The Bundy Ranch Militia Is Wearing Out Its Welcome

By Sara Morrison, The Atlantic Wire

05 May 14

It bears noting that this article reports, "the militia have set up checkpoints on the roads, where residents have to prove they live there before being allowed to drive on.” Presumably those would be Bundy supporters setting up armed checkpoints on American highways. - MA/RSN

he Bundy Ranch saga may be over as a conservative talking point, thanks to Cliven Bundy's weird racist comments and even weirder and more racist attempt to defend those comments, but its memory lives on -- in the form of the armed militia that rose to his aid when the Bureau of Land Management came to take his cattle.

The BLM left weeks ago, but the militia is sticking around so no one gets any funny ideas. That means Bunkerville residents now have to deal with a bunch of armed people around its roads, schools and churches. Some are understandably scared. Also, the militia have set up checkpoints on the roads, where residents have to prove they live there before being allowed to drive on. That's just inconvenient. Bunkerville wants them out.

That's the claim Rep. Steven Horsford is making, both in a letter to the sheriff posted on his website last week and yesterday at a Democratic convention in Las Vegas.

Horsford also said on his site that his office has "made contact with appropriate federal agencies" about the militia. We all know what the Bundy supporters think of federal agencies. It's probably best for everyone concerned if this problem is taken care of at the local or state level.

Meanwhile, some of the Bundys and their supporters have complaints of their own. On Friday, Bundy's sister, sons and several supporters filed criminal reports against the BLM agents who tried to take Bundy's cattle, accusing them of impersonating police officers, assault and threatening with deadly weapons. Bundy's son Ammon said the BLM agents could go and file their own complaints against the people who threatened them.

The police department didn't appear to be taking the Bundy complaints very seriously, telling the Las Vegas Review-Journal in a statement: "It is not our practice to take crime reports on law enforcement agencies conducting a law enforcement function."