Re: Armed Feds Prepare For Showdown With Nevada Cattle Rancher
Law Enforcement Didn't Feel Endangered by Bundy Standoff. I will not add to their narative by calling the Bureau of Land Management armed personell "law enforcement". They are not. They are federal employees packing rifles.
https://thenevadaindependent.com/art...bundy-standoff
OPINION
Not all law enforcement felt endangered during Bundy standoff
https://storage.googleapis.com/tni-s...ith_square.jpgBY JOHN L. SMITH
PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 19TH, 2017 - 3:15 A
Bureau of Land Management Special Agent Rand Stover was working on little sleep on the morning of April 12, 2014, when the federal government’s attempt to impound Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy’s cattle turned extremely tense.
“They’re coming,” Stover’s boss, BLM regional special agent in charge Dan Love said. “Get everyone to the front gate.”
It was shortly before noon. The decision already had been made to discontinue the court-ordered BLM cattle roundup, which was conducted in response to Bundy’s refusal to pay his grazing fees and recognize federal jurisdiction over the public land his animals had used for many years. But when the elder Bundy encouraged his family, friends and followers to cross Interstate 15 in an effort to retrieve nearly 400 of his penned animals, the sparring sides were sent on a collision course that nearly erupted in a shootout.
No shots were fired, but six men are on trial in federal court accused of using the firearms they brought to the protest to threaten and intimidate federal agents.
Testimony revealed the BLM law enforcement agents stationed in Toquop Wash that day were very concerned by the presence of high-powered rifles in the crowd and pointing toward them from superior tactical positions on the northbound I-15 bridge. For his part, Stover during testimony last week in U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro’s courtroom gave a dramatic recounting of events and how they nearly turned deadly.
Stover had already had what he described as “not a cordial conversation” with Ammon Bundy, one of Cliven’s sons and a man the prosecution considers a “leader” of the alleged conspiracy. Stover recalled, “He said, ‘You know what you can do? You can get the hell off our land. You can leave them cows right there.’”
The BLM, Stover said, was receiving intelligence from a variety of sources indicating that more protesters were coming to the standoff, and some of them were sure to be armed. One Facebook post from a site purporting to support the Bundy cause included what Stover described as, “in essence a call to arms.” It read, “Stand your ground. Do not fire unless fired upon. But if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”
Although neither side of the courtroom battle credited the line, it was first spoken by patriot farmer John Parker prior to the Battle of Lexington and Concord.
History trivia aside, the Internet missives and dramatic YouTube footage of Bundy family members being roughed up by BLM rangers ticked off a lot of people, many of whom already think the federal agency wields too heavy a hand.
But here’s the challenge of waving too many flags and belching too many patriotic bromides: According to the FBI, Stover testified, there was “significant information” that persons identifying themselves as militia members were on their way to Bunkerville. A deputy assistant director of the FBI told BLM and U.S. Forest Service law enforcement personnel on duty that the Bureau “had never seen that number of purported militia groups” rallying at the same time. There was “a significant risk of a violent encounter,” Stover said he learned.
According to the agents’ testimony, they felt plenty of fear at being placed in the crosshairs of armed protesters.
BLM Special Agent Michael Johnson also testified about the fear he felt after being menaced by gunmen, including one using a spotting scope and range finder of the kind used by long-distance shooters. Johnson kept hidden behind a portable light generator.
It was there he said he saw something that gave him pause: Nevada Highway Patrol troopers out of their vehicles on the southbound bridge above him, walking casually through the crowd of protesters. On the other end of the bridge, a Metro vehicle was parked with an officer out of his car. They didn’t appear bothered much by protesters with guns.
“I’m still confused to this day,” Johnson said of the NHP troopers’ comparatively casual presence. “I don’t exactly know what they were doing.”
Nor does it explain the casually professional approach of Metro Deputy Chief Tom Roberts in a video. He found time to smile and chat with a reporter around the time federal agents felt they were in the crosshairs of the alleged gunmen.
It’s what some courtroom observers might call a little daylight for the defense. If the NHP and Metro personnel weren’t shaking in their boots, was it because the government’s claim of imminent danger was overblown?
Defendant Todd Engel of Idaho, representing himself in the trial, seized the moment. He put Johnson through the agent’s recitation of the timeline and illustrated visually with surveillance video and photographs to raise the issue of whether the emotional response was reflected by the crowd size. The defendant also raised the issue of whether federal agents were conducting themselves in an aggressive manner despite already being informed that the roundup was being discontinued.
“Was that you on the loudspeaker shouting that you would shoot the protesters if they came forward?” Engel asked.
“No it was not,” Johnson replied.
After a week of testimony, a more detailed picture of the standoff that nearly ended in tragedy is beginning to emerge.
