The federal Bureau of Land Management was created during the Truman presidency as the merger between two previously existing agencies The BLM is charged with sustaining “the health, diversity, and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.” Its duties are fairly mundane regulatory matters including regulating the grazing of private herds on public lands and imposing fees for such use of public land.
This appendage of the federal government has long been a source of contention for the American right wing and curiously not for its mission to preservation of the environment. Less surprising is the air of paranoia that surrounds this organization. This other BLM has been the source of conspiracy theories ranging from the pedestrian to the outlandish. Claims of pay-to-play scandals are one of the boilerplate charges but some of the more extreme criticisms include accusation that this other BLM acts as “Obama’s private army.”
On the face of it, these charges are easy to laugh off as the bizarre ramblings of the likes of “reporters” at the Blaze. Indeed one such contributor, citing the BLM’s control of 40% of domestic helium production and distribution as an example of the federal government’s insidious intrusions into private affairs claiming that “If that isn’t government reaching into your everyday life in the sneakiest ways imaginable, I don’t know what is.”
But such unrealistic perceptions of the world, as history has amply proven, can have very dark, real world consequences. And in a country wherein the majority population believes itself to be under siege it should come as little surprise that the greatest threat for domestic terrorism comes from white, Christian, right wing activists.
So hundreds of demonstrators, many armed or claiming to represent a militia, rallied around Cliven Bundy in a showdown against the federal government. Federal agents had weapons leveled at them. The pro-Bundy coalition garnered support from nationally recognized media outlets and persisted for weeks ending almost anti-climatically with a withdrawal of federal troops in the hopes of avoiding a bloodbath. Individuals claiming to be ideological disciples went out and killed two police officers leaving on their bodies some of the common symbols of the American right.
Cliven Bundy was never arrested
A Black Lives Matter demonstrator, having broken the rear window out of a car, has been held on a half million dollar bail. This sum is greater than any of the officers indicted in the murder of Freddie Gray.
Those opposed to our BLM hyperventilate about the imagined anti-police undercurrent within the movement. These same people and their ideological allies have been explicitly involved in the murder of police and armed showdowns with the law.
The police, whose actions have provided the very spark that ignited our BLM have spent far more resources disrupting and infiltrating our movement than focusing on the far more apparent threat coming from certain segments of the population. The media has treated our BLM with far more animosity than Bundy and his supporters. The legal repercussions of questioning police tactics have been far more dramatic than those facing people who have a truly demonstrable, anti-police bias.
Imagine if Bundy ranch was owned by Black folks.
As an addendum, a chapter of the right wing paramilitary group the Oath Keepers is preparing for another possible showdown with the Bureau of Land Management, this time in Oregon and over mining rights as opposed to grazing rights. The battle thus far has played out in town hall meetings.
When Black folks shine the light on the systematic, state sanctioned violence against our people the full weight of the state is brought to bear against us. This is our equal protection under the law.
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