Tag: Cliven Bundy

Kirk Siegler at NPR did a backgrounder on Cliven Bundy.

Bundy, who inspired the occupation of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, was arrested at the airport in Portland, Ore., Wednesday night, apparently on his way to Malheur.

In a 32-page criminal complaint, prosecutors allege Bundy and his co-conspirators led a massive, armed assault against federal officers in April 2014 near the town of Bunkerville, Nev.

Just like a cowboy movie!

“What’s at stake here? Freedom, liberty and statehood, that’s what’s at stake here,” Bundy told me when I visited his ranch in southeastern Nevada shortly after the 2014 standoff.

That hot summer day, Bundy sat between two bodyguards. Photos of his 14 children and framed Mormon scripture hung on the wall behind him.

Just like a religious war! Crossed with a cowboy movie. What could possibly go wrong?

“[Federal authorities] was acting like an army coming against ‘we the people,’ ” Bundy said at the time.

“We the people” is a constant Cliven Bundy refrain. He has flouted federal grazing laws and four prior court orders because he believes his Mormon ancestors arrived in the region and claimed a “right” to this land, predating the federal territories — an argument often disputed by historians who study the American West.

And what does “claiming” a “right” even mean? I believe Native Americans would love to see a coherent answer to that question.

Talk shows liked him for awhile, but then he talked some racist crap (now there’s a surprise) so they tiptoed away. (If it had been sexist crap they would have nodded in agreement.)

But after all the attention started to fade, the federal government still didn’t act against Bundy. The BLM completely pulled out of the region, and Bundy and his supporters declared victory — until Wednesday night.

“I’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” says Alan O’Neill, a retired park superintendent at Lake Mead National Recreation Area, which spans the Arizona-Nevada border near Bundy’s ranch.

O’Neill’s first brushes with Cliven Bundy’s defiance began in the late 1990s, when Bundy’s cows cattle were illegally grazing on park service land. He said there was a plan in place to remove them, but it was stopped back then at the last minute because the federal government worried about another Waco.

So that’s at least 15 years he’s had the run of the place.

The AP reports Cliven Bundy faces charges over the 2014 “standoff.”

Federal prosecutors in Las Vegas are charging Cliven Bundy with conspiracy, assault on a federal officer, obstruction, weapon and other crimes.

A criminal complaint filed Thursday stems from Bundy’s role at the center of a tense April 2014 armed standoff with federal officials near his ranch in Nevada.

It involved self-styled Bundy militia supporters pointing military-style weapons at federal agents trying to enforce a court order to round up Bundy cattle from federal rangeland near his ranch.

See that’s no good. You don’t want that, not even if you think the resisters have a valid cause. (If you’re living in a state where law enforcement just quietly kills people after arresting them, that’s different, but then you’re living in a failed state.) You want people to argue their case, not pull guns.

Les Zaitz reporting at The Oregonian/Oregon Live:

Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher who touched off one armed showdown with federal authorities and applauded another started in Oregon by his sons, was arrested late Wednesday at Portland International Airport and faces federal charges related to the 2014 standoff at his ranch.

Bundy, 74, was booked into the downtown Multnomah County jail at 10:54 p.m.

He faces a conspiracy charge to interfere with a federal officer — the same charge lodged against two of his sons, Ammon and Ryan, for their role in the Jan. 2 takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Burns. He also faces weapons charges.

Finally!

The Bundy Ranch Facebook page reported Cliven Bundy was surrounded by SWAT officers and detained after his arrival from Nevada.

He was arrested at 10:10 p.m., authorities said.

And booked by 10:50.

The Bundy patriarch had traveled to Portland with plans to go on to Burns, where four occupiers had been the remaining holdouts of the refuge occupation.

The “patriarch” has delusions of grandeur.

Bundy has been under federal scrutiny since his ranch standoff with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. He has not paid grazing fees on federal land and he owes the agency $1 million in unpaid fees and penalties. He and militia supporters confronted federal agents who had impounded Bundy’s cattle that were found on federal property.

To avoid bloodshed, the federal agents retreated and Bundy’s supporters turned loose the cattle.

He’s a thief and a violent bully. He’s stolen a million dollars of taxpayer money. He breaks the law and defies legitimate law enforcement at gunpoint.

The last four occupiers, who have camped alone since Jan. 28 at the headquarters compound, agreed Wednesday night to surrender in the morning. They did so after FBI tactical teams infiltrated refuge buildings undetected overnight Tuesday and into Wednesday. The FBI then hemmed in the occupiers with armored vehicles and negotiated with them for five hours to reach the surrender agreement.

Last I heard three have surrendered and the remaining one is still sulking and saying no.

Cliven Bundy

Last night at 22:54

Arresting agency Portland FBI