This is the third column in a series on the Bundy trial by John L. Smith. You can read his first column here and his second column here. Smith is a longtime Las Vegas journalist and author. Contact him at jlnevadasmith@gmail.com, or on Twitter at @jlnevadasmith
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Re: Armed Feds Prepare For Showdown With Nevada Cattle Rancher
This video was made a year ago after the murder of LaVoy Finicum. FBI & BLM Top Agents Linked to Corruption, Cover-ups . . . .
http://youtu.be/g7kC7DUrUSA
https://youtu.be/g7kC7DUrUSA
Re: Armed Feds Prepare For Showdown With Nevada Cattle Rancher
Is this delay to give the prosecutors more time to get their ducks back in a row after their star witness has turned sour? They've only had three years to prepare
http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/bu...e-delayed-week
Las Vegas trial in Bunkerville standoff case delayed a week
The continuing federal trial against six men accused of conspiring with rancher Cliven Bundy has been put on hold for a week.
Prosecutors are in the midst of presenting their case against six people charged as “gunmen” in the 2014 standoff in Bunkerville, which occurred after federal agents tried to carry out a court order to seize Bundy’s cattle from a federal grazing allotment.
Citing the federal Presidents Day holiday and scheduling issues on other days, U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro decided last week to put the case on hold for a week.
Prosecutors are scheduled to resume calling witnesses Feb. 27.
Contact Jenny Wilson at jenwilson@reviewjournal.com or 702-384-8710. Follow @jennydwilson on Twitter.
Re: Armed Feds Prepare For Showdown With Nevada Cattle Rancher
I really don't care for Gavin Seim's tactics; I will post this video because it is a conversation with Ammon Bundy
http://youtu.be/SoAPlfKklj0
https://youtu.be/SoAPlfKklj0
Re: Armed Feds Prepare For Showdown With Nevada Cattle Rancher
Quote:
Originally Posted by
monty
I will not add to their narative by calling the Bureau of Land Management armed personell "law enforcement". They are not. They are federal employees packing rifles.
They are, indeed, "law enforcement."
What they are not are peace officers.
"Law enforcement" is used by a fascist Police State.
Peace officers are employed by a free society - to keep the peace.
BLM "law" = malum prohibitum, "illegal" because shysters say it is.
Re: Armed Feds Prepare For Showdown With Nevada Cattle Rancher
Re: Armed Feds Prepare For Showdown With Nevada Cattle Rancher
KNPR ~ Gunmen in Bundy Trial Say They Were Afraid of the BLM
https://knpr.org/knpr/2017-02/gunman...ere-afraid-blm
knpr
Feb 21, 2017by
Carrie Kaufman
The trial of six defendants accused of being gunmen for Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy during a tense standoff with federal authorities in April 2014 enters its second week in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas.
KNPR contributor John L. Smith has been monitoring the trial and he joins us as he does each week with his observations on the news.
Last week, we learned of plenty of dramatic photos and video footage of the standoff outside the Bundy ranch on April 12, 2014.
Now, government agents who were there have been testifying. They say they were afraid of the Bundy supporters, who were pointing high-powered rifles at them.
“As the agents describe it, it went from being alarming to being dangerous and potentially deadly because of the presence of the firearms and including the presence of long rifles and high-powered rifles that were pointed in their general direction. They weren’t all pointed in their direction but they testified that they felt in fear of their lives,” Smith said.
But the Bundy supporters who are on trial say they were afraid of the BLM, who - they had heard - had orders to use lethal force if necessary. They point out that Nevada Highway Patrol and Metro Police officers were walking among the crowd and they hadn't drawn their weapons.
Support comes from
“The bottom line is, I think, that it puts a little nuisance in that tense standoff that wasn’t so tense for the NHP and wasn’t so tense for the Metro officers. It’s an interesting dynamic at play right now in court,” Smith said.
The six people on trial are accused of carrying weapons, but not being the masterminds behind the standoff with BLM agents. Smith told KNPR's State of Nevada he believes there is a reason the accused gunman are being tried first.
“But it’s my observation that this is a very important case for the government because if the alleged gunman are convicted… then you roll into the second trial by being able to call them gunman. If they’re not convicted, then it takes a lot of the feel of danger out of the entire standoff. Then I have to wonder – I mean it was certainly fortuitous for the prosecution to have these defendants up first because if they can show through their photographic evidence and their witness testimony they can show that there was a danger and they get those convictions I think its going to bolster their case going into what’s considered the main event, which is Cliven Bundy and two of his sons – Ammon and Ryan.”
Guests:
John L. Smith, contributor
More from:
Civic Life
, Nevada & the Southwest
, John L. Smith
, bundy trial
, bunkerville standoff
, bundy ranch standoff
, cliven bundy
, KNPR's State of Nevada
Re: Armed Feds Prepare For Showdown With Nevada Cattle Rancher
Quote:
Originally Posted by
monty
It was amended by Lincoln and enforced by the war of Northern Agression.
Re: Armed Feds Prepare For Showdown With Nevada Cattle Rancher
An hour long video by Deborah Jordan with attorney Roger Roots who assists Ryan Bundy. I haven't watched this video.
