Thursday, February 11, 2016

Mama, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Sovereign Citizen Cowboys

Cliven Bundy speaking at a forum hosted by the American Academy for Constitutional Education (AAFCE) at the Burke Basic School in Mesa, Arizona.
22 July 2014, from Wikipedia Commons, by Gage Skidmore who graciously allows use without any endorsement of this blog or use of the photo
In a brilliant move by the FBI, agents arrested Cliven Bundy at the Portland Airport last night. I mean, how stupid could ol' Cliven be? He is the patriarch of the Bundy Ranch Clan and the scofflaw who cowardly called out the unregulated militias to fend off BLM's attempt to legally impound his cattle that he has been trespassing on public lands for 20 years. He now faces charges for that interference with the duties of authorized government officials and I hope there are additional charges related to his active support for the armed occupation of the National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.

Because of his active participation in fomenting this anti-government interference with the BLM and FBI to follow law established by the US Congress and sustained as constitutional by the US Supreme Court, he is responsible for the consequences. Morally if not legally, I hold him responsible for the tragic death of one of his followers who was in the wrong place at the wrong time and we'll save the rest of what happened until all the investigations are complete.

The airport was a perfect opportunity as Cliven would have been checked for unauthorized weapons. While TSA Security is annoying and far from foolproof, the traditional weapons of the "sovereign citizen" cowboys generally don't make it past the screening. No blood was shed, thank heavens!

Once again, you can believe whatever fool philosophical constitutional theory you want, but when you start trespassing against the public, pointing guns at federal officers, and fomenting armed occupation of the public's lawful property, you will eventually be charged and hopefully justly tried and found guilty if the evidence supports it.

The burden of evidence is most easily met when the defendant has provided most of the documentation for his own illegal actions in public, recorded media. For that we thank you, Cliven.
_____________________
Addendum

Later, same day:
If you ever had any sympathy at all for Cliven, please read the criminal complaint filed in court today. It is chilling as well as such a relief to public employees everywhere trying to serve the public in difficult circumstances and often without much respect.

The part I like best, on the theme that the Civil War has still not ended, is this:

Did you get that? "Confederates" is the word used in proper context, IMO. The more I review this criminal complaint, the more BLM officers remind me of brave Major Anderson and Captain Doubleday outgunned in Charleston Harbor at the opening of the Civil War. They knew how to take a stand. And they knew when to withdraw to the eternal indictment of the confederates of South Carolina in 1861 just like Bundy's "confederates" in 2014.

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