As tensions between Cliven Bundy and the Bureau of Land Management skyrocketed on Friday, April 11, 2014, Internet news outlets declared the situation could grow bloody. Armed militiamen traveled en masse in response to a call for support by the Bundy family. Comparisons to the battle of Lexington and Concord were made as some prepared for a second American Revolution. Those following the #BundyRanch #RangeWar story online heard rumors of shots fired, roadblock weapons checkpoints, and blocked cell phone signals.
To shine a light despite the mainstream media blackout, livestreamer Patti Beers (@PMBeers) traveled from East Los Angeles to Bunkersville, NV to join the many witnesses to the militarized face-off. Upon arriving at the Bundy Ranch Saturday morning, when the sun came up, Patti interviewed a friendly witness wearing a button with a slash through the acronym BLM. He revealed, “a camera is all you need for security.” The Bundy family needed bodies on the ground as witnesses with cameras while the federal authorities tore through their ranch, destroying fences, water sources, and shooting cattle not in compliance with their herding actions.
“The tyrants and the terrorists that are in charge of BLM are in control of whether there will be a gunfight,” explained the witness. “There’s not going to be a gun fight unless the federal government and BLM decides to escalate things into violence when we march down there peacefully to talk to them.”
“The militia’s plan is to be peaceful,” he said, having spoken with the militia commander earlier in the morning. “They are here in case the true tyrants and terrorists who are stealing this man’s cows and stealing this man’s farm escalate things into violence. They can come in and work security and stop it. No, I don’t think there will be a gunfight.”
He continued, “whenever you got something like this, what you usually have to worry about is an instigator. They bring somebody in to start something and then say ‘hey, look, they started it.’ Well that was your guy, that was your plant, you planted him in here to instigate.”
“Why do you think the government studies all this terrorism and counter-terrorism and counter-counter-terrorism? The reason they do that is because they engage in all of it.”
“The reason they write all these documents and make everybody a terrorist is because they are. They say, ‘We need to put somebody in there, to so something stupid, so we can point at it, and then we can do whatever we want’ and America listens to them. Don’t listen to them anymore.”
Less than half the thousand men and women on site were openly carrying firearms. “You know who had guns here first? BLM,” revealed the man interviewed in the morning. “The reason I’m not open carrying is that I plan to engage this terrorist with my first amendment rights. They’ll probably taze me. If I go down there with a gun, though, they would shoot me dead.”
Why is the Bureau of Land Management launching this armed battle? “This land is valuable and they know it. They aren’t going to let a bunch of cows get in the way of their fun.” The solution is to “End the fed. Then this is more valuable as a cattle farm because you can barter with it.”
He continued to explain how the government uses eminent domain to turn a profit. “My grandfather had some property that the government took as eminent domain to build a bus barn for the school district. Three times they took his land; he finally moved. He had 10 acres and he was down to one acre. Thirty years later to the day, they sold that land for $20 million to a mall developer.”
Patti continued to walk around the property to show her viewers all the food and drink that had been donated to support the volunteer action. She stopped to interview a woman from Beavertown, AZ waving a sign that said, “Dogs get put down for running cattle. Why not the BLM?” standing next to her husband with a bright yellow sign declaring “ALL of America is a First Amendment zone.”
After pointing out that “The first amendment zone goes from Canada to Mexico,” the woman declared the country communistic. In response, Patti posited that under communism or socialism, everyone would have their needs met. “Everyone would have a place to live, and food. But that’s not happening. People are being kicked out of their homes.”
The Arizona’s woman’s husband Harry said, “It looks to me like Nazism. They’re doing everything the Nazis did.” Patti offered that she could agree more with that view than with the idea that America is communist. She explained, “Under socialism or communism, everyone would have their needs met, and that’s not happening. In [communist] Cuba there’s no people without homes. Everybody has enough food to not be hungry. It’s not a great place to live but nobody’s hungry or sleeping in the streets.”
In response, the woman observed, “Yes, but, also nobody [in Cuba] has a right to go out and picket, like this.”
Patti pointed out, “Well, we don’t really have a right to go out and picket, either, because when we do go out and picket, people get tased, and pepper sprayed, and put in jail.”
After a mention of “no-knock warrants, where they bust down your door and shoot your dog,” Harry revealed, “Every time you get pulled over, the cops want to search your car now.” They couple has had their own house searched with no warrant and their down syndrome daughter is now terrified of police. “CPS was looking for a girl and we were taking care of her. We were babysitting the children while the mother was in the hospital. They took her. She is in state custody.”
Another issue in the southwest states of Arizona and Nevada areas is police profiling of motorcycle riders as gang members. Harry’s wife has even been pulled over for wearing a leather motorcycle jacket while driving a vehicle. When she reached into her pocket for her driver’s license, the officer drew a gun on her.
Patti asked, “Do you feel like a representative republic is the best form of democracy?”
Harry answered, “No, I don’t know what the answer is. Congress has no idea what it is like to be a real person.”
“They’re not representing us,” said Patti, explaining the primary fault of a representative republic.
“They’re representing themselves, and that’s the problem. The two-party system should be abolished. I used to be an Obama supporter, but I’m not anymore,” said Harry.
Patti said, “You could impeach Obama and they’d put in somebody just the same. Bush and Clinton—they’re just like twins. They’re the same person with a different costume on.”
View the video:
http://youtu.be/OYarFy8I_uk Livestream channel for @PMBeers:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/pmbeers