With Investigations in Nevada and Utah, BLM Moves to Quell Rising Antigovernment Ire
The federal Bureau of Land Management kept a low public profile in the weeks following the armed standoff at , where the government in the face of opposition from heavily armed militiamen. But this week the agency took to the airwaves to promise that such incidents would not go unpunished.
Speaking with , BLM director Neil Kornze said the agency was intent on working through the legal system to address those who broke the law on April 12 when heavily armed antigovernment militias forced BLM to suspend a court-ordered roundup of rancher Cliven Bundy鈥檚 cattle from roughly 600,000 acres of public lands. Photos and eyewitness accounts from the standoff indicate that the militiamen trained their guns on federal agents.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 say a lot because there鈥檚 an active investigation going on, but we are working hard to insure that those who did break the law are held accountable,鈥� Kornze said on Monday鈥檚 episode of The Diane Rehm Show. 鈥淲e are going to work through the legal system.鈥�
Kornze鈥檚 comments are the first from the BLM since the Nevada standoff, and they come as other clashes between and federal agents have popped up around the West.
In Utah, last weekend, restrictions on the use of federal lands by riding ATVs into restricted areas of Recapture Canyon, which were closed to motorized traffic to protect archaeological sites from damage. Megan Crandall, a BLM spokeswoman in Utah, told Hatewatch that there were undercover agents in the Utah crowd documenting who violated federal law, and that the BLM was devoting 鈥渟ubstantial resources鈥� to pursue charges there, too.
鈥淭he BLM is continuing to investigate and will pursue all available redress through the legal system to hold individuals who broke the law accountable,鈥� Crandall said.
