Posted on 04/11/2014 10:46:50 AM PDT by Sopater
Clark County Commissioner Tom Collins fears the dispute at Cliven Bundy’s ranch that has drawn protesters from across state lines might turn violent.
So when Collins talked this week with a county commissioner in Utah who said others are coming so Southern Nevada to support the Bundys, he did what he usually does: He spoke his opinion without mincing words or worrying if he offended someone.
Those comments are now making the rounds on social media and have attracted criticism from people ranging from Utah ranchers to his colleagues on the County Commission.
It started when Darin Bushman, a Piute County, Utah, commissioner, called Collins about the Bureau of Land Management roundup of Bundy’s cattle in the Gold Butte area, about 80 miles east of Las Vegas. The cattle are being seized after Bundy failed to pay grazing fees over 20 years. When the conversation ended, Bushman posted on Facebook that Collins said Utahns are “inbred bastards” and if they come to Clark County to support Bundy they “better have funeral plans.”
Collins also told Bushman that they should mind their “own (expletive) business.”
“Now that’s some classy leadership for you,” Bushman wrote in his post.
On Tuesday, Clark County commissioners will discuss decorum of commissioners, which was sparked in part by concerns about Collins’ recent statements, said commission Chairman Steve Sisolak. Sisolak said Collins won’t be the sole focus of that discussion, which will examine the broader issue of decorum.
He said he’s uncertain of what the outcome might be or whether it would require anything formal such as a policy change.
Commissioner Mary Beth Scow welcomes the decorum discussion, too.
“I think commissioners can agree to disagree and make better decisions when they get a diversity of thoughts but I don’t believe it can ever be personal,” she said. “I think the phrase ‘agree to disagree’ works very well.”
In an interview, Collins downplayed Bushman’s elected office, noting his county has only about 1,500 people. Census data shows the tiny rural county has just 1,556 people.
“I’m trying to do everything I can to discourage anybody who tells me they’re coming here with loaded guns,” Collins said. “I’m going to tell them not to come.”
The issues at hand are complex and a protester who doesn’t understand rural Nevada fails to grasp the whole picture of the situation, Collins said.
In an email to the Review-Journal, he added: “This isn’t about Cliven’s cows nearly as much as it is about Public Lands access. We don’t need anyone toting guns to fix that.”
Collins said he’s been in touch with BLM officials about the issue and is closely following the situation.
“The Bundys want peace,” Collins said. “They don’t want any violence going on so all these gun-packing folks just need to go home.”
Bushman said he contacted Collins to discuss his views on jurisdictions of lands. He said the conversation for the most part was “civil and professional,” as he shared his understanding of how federal jurisdictions work.
Bushman said he told Collins he was heading to the protest and expected some people from his county to be there, as the issue has attracted the concerns of Utah ranchers.
“This guy was just off-the-hook weird,” Bushman said. “I’ve never ran into a fellow commissioner who treated me like that.”
At the Bundy ranch with protesters Monday, Bushman mentioned the exchange with someone who called Collins on a speakerphone and inquired about the conversation.
Again, Collins insulted Utahns, Bushman said, angering the Beehive State residents who were supporting the Bundys.
When asked if he had any regrets about what he told the county commissioner from Utah, Collins said: “I’ve got no regrets about what I said to that son of a bitch.”
Please forgive my ignorance on this, but if the deal for grazing on public lands is to pay a fee for it and you don’t pay that fee for 20 years, isn’t reasonable that the government might remove your cattle from that land?
5.56mm
Looks like a dissipated drunk.
The history of Ruby Ridge, the history of Waco, Elian Gonzales, and if they asked their daddies, they might get a “the history of soldiers explaining why they burned those bodies in the ovens in Nazi Germany”.....
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A domestic analog to the Nuremburg Trials should be the stuff of their nightmares. They can’t see far enough down the road.
They’ve overstepped, overthugged, and they are in the wrong.
What’s right is that they should leave. But they won’t.
They can’t be seen as backing down anywhere or any time.
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A rock and a hard place. They can’t go forward either.
They have brought things to the brink no matter what they do now.
But should certain families have special claim to free use of massive amounts of federal lands just because their forebears had a special privilege?
And yeah, I think the EPA goes too far in protecting some obscure something or other, but I don’t really see how I support a family and some friends fighting back against that at gunpoint.
I may still be missing part of the story, but from what I understand I don’t really see their case in bringing it to this point.
That’s an entirely different question.
It’s a larger question, but not, IMO, the key one in this particular circumstance right now.
So do you think we all should just give ourselves squatters rights to whatever chunk of federal land we’d like—I’d rather fancy the Lincoln Memorial—and call in a ‘militia’ to defend our claim?
Or, did this family inherit some sort of greater right than you or I have?
FU Collings you pig. Rot in hell with your entire family.
So you are okay with my taking the Lincoln Memorial!
Are ya gonna come back me up on it?
Will the feds be wrong in using force to kick us out?
“So do you think we all should just give ourselves squatters rights to whatever chunk of federal land we’d like—I’d rather fancy the Lincoln Memorial—and call in a ‘militia’ to defend our claim?”
My town has 10 miles of clean, flat sandy beach on the Pacific Ocean.
I’d just like about an acre or two, and the rest of you can argue over when you get to use yours, for how much in fees, etc.
But I want mine, because I’ve been here since 1968. Oh. My grandfather was a cowboy (true), beachboy (not true), so laws, regulations, fees don’t apply to me.
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