Richard Mack Explains Nevada 'Range War' Strategy: 'Put All the Women Up in the Front'
As part of Fox News鈥� eager coverage of the recent 鈥渞ange war鈥� showdown over Cliven Bundy鈥檚 cattle grazing rights in Nevada, the network broadcast a segment from the scene Monday that was remarkable both for the reporters鈥� seeming embrace of the and for its subjects鈥� startling clarity on their strategy for confronting federal agents: using women as human shields.
Richard Mack, the erstwhile Arizona sheriff and longtime figure in the Patriot movement, was at the scene. that the to stop law enforcement from rounding up the illegally grazing cattle 鈥� which had grown to hundreds by the time the and returned many of the cattle 鈥� were prepared to lay their lives on the line in standing up to the government. Or more precisely:
We were actually strategizing to put all the women up at the front. If they鈥檙e going to start shooting, it鈥檚 going to be women that are televised all across the world getting shot by these rogue federal officers.
Mack鈥檚 radical Posse-Comitatus-based , which claims that county sheriffs are the higest constitutional level of law enforcement, lines up nicely with Cliven Bundy鈥檚 . That explains why Mack has taken a lead role in helping promote Bundy鈥檚 cause in far-right media circles.
Monday鈥檚 Fox News segment, hosted by Gretchen Carlson, was also noteworthy for LaJeunesse鈥檚 characterization of the situation, which seemed to embrace the Patriot ideology:
And you know, it was those protesters and sympathizers, self-described Patriots, who provided Cliven Bundy the leverage he needed to get his cattle back, and to get the BLM to back off. Indeed, they were also backed up by many Second Amendment supporters, who were a well-armed militia, with assault rifles and handguns, who were prepared to respond to any assault or use of force, if you will, by BLM agents.
So you had the tensions mounting when these protesters went to I-15, closed down the road. When cowboys went down and tried to get the cattle back, they surrounded these BLM agents, confronting them, who were guarding the cattle inside holding pens. Now, above and around were marksmen in sniper positions. A retired Arizona sheriff worried about what was going to happen next.
LaJeunesse also explained to his audience: 鈥淏undy says that he doesn鈥檛 recognize federal authority here, that his grazing rights predate and preclude federal authority in this area.鈥�
However, he neglected to mention that Bundy has tested those claims in multiple court cases and has lost at every step, leading to the court order authorizing BLM to round up his trespassing cattle on federal lands.
