Some Republicans want to throw the feds in jail?
There came a time during the Assembly Judiciary Committee’s hearing Monday when Las Vegas Republican Michele Fiore wondered — out loud — why it was that county sheriffs weren’t arresting federal law enforcement officers (she called them “thugs”) for impersonating police officers.
Oh, yes, that happened.
Fiore recounted her experience at the Bunkerville ranch of Cliven Bundy in April 2014, when hordes of well-armed, self-styled militia types showed up to confront federal Bureau of Land Management officers who were there to serve a duly issued court order to seize cattle that Bundy had been illegally grazing on federal land for two decades.
Fiore says she got a text from a friend on the Metro Police SWAT team warning her to leave the ranch, lest she be shot by BLM rangers, who donned body armor and picked up long guns, no doubt in response to Bundy’s declaration of a “range war” that turned his peaceful ranch into an armed insurgent camp.
“In Bunkerville, I have to let you know, we were seconds away from going shot,” Fiore recalled dramatically. “They would shoot you and me just like they did with the cows.”
For the record, no one was shot. The entire standoff ended when the BLM elected to end the cattle seizure rather than risk bloodshed.
That incident was one cited at Monday’s hearing over Assembly Bill 283, a measure by Sparks Republican Assemblyman Ira Hansen that seeks to truncate the authority of federal officers to enforce state laws while on state land, absent a signed agreement with a local sheriff and Nevada-specific law enforcement training for federal officers involved.
Hansen was careful to say his bill was not a vestige of the Sagebrush Rebellion; he says his intent is to stop federal officers from enforcing state laws on state land, not on the 81 percent of Nevada’s lands that are owned and managed by federal agencies. (Although, to be honest, one gets the impression that Hansen chafes at that idea, too.)
He said the incident that led to his bill was the shooting of D’Andre Berghardt Jr. in Red Rock Canyon in February 2014 by BLM rangers after Berghardt struggled with them and Nevada Highway Patrol troopers. Berghardt’s death may have been averted, Hansen claimed, had his bill been in effect and only local and state police been involved. (Memo to Hansen: Local police in Las Vegas have been known to use deadly force a time or two.)
It’s a much more dramatic story than that told by Eureka County Sheriff Keith Logan, whose tale of federal overreach boils down to a BLM ranger asking a hunting party on a county road to see their hunting license, or their identification. (The hunters refused, and drove away unmolested.) But Logan and other rural sheriffs who testified in favor of Hansen’s bill aren’t too keen on cooperating with federal officers.
“Folks in our respective jurisdictions have elected us to protect them. We don’t need a lot of federal authorities to muddy up the waters, so to speak,” says Gerry Antinoro, sheriff of Storey County and president of the Nevada Sheriff’s and Chief’s Association.
But arresting federal agents for enforcing the law, albeit on state lands? Hansen says he could envision that scenario. “That’s where all of this is slowly going,” he said. “Ultimately, what this bill is trying to do is put a little oil on troubled waters.”
Alas, oil and water don’t mix. As usual, it was left to Las Vegas police lobbyist Chuck Calloway to bring some sanity to the discussion, saying that if a BLM ranger observed someone breaking the law in Red Rock Canyon, at Lake Mead or another far-flung area of Clark County, he’d hope that lawman would do something to protect the public.
Indeed, back in the real world, on the same day as the surreal hearing in Carson City, it was announced that a joint venture between Metro and the U.S. Marshal’s Service in Las Vegas resulted in the arrest of 18 people who had allegedly failed to register with authorities, as required by law, as well as fugitives wanted for allegedly committing sex crimes.
For the record, people, that’s how it’s supposed to work: The good guys — federal, state and local — putting the bad guys in jail.
Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist who blogs at SlashPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter (@SteveSebelius) or reach him at 702-387-5276 or SSebelius@reviewjournal.com.
