freedom May Escalate into the Next Ruby Ridge

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

A bit of reality on welfare cowboy Bundy here. He should be in jail for violating several court orders. Interesting how the right wing nutters support lawlessness and mooching off the public trough just as long as it's a white guy doing it. Hypocritical bastards that they are.

Nevada Squatter Cliven Bundy Says His Battle for Freedom May Escalate into the Next Ruby Ridge

by Robert Emmett Murphy, Jr.

Cliven Bundy says his battle for Freedom may escalate into the Next Ruby Ridge.

No it won’t, in part because it’s not really about his freedom, but his lawlessness.

This guy is fast becoming a folk-hero for his stand against the Federal Government, but how many of Cliven Bundy’s fans ask themselves what the fight is really about?

It’s about three things:

1. Who the land actually belongs to?
2. Does the Government have the right to regulate land use for environmental protection?
3. What does means to live in a nation with rule of law?

The answers:

1. Despite Bundy’s claims, the land is demonstrably Federal property.
2. As it is federal property, and the habitat of an endangered species, the Federal Government not only has the right, but the responsibility to regulate it. And those regulations did not forbid Bundy using it for grazing, only insisted that he pay fees and obey rules.
3. Bundy fought this in the courts, and already lost, so he cannot claim he was denied due process. He continued to engage in demonstrably illegal behavior, trespassing and continuing to refuse to pay his lawful fees. All the while the utmost restraint was employed in dealing with him (this is news now, but it has been dragging on for 21 years). Moreover, he has threatened violence against Federal civilian employees and law enforcement, so he both picked and escalated this fight.

The fight involves a 600,000-acre area under Bureau of Land Management control in Nevada called Gold Butte, near the Utah border. It is the habitat of the protected desert tortoise, and ranchers whose cattle graze there must pay fees.

Bundy stopped paying grazing fees of about $1.35 a month per cow-calf pair in 1993. He said he didn’t have to because his Mormon ancestors worked the land since the 1880s, giving him rights to the land. “We own this land,” he said, not the Feds. He claims this is a State’s Rights Issue, and that he is willing to pay grazing fees but only to Clark County, not BLM.

After five years of refusing to pay fees, in 1998, the BLM finally revoked his grazing permit. Clark County then bought out that permit for $375,000 (buying the permit is explicit acknowledgment by Clark County of who the land really belongs to) and retired it permanently to protect the desert tortoise under the Clark County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan. It was ultimately Clark County, not the Feds, that forbid all grazing on the land.

Bundy continued to trespass and graze illegally, so a Federal judge ordered a round-up in 2012. This, however, was postponed by BLM after Bundy threatened violence toward federal employees.

Since then, he has lost two federal court rulings — and a judge last October prohibited him from physically interfering with any seizure or roundup operation. This past Sunday, his son, Dave Bundy, 37, was arrested Sunday for refusing to disperse as the roundup began, but freed the next day.

As of this date, Bundy owes the federal government some $1.1 million in unpaid grazing fees, trespass fines and interest.

Says Bundy, “This is a lot bigger deal than just my cows. It’s a statement for freedom and liberty and the Constitution.”

Says his wife Carol, “It’s a freedom issue that we’re really fighting here, and it’s bigger than our cows and bigger than the tortoises. It’s about the federal government wanting control to do whatever it wants to do.”

But this isn’t exactly a David and Goliath parable. Don’t think one man vs. jack-booted impersonal government. Plenty of citizens not only support, but were campaigning for, the government to take action — notably conservationists who were threatening to sue the Feds over their inaction in regards to Bundy’s law-breaking.

John Hiatt, Red Rock Audubon’s conservation chairman says: “From the standpoint of wildlife, the springs and riparian areas in Gold Butte are vital. The most immediate result of the removal of the trespass cattle will be the recovery of the vegetation around these water sources which will benefit all wildlife species.”

Terri Robertson, President of Friends of Sloan Canyon, “Mr. Bundy has long falsely believed that Gold Butte is his ranch. We all know that is not the reality, and it is time for him for obey the law.”

Rob Mrowka, senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, “The federal government has been caving in to Cliven Bundy for years at the sacrifice of lands that are not only being destroyed for the tortoise but also for all the people of the United States who own it… Again and again federal judges have said the BLM has the right and duty to remove cattle trespassing in the Gold Butte area to protect desert tortoises and other imperiled species. We’re heartened and thankful that the agencies are finally living up to their stewardship duty.”

So one the one side you have the land’s lawful owners, who just happen to be the Federal Government, who also are supported by a constituency of citizens, and are acting to protect both a natural resource and rule of law.

[Sousuke 1,214]

They'll grab him in the night.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

They'll grab him in the night.

or blow his wife's head off as she stands near a Window, unarmed, holding an infant. Aka Randy Weaver