First Week trial update ~ Dirty Dan Love will not be called to testify
http://youtu.be/RF0TGqyrYjQ
https://youtu.be/RF0TGqyrYjQ
Re: Armed Feds Prepare For Showdown With Nevada Cattle Rancher
A very slanted version of the opening arguments from the Las Vegas Review Journal Feb. 9, 2017
http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/bu...standoff-trial
By JENNY WILSON
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Cattle rancher Cliven Bundy’s armed stand against the federal government was either an assault on law enforcement by self-described militiamen or a freedom festival led by cowboys at home on the range, depending on who was addressing jurors Thursday in a crowded Las Vegas courtroom.
The April 2014 standoff in Bunkerville followed a five-word order the 70-year-old rancher gave to hundreds of protesters at a morning rally: “Cowboys, go get ‘er done.”
What happened after those remarks was the subject of much contention when the trial of six people charged as Bundy’s co-conspirators opened Thursday in federal court.
In a dramatic opening statement, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre gave the jury a vivid description of how the six people on trial complied with Bundy’s request. He said the gunmen assumed tactical positions — on a highway overpass or the high banks of a dried-up wash — in preparation for battle against Bureau of Land Management agents stationed in the sandy ditch below them.
The terrain acted like a funnel, and federal officers who were executing a court order to seize Bundy’s cattle were at the bottom of it, Myrhe said. He showed jurors pictures of the six defendants, armed and wearing tactical gear.
‘TOO MANY GUNS’
He described the BLM agents as cornered and afraid, with nothing but a flimsy metal gate separating them from an angry mob of hundreds of people, dozens of horses and “too many guns to count.”
Protesters did not listen to verbal instructions, and authorities could not use pepper spray for fear of starting a gunfight, Myhre told jurors. Outgunned and outnumbered, the federal officers had no choice but to release the cattle and head home, he said.
Bundy for decades let his cattle roam on hundreds of thousands of acres of federal land. He refused to pay grazing fees or to acknowledge court orders to remove the animals, Myhre said. When BLM agents started cattle impoundment operations, the rancher vowed to stop them at any cost.
“He got what he wanted, and he got it at the end of a rifle barrel,” Myrhe said. “These defendants knowingly and willingly supplied the barrel.”
Defense attorneys countered the government’s description of a planned assault with claims that the standoff resulted from a miscommunication and excessively forceful federal agents.
Bundy’s instructions to protesters — to go retrieve his cattle and “get ‘er done” — came after the local sheriff announced that BLM agents had left town, defense teams argued. They said protesters traveled 5 miles from the rally site to the impoundment site for a ceremonious release of the cattle.
‘FLAGS AND COWBOYS’
“It was festive. It was flags and cowboys,” defendant Todd Engel, an Idaho resident who is representing himself, said in his opening statement. “It doesn’t get more down home than that.”
Jurors’ attention was locked on Engel, who was dressed in a plaid, button-down shirt and spoke in a calm, even tone. Engel said he and others arrived on the Interstate 15 overpass and realized federal authorities were not only still assembled in the ditch, but had their rifles raised and aimed at protesters.
Engel was photographed in a prone position, pointing a rifle through a crack in the jersey barrier. He said he was down in that position for about 10 minutes to rest his back following a recent surgery.
Defense attorney Terrence Jackson, representing Gregory Burleson, said authorities shouted a “mumble jumble” of inaudible instructions at protesters when they arrived. Protesters filled the bridge and also streamed into the low-lying wash near the impoundment site.
“If you ever think of how ants communicated, that’s what happened at this point,” said defense attorney Todd Leventhal, who represents Idaho resident Scott Drexler. “There was no conspiracy. There was no planning. There was no organization at all.”
Defense attorneys showed the jury a photo and two videos that were widely shared online in the days before the standoff. They said online postings, rather than a call from Bundy for militiamen, were the reason their clients traveled to Bunkerville.
The first was a “First Amendment corral in the middle of the desert,” Leventhal said, pointing to a photo of the plastic orange fencing that cordoned off the area limiting where people could protest. Defense attorneys also showed videos of BLM authorities using a stun gun on Bundy’s son and knocking a middle-aged grandmother to the ground.
‘NOTHING TO GAIN’
“At that point, I knew something had to be done,” Engel said. “I had nothing to gain … but I knew somehow I just had to go there.”
Engel said he knew nothing about the Bundy family or the BLM when he and two friends drove 12 hours to Bunkerville.
“I didn’t conspire with anybody because I didn’t know anybody,” he said.
Attorneys for Eric Parker and Richard Lovelin chose not to give opening statements Thursday, but Parker’s lawyer, Jess Marchese, sent a bold statement to jurors by coming to court dressed in a cobalt blue suit with a flashy Uncle Sam tie. Defense attorneys are expected to reference constitutional rights to freely assemble and to bear arms throughout the duration of the trial. The government plans to call its first witness Monday.
Prosecutors characterize the six men standing trial as the “least culpable” among 17 co-conspirators facing trial on extortion, assault, threats and other charges. Engel, Lovelin, Burleson, Parker, Drexler and Steven Stewart have tried to distance themselves from the Bundy family in an effort to convince jurors that they were not part of a conspiracy.
The remaining defendants, including Bundy, will be tried in two subsequent trials.
Contact Jenny Wilson at jenwilson@reviewjournal.com or 702-384-8710. Follow @jennydwilson on Twitter.
