Wait. BLM has -snipers-?

Drop the camera, prole!

 Well, it appears the US Bureau of Land Management not only has snipers, they are busy using them on some farmer guy. Because they can, not because he's a menace to society.

Federal snipers with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) trained guns on members of a family yesterday after they dared to stop and take video footage of cattle outside the bounds of a designated “First Amendment Area,” before arresting one of the men for non-compliance.

Yeah, "designated “First Amendment Area,” ". That's the thing that caught my eye too. Bureau of Land Management seems to think they are empowered to outline a designated “First Amendment Area,” in the desert with yellow tape, and then you're not allowed to do anything Free Speechy outside the tape. Like take pictures of the empty landscape on the side of the road. And if you do, they get to kick your ass. Over a tortoise.

“He was doing nothing but standing there and filming the landscape,” Bundy said of his brother Dave. “We were on the state highway, not even off of the right-of-way. Even if they want to call [the area that we were filming] federal land; which it’s not; we weren’t even on it. We were on the road.”

None of the family members were armed, but as soon as Dave Bundy began filming the cattle in the distance, 11 BLM vehicles each with two agents arrived and surrounded him.

“They also had four snipers on the hill above us all trained on us. We were doing nothing besides filming the area,” said Ryan Bundy.

The family were told to leave the area via loudspeaker because they had violated the crudely established “First Amendment Area”.

“They said that we had no first amendment rights except for up by the bridge where they had established an area for that,” Bundy said.

When Dave Bundy didn’t immediately heed the warning and return to his vehicle, a dog was set on him and he was subsequently arrested.

When they set the attack dog on you, that's called an Ass Kicking. Capital A, capital K.

Dog bites. This isn't the ugliest picture I found.

Dave Bundy might be the biggest, mouthiest prick in the world, but if he's standing by the side of a public highway with a camera in his hands and he's surrounded by 22 armed coppers, setting the dog on him is what we call "roughing" in hockey.

Notice please the complete lack of any news coverage on this deal. Armed BLM agents, snipers, taped-off free-speech areas, no-go zones, this shit was MADE for TV right? But its not on TV. Its under the Cone of Silence.

Please note again, this is about... a tortoise.

Please compare to the dog bite picture for full effect.

Plan accordingly.

Those of you dozy bastards reading this and pronouncing me crazy, or paranoid, or just saying "huh, what?", just remember when they finally, finally come for you: we warned you, and you fucking slept through it.

The Phantom

Update: Another story on Drudge. The farmers estimate 200 armed cops surrounding the farm while "contractors" collect their cattle and take them away to impound.

“They’re carrying the same things a soldier would,” he said. “Automatic weapons, sniper rifles, top communication, top surveillance equipment, lots of vehicles. It’s heavy soldier type equipment.”
His wife, Carol Bundy, said that roughly 200 armed agents from the BLM and FBI are stationed around their land, located about 75 miles outside of Las Vegas. Helicopters circle the premises, and the airspace and nearby roads remain blocked.
“We’re surrounded,” Carol Bundy said. “We’re estimating that there are over 200 armed BLM, FBI. We’ve got surveillance cameras at our house, they’re probably listening to me talk to you right now.”

Update II, April 10th 8:26AM: Today's Thursday. Seems David Bundy was released on Monday afternoon, April 7th. He was "arrested", euphemism for "beaten and tossed into a cruiser" on Saturday. No word on injuries, so he may have gotten off without permanent scars. They held him for the maximum 48 hours though, didn't they?

Also, comments from other cattlemen in Utah, the Bundys are not considered Grade A specimens of The Rancher. However even those who don't like the Bundys agree that this SWATing bullshit is the wrong way to go. I think that's political speak for "AAAAAAAGH! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!!!!"