Friday, April 11, 2014

'It was like a war zone': Battle between southern Nevada's last rancher and feds escalates as pregnant woman and cancer survivor assaulted by agents



Protesters and militias swarming into Nevada are being arrested as a rancher wages war against federal agents he says are trying to take both his cattle and his land. At least three people have been arrested while protesting the removal of the cattle from land rancher Cliven Bundy, of Bunkerville, says has been in his family since the 1870s - the government claims it is federal land Bundy is using illegally. Armed private militias have even joined the family in its fight against the government, according to 8 News Now. A spokesperson for one of the militias claimed he 'isn't afraid to shoot.' Margaret Houston, Cliven Bundy's sister and a cancer survivor, told those gathered Wednesday at a town hall meeting that the scene 'was like a war zone, I felt like I was not in the United States.' 'Serious bloodshed was narrowly avoided,' the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported, as dogs were also socked on a pregnant woman and the rancher's son was shot with a taser, witnesses said. Houston claimed during that town hall meeting that an agent threw her to the ground.
'All of a sudden I get hit from the back, it was like a football tackle,' she said. 'They took me and just threw me down to the ground.' She was not hurt in the incident, but said she was 'shocked that somebody would actually do this.' A BLM spokesperson told 8 News Now the protests turned violent after one of the protesters kicked one of the K-9 units.  Another protester, from Utah, accused the BLM agents of 'Throwing women to the ground, tasing them [and] sicking K-9 dogs on them,' in comments to the station...more

No comments: