Cliven Bundy advocates hold BLM property invasion rally, may have destroyed artifacts

[Cthulhu 2020]

http://news.yahoo.com/dozens-protest...215140976.html

Dozens of people rode their ATVs and motorcycles on an off-limits trail in southern Utah in a protest against what the group calls the federal government's overreaching control of public lands.

"It was peaceful, and there were no problems whatsoever," the sheriff told The Associated Press.

About 30 deputies and a handful of U.S. Bureau of Land Management law enforcement personnel watched as protesters drove past a closure sign and down the canyon located about 300 miles southeast of Salt Lake City.

San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman, the protest's organizer, has said it was designed to show that the federal agency isn't the "supreme authority" and local residents have a right to have their opinions heard.

"We're not proponents of breaking the law," Lyman told The Salt Lake Tribune before the ride. "Just because BLM owns the property, that doesn't mean they own the right-of-way that exists."

View galleryATV riders cross into a restricted area of Recapture …
ATV riders cross into a restricted area of Recapture Canyon, north of Blanding, Utah, on Saturday, M …
Recapture Canyon is home to dwellings, artifacts and burials left behind by Ancestral Puebloans as many as 2,000 years ago before they mysteriously vanished.

The riders may have damaged artifacts and dwellings that "tell the story of the first farmers in the Four Corners region" of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado, BLM Utah State Director Juan Palma said in a statement.

"The BLM was in Recapture Canyon today collecting evidence and will continue to investigate," Palma said. "The BLM will pursue all available redress through the legal system to hold the lawbreakers accountable."

The group's act of defiance marks the latest illustration of growing tension between angry rural Western residents and the federal government over management of public lands.

The protest occurred nearly a month after Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his supporters, some of them armed militia members, thwarted a BLM roundup of his cattle near Bunkerville, Nevada, 75 miles northeast of Las Vegas. Bundy, a states' rights advocate who refuses to acknowledge the authority of the federal government, owes more than $1 million in fees and penalties for letting his cattle use government land over the past 20 years.

Some of Bundy's children and militia supporters also took part in the protest in Recapture Canyon.

"This is where it's happening Saturday," Bundy backer Ryan Payne of Montana told the Las Vegas Sun. "This is a continuation of the Bundy affair."

BLM officers recorded and documented protesters who traveled into the closure area, Palma added.

The agency warned riders all week to stay out, vowing prosecution against those who ignore a law put in place in 2007 after an illegal trail was found that cuts through the ancestral ruins. The canyon is open to hikers and horseback riders.

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert also urged people to uphold the law.

A 14-mile section of trail in the canyon is closed to motorized vehicles, BLM officials said, but there are more than 2,800 miles of trails open to them on public lands around Blanding.

Environmentalists and Native Americans criticized the protest ride, saying the ban is needed to preserve fragile artifacts. Mark Maryboy, a former Navajo Nation Council delegate, called it disappointing that the group had no respect for Native American culture.

"The American tradition of civil disobedience doesn't change the fact that the rule of law needs to mean something," Josh Ewing of the conservation group Friends of Cedar Mesa told The Tribune. "I'll be very disappointed in my government if it doesn't follow through on upholding the law."

Motorized access to Recapture Canyon and other areas in Utah's wilderness has been a source of tension for decades. ATV riders rode another off-limits trail in 2009 in a protest. The Bureau of Land Management gave information about the riders to federal prosecutors, but no charges were filed.

So basically, a bunch of Bundy supporters with guns, who would more than likely threaten/shoot anyone who invaded THEIR property are saying that the Federal government has no right to keep THEM off Federally owned land. They hold a rally with ATV's, and possibly destroy and bunch of historic artifacts. The land is even open to hikers and horseback riders, just not ATV's. I'd like for someone to point out where in the constitution it says you can ride your ATV anywhere.

[Tymichael]

Right where it says you can secede from the Union, silly! I think that's in the Second somewhere...

