Press release:
Coalition of Western State Legislators, Sheriffs, and
Veterans Stand Vigil in Support of Embattled Nevada Rancher, Cliven
Bundy ‘To Prevent Another Ruby Ridge or Waco”
A Delegation of state legislators, lead by Washington
State Representative Matt Shea, along with a delegation of current
serving Sheriffs, lead by Sheriff Richard Mack of the Constitutional
Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, and military and police members
of Oath Keepers, are converging on the site of a stand-off between
federal law enforcement and Nevada Rancher Cliven Bundy, to prevent
bloodshed and to stand in defense of hardworking rural Americans who are
under assault by a runaway federal government.
LAS VEGAS, NV, April 10, 2014
The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association
(CSPOA.org), led by retired Arizona Sheriff Richard Mack, and the Oath
Keepers organization (
oathkeepers.org)
are assisting Washington State Representative Matt Shea in organizing a
delegation of current serving Western state legislators and Sheriffs to
travel to the site of a tense stand-off between Bunkerville, Nevada
rancher Cliven Bundy and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The
delegation is traveling to Nevada to support a coalition of current
serving Nevada legislators being organized by Nevada State Assemblywoman
Michele Fiore, of Las Vegas, to stand vigil at the Bundy ranch to
prevent Federal Government provocation of violence resulting in another
Ruby Ridge or Waco type incident. They also hope that their example of
oath-sworn public servants defending the rights of the people will
prompt Clark County, Nevada Sheriff Douglas Gillespie and Nevada
Governor Brian Sandoval to honor their oaths of office by taking real
action to defend the rights of the Bundy family, the rights of all
Nevadans, and the sovereignty of the State of Nevada.
Yesterday, April 9, 2014, Nevada State Assemblywoman Michele Fiore
served the first watch in this vigil shortly after Cliven Bundy’s son,
Ammon Bundy, was tazered by BLM “Rangers” during a heated
confrontation. The video of that confrontation can be seen here:
The courage and resolve displayed by Ammon Bundy and his relatives is
inspiring, and may well go down in history as a watershed moment – a
turning of the tide. But the above video also amply demonstrates the
heavy-handed behavior of the BLM that risks escalating an already
volatile situation into open bloodshed, that, once begun, may spiral out
of anyone’s control.
It is
necessary that current serving public servants step
in-between the protesters and the BLM, to protect the rights of the
people and to prevent violence against them by the militarized federal
law enforcement that are massing near the ranch to continue the forced
confiscation (theft) of Bundy’s cattle, while they also restrict all
access to huge tracts of public land, and attempt to restrict the free
speech of protesters with their absurd “First Amendment Area” (which the
protesters are ignoring, to their honor).
The Oath Keepers organization, comprised of 40,000 current serving
and former military, police, and first responders, is also calling on
its members and all other patriotic Americans to join the vigil at the
Bundy ranch under the leadership of the current serving legislators and
sheriffs. The goal is to have at least one current serving state
legislator and at least one sheriff on the ground at all times until
this is over. And they will be backed by a large number of military and
police veterans, as well as dedicated patriotic Americans from all
walks of life, to interpose and defend the rights of the protesters and
to keep an eye on the actions of the BLM and any other federal law
enforcement present, to prevent a recurrence of the horrid abuses seen
at Ruby Ridge and Waco, and to hopefully pressure the Clark County
Sheriff and the Nevada Governor to step up and do their constitutional
duty.
Regardless, please tell everyone you know to be praying for a
peaceful resolution to this situation and for the safety of the brave
patriots headed there and on the ground there right now.
As Assemblywoman Fiore said yesterday during the launch of her vigil,
“we are here because the Governor is not.”
And she will remain there until Governor Sandoval steps up to do his
job, by defending the Constitution of the United States and the
Constitution of the State of Nevada, as he swore to do when he took
office. And Assemblywoman Fiore will not stand alone. Other brave
public servants will honor their oaths by standing with her, and there
are thousands of Americans now on their way to stand
shoulder-to-shoulder with them. Governor Sandoval did at least,
finally, state the following:
“Most disturbing to me is the BLM’s establishment of a ‘First
Amendment Area’ that tramples upon Nevadans’ fundamental rights under
the U.S. Constitution. To that end, I have advised the BLM that such
conduct is offensive to me and countless others and that the ‘First
Amendment Area’ should be dismantled immediately. No cow justifies the
atmosphere of intimidation which currently exists nor the limitation of
constitutional rights that are sacred to all Nevadans. The BLM needs to
reconsider its approach to this matter and act accordingly.”
But the Governor needs to take the next step and go there in person,
as is his duty, and order the Nevada Highway Patrol to actively
interpose and stand between the people and an out of control BLM, to
make sure the BLM
actually reconsiders its approach to this
matter and acts accordingly. And he needs to speak out directly on the
issue of federal subversion of what were supposed to be state lands, and
the intentional destruction of rural America. Silence in the face of
tyranny implies consent. Governor Sandoval needs to be sure he is not
silent.
This is not about cattle. This is about power, and the trampling of
rights. It’s about a systemic power grab and abuse of power by the
federal government as it runs roughshod over the rights of honest,
hard-working rural Americans and over the rights of all the Western
states. This is not an isolated incident. It is but the latest in a
long train of abuses aimed at subjecting rural Americans to absolute
despotism while destroying the property rights, economy, and
independence of the rural West, in particular, and eventually wiping out
all of rural America. This is an attack on all of the West, which is
why patriotic legislators and lawmen from all over the West are
answering the call to defend it.
And it is not just ranching that is under attack. It is also mining,
farming, logging, fishing, oil and gas, and any other industry that
uses natural resources or the land. This is a full spectrum, frontal
assault on the rural West. Ultimately, it is about bankrupting and
impoverishing independent rural Americans to bring on a planned
depopulation of the West.
This is truly a range war, and it is being waged by all three
branches of the federal government, including complicit federal judges
who “make it legal” through their willful rulings that strip away any
meaningful redress or shelter for ranchers and farmers who have worked
the land for generations only to now be told that they can no longer do
so because of one endangered species or another. Entire regions of the
West are being shut down and impoverished using this tactic.
In this case, the Bundy family has run cattle on that same range
since 1877 and they used to have fifty-two neighboring ranchers who did
the same. Now, using the Desert Tortoise as the weapon of choice, the
federal government has run all the other ranchers in Clark County,
Nevada out of business, and Cliven Bundy truly is the last man
standing. And it is also about all Nevadans being “prohibited” from
using their own “Public Land” and the fact that the Feds were imposing
their will over the state and it’s people at gun-point.
Unless We the People begin to take a meaningful stand now, in full
support of our patriotic state public servants who are willing to lead
us, the domestic enemies of the Constitution will not stop until the
West is a land of ghost towns, devoid of people, and we are all crammed
into city slums, totally dependent and weak, with no protection of our
rights, like third-world urbanized peons under the arbitrary and
capricious control of corrupt dictators. Remember the immortal words of
Frederick Douglass:
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it
never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you
have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be
imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with
either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are
prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.
Under the Founders design, the states were to control their own land,
unless, and until, the federal government purchased a particular piece
of land, with the consent of the state legislature, for a fort,
magazine, arsenal, dock-yard, etc.
As Article One, Section 8, Clause 17 states, Congress has the power:
To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over
such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of
particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of
the Government of the United States, and to exercise like
Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of
the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts,
Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings.
When did the Federal government purchase the millions of acres in
Nevada it claims to own? When did the legislature of Nevada ever
consent to it? Where are the forts, magazine, arsenals, dock-yards,
and other needful buildings on that land? Where in the Constitution
does it say the federal government can keep 80% of a state when it is
admitted into the Union? Nowhere. And yet the federal government
totally ignores the limited powers of Article I, Section 8, Clause 17,
doctrine of equal footing, whereby new states admitted to the Union were
to enter it on an equal footing with the original states. Why doesn’t
Virginia have 80% of its land claimed by the federal government? Why
doesn’t Ohio? It is only in the West that this absurdity exists (and it
is not just in Nevada. Similar abuses are seen in the rest of the
West).
