BLM to Miner: My Authority Supersedes the Constitution

Not only did these haughty Federal tools chase off a woman and her husband from their legally filed mining claim, they had the couple arrested too.  Initially charged with “obstruction” the Crossmans were eventually charged with improper use of a snow mobile, a much lesser fine.  Of course that “lesser” charge only went through after the Feds drove the Crossmans into the poor house fighting these legal battles.

In a confrontation with the BLM, the Idaho miner asked, “You are telling me that you supersede the Constitution of the united States?” The BLM employee smugly replied, “Yes, I do.”

Nicole Crossman, one of the founders of the South West Idaho Mining Association, and her husband John, along with some others were at the family’s camp on July 11^th, 2012 when they were approached by two BLM employees, who were identified as Ann Marie Sharkey and Jeff Weiss.

Video evidence, which has now been removedand another video made private, shows what seems to be a friendly encounter between the employees and the Crossmans. However, once Sharkey spotted mining incident tools, she demanded that Mrs. Crossman produce identification. The text of the conversation comes from Mrs. Crossman.

Crossman did not comply, but rather asked Sharkey what he law enforcement status was. Sharkey claimed to be a federal BLM agent, but when asked to get her supervisor out to where they were, Sharkey called the Sheriff’s Department on her radio and claimed that she owned the Crossman’s claim by way of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), which is an unconstitutional act.

Source: Eagle Rising

So the two agents claimed, though from where I sit it sounds like Ms. Sharkey is the more aggressive one, that the BLM was the unrivaled master of the Crossman’s mining claim, beyond any Constitutional or other legal barrier based on an inherently unconstitutional act.  This is the same nonsense that the BLM pulled at the Bundy ranch in Nevada, and again with added murder and bloodshed in Burns, Oregon just a few weeks ago.  Seizure of property, trespassing, intimidation, harassment.  Just a few of the BLM’s favorite things.