[Xeones]

This story pisses me off so much. This uneducated filth feels so justified in destroying everything for their own selfish needs and desires. They are the worst kind of hypocrite.

[Spectral]

I thought we had drones to deal with terrorists?

[HammondQ]

This story pisses me off so much. This uneducated filth feels so justified in destroying everything for their own selfish needs and desires. They are the worst kind of hypocrite.

Calling someone a hypocrite is at this point in history is Bourgeoisie. All humans are hypocrites. Hypocrisy is the natural state of the human mind.

- - - Updated - - -

I thought we had drones to deal with terrorists?

Drone strikes to assassinate US citizens are not currently sanctioned.

[Crissi]

and this kind of yahoo attitude is precisely why the Feds should get to keep administrating the land.

[Spectral]

Drone strikes to assassinate US citizens are not currently sanctioned.

*shrug*

These guys have openly stated that they think the US federal government has no legitimate authority. At this point, they're treasonists and should not have citizenship.

To be clear, this is tongue and cheek. But really, they all do need to be arrested, and if they're going to resist arrest while armed to the teeth, gunning them down with superior force is fine.

[Zoldor]

The Bundy stuff is the best, he essentially used Federal land to store and feed his cows, but he feels his rights were infringed on. Nice. I wonder if I can use his kitchen for the next 20 years and then claim it as my own.

I also love people who CHOOSE to not recognize the authority of a sovereign government. States rights get such a bad name from these morons.

[Cthulhu 2020]

I like how these guys brought their kids along. May as well use them as human shields, "just in case the feds start firing" wink wink nudge nudge.

#werenotterrorists #liberty #murika

[lockedout]

who would more than likely threaten/shoot anyone who invaded THEIR property

The sensationalism! When did they threaten or shoot anyone?

[Niroshi]

I'm looking forward to the day when these guys get dragged off by the police or the FBI.

[MerinPally]

The sensationalism! When did they threaten or shoot anyone?

They didn't have to, it's association. It's the same group of people who do this kind of ridiculous act and that other ridiculous act. You can't honestly be siding with these morons?

[Kaleredar]

I like how these guys brought their kids along. May as well use them as human shields, "just in case the feds start firing" wink wink nudge nudge.

These were the same guys who earlier positioned their women in the front lines so that, if federal officers were going to shoot at them, "they'd have to gun down women on national TV."



Let me get this straight... someone was using resources without permission... resources that were maintained by taxpayer money, and who's money (one million dollar's worth) he was effectively stealing... and now his supporters are trying to annex land owned by others by force and go so far as to destroy things on said land not owned by them?

I suppose some conservatives are perfectly fine with illegal activity that scrapes taxpayer money and threatens property rights as long as the people doing it are doing so with guns at their side.

[Moralgy]

I wonder if the main media outlets will call these people thugs, because that is exactly what they have become.

[Bdatik]

The sensationalism! When did they threaten or shoot anyone?

Are you purposefully misinterpreting what was written, or are you just that obtuse? Couldn't the former be considered trolling?

[Templar 331]

More of "Rednecks gone stupid."

"I'm a ride my 4 wheeler (because no redneck calls it an ATV) around land that I'm not supposed to be on because I has rights!"

[Cthulhu 2020]

I wonder if the main media outlets will call these people thugs, because that is exactly what they have become.

I'm certain the far right, anti-establishment conspiracy web sites will spin this as a victory for liberty.

Meanwhile even Fox is doing its best to not support these nutcases.

[Wilian]

Drone strikes to assassinate US citizens are not currently sanctioned.

Haven't stopped them before

[Crissi]

"I'll willfuly destroy artifacts my state holds dear just to prove im a states rights advocate!"

wut?

[Kaleredar]

Meanwhile even Fox is doing its best to not support these nutcases.

Yeah that happened after Cliven went on that tirade over how we wondered whether "the negroes" were better off as slaves or not.