George Miller: “National Park rangers and BLM rangers and other Federal law enforcement officers are daily subjected to threats of…”

“National Park rangers and BLM rangers and other Federal law enforcement officers are daily subjected to threats of violence and danger. The men and women who protect our resources and our citizens deserve our respect and our support, whether they wear the uniform in the streets of our cities or in the desolate back woods of our public lands. However, we see a Bureau of Land Management law enforcement ranger in Montana responding to knife assaults, a BLM ranger in California coming upon a drug deal that is turning into a shootout, guns are fired at BLM vehicles in New Mexico, and the list of violent incidents are growing: 29 homicides, 110 cases of arson, 166 weapons violations, and hundreds of more serious offenses on BLM land every year. That is why Americans are shocked to hear about Members of this House calling for the disarming of law enforcement officials or suggesting that those who violate public laws have an irrational fear of their government. Now they are getting very specific. The Chairman of the House Committee on Resources, in a letter to the Committee on Appropriations, has called for zero funding of BLM resources protection of law enforcement and huge cuts in law enforcement in the Forest Service. The Members of this House should stand with law enforcement.”