And now, the federal government is not even content with that. It wants to control
all of the land, and stop
all
beneficial use, by having complicit federal judges use the catch-all
“commerce clause” to turn the Constitution on its head, inventing a
general police power of Congress to regulate anything and everything,
which is the basis for the entire modern regulatory leviathan that is
now strangling and stomping rural America into the dust in the name of
the Desert Tortoise, the Spotted Owl, the Delta Smelt (used to deny
water to California farmers) and even prairie dogs (with Utah farmers
who have farmed for generations told by the EPA that they could no
longer till their land because it is now “prairie dog habitat”).
We must stand now, or see our children impoverished and enslaved in their own country.
As Thomas Paine said:
“If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.”
That is a timeless truth that we must accept and embrace, lest we be
cursed by future generations as cowards who sold them into slavery for
the sake of our own fleeting comfort. As Paine also said,
“those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.”
It is vital that the Western States stand up
now for the
rights of their people and in defense of their state sovereignty. As
Thomas Jefferson and James Madison taught us in 1798, in the Kentucky
and Virginia Resolutions, when the federal government violates the
Constitution by claiming powers never granted, it is the duty of the
states – all three branches of the state, and at every level, from the
Governor down to the local dog catcher – to nullify and interpose to
protect the rights of the people and to defend the dual-sovereignty
design of this Republic.
In contrast to Sheriff Gillespie, who is truly AWOL in his failure to
defend the people of his county, there have been Nevada Sheriffs who
take their oaths seriously, such as the legendary Sheriff Jones of
Eureka County, Nevada and Nye County Sheriff Tony De Meo, who
successfully defended rancher Wayne Hage against BLM abuse.
We wouldn’t even be in this confrontation at the Bundy Ranch if
Gillespie took his oath seriously, but even without him, it is time to
get it done, and with Nevada State Assemblywoman Fiore and her brave
coalition of Nevada legislators leading the way, and joined by a growing
coalition of staunch constitutionalist public servants from many
states, we
will defend the West.
We therefore call on all liberty-loving Americans who can possibly
make it to Bunkerville, Nevada to join us in this vigil, NOW, in direct
support of oath-keeping Western lawmakers and lawmen as they stand guard
over the rights of the people and begin to push back against federal
abuse. Come take a meaningful stand, in a real fight where it counts
the most –
in our states. This is far, far more important than
any trip to Washington D.C. to wave signs and yell at a deaf and blind
Congress, White House, or Supreme Court. This is where the real battle
is, and where you belong. This is where you can make a real difference,
and begin the restoration of the Republic, from the bottom up.
And we call on all who cannot be there in person to be there in
spirit, and to hold a prayer vigil for the duration of this struggle,
asking that the Lord grant us wisdom, courage, humility, and His
protection while we take this stand for our children’s future. Truly, “
where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is liberty.” 2 Corinthians 3:17
We humbly endeavor,
to the utmost extent of our power, to
follow in the footsteps of our Founding Fathers when, in their time of
great trial, they proclaimed “and for the support of this Declaration,
with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually
pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
Michele Fiore, Nevada State Assemblywoman, District 4, on behalf of a growing coalition of Nevada State legislators
Matt Shea, Washington State 4th District State Representative, on behalf of a growing delegation of Western state legislators.
Sheriff Richard Mack (Retired), for the CSPOA (as well as a member of the Board of Directors of Oath Keepers), on behalf of a delegation of current serving Sheriffs
Stewart Rhodes, Founder and President of Oath Keepers on behalf of the Board of Directors of Oath Keepers and 40,000 Oath Keepers members
CONTACT:
Michele@votefiore.com
matt@voteshea.com
sheriffmack@hotmail.com
contact@oathkeepers.org
At
approximately 11:00est the founder of the Oath Keepers issued a press
statement to its members for support in Nevada on the Cliven Bundy ranch
where the BLM has taken …
- See more at: http://viralsurvival.com/#sthash.jP04Syls.dpuf
BUNKERVILLE
— From near and wide, armed men are trickling toward Cliven Bundy’s
ranch, where the embattled 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 ongoing 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 if bloodshed happens, they will not be the instigators.
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.
- See more at:
http://viralsurvival.com/2014/04/10/attention-nevada-militia-calls-for-mobilization-against-feds/#sthash.X5KuJLuU.hZ8OTRBT.dpuf
