Citing safety concerns, federal agents are withdrawing from the Nevada cattle ranch where they had engaged in a week-long showdown with Cliven Bundy, a 67-year-old rancher who claimed the federal government had no right to tax and regulate property his family has owned since 1880.<\/p>\n
The Bureau of Land Management had dispatcher agents, helicopters and four-wheelers to remove several hundred of Bundy\u2019s cattle that they claimed were encroaching on federal lands\u2013and may have posed a threat to an endangered tortoise habitat. A BLM spokesperson also claimed that Bundy owed over $1 million dollars in fines that he accrued since the early 1990s.<\/p>\n
Bundy and his family challenged BLM\u2019s authority to \u201cmanage my ranch out of business,\u201d he said, according to ABC News.<\/p>\n
Federal policies had starved out all the other cattle ranchers in the area, and Bundy saw his dispute with BLM as a challenge to destructive federal power.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are getting tired of the federal government having unlimited power,\u201d said Bundy\u2019s wife, Carol, in a statement.<\/p>\n
Last week, government agents descended upon the property, which is 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas. They set up a blockade on the road leading to the ranch, and clashed with several hundred protesters. Tasers were used on at least one person: Bundy\u2019s son, Ammon. Another son, Dave, was briefly taken into custody by authorities.<\/p>\n
The establishment of a designated \u201cFirst Amendment zone,\u201d drew criticism from many people, including Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, a Republican. Citizens\u2019 free speech rights were protected only when they were standing in the First Amendment zone.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost disturbing to me is the BLM\u2019s establishment of a \u2018First Amendment Area\u2019 that tramples upon Nevadans\u2019 fundamental rights under the U.S. Constitution,\u201d said Sandoval in a statement.<\/p>\n