Sheriff Who Helped Talk Bundy Down Blames BLM For ‘Escalating’ Standoff

File-This April 12, 2014 file photo shows Rancher Cliven Bundy, center, addresses his supporters along side Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie, right, while being guarded by self-described militia members in the for... File-This April 12, 2014 file photo shows Rancher Cliven Bundy, center, addresses his supporters along side Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie, right, while being guarded by self-described militia members in the foreground. Armed backers of the embattled rancher, Bundy are still living along a state highway in southern Nevada, almost three weeks after an armed standoff halted U.S. Bureau of Land Management plans to round up cattle he grazes on public land. The BLM says Bundy owes $1.1 million in grazing fees and penalties. (AP Photo/Las Vegas Review-Journal, Jason Bean,File) MORE LESS
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The Clark County, Nev., sheriff, who was in the middle of the Bundy Ranch standoff earlier this year, says he lays some of the blame with the Bureau of Land Management for “escalating” the situation with its tactics.

Sheriff Doug Gillespie, who served as an intermediary of sorts between Bundy and the BLM, gave one of his first interviews on the situation to the Las Vegas Sun’s editorial board. He spoke specifically of an online video that surfaced of a BLM ranger allegedly using a Taser on a Bundy Ranch protester.

“I think if anybody would look at how they handled the protesting with the use of Tasers and police dogs, anyone who had been in policing would question those tactics,” he said. “And I believe that led to the heightened interest and escalating the situation.”

But he also pointed to Bundy’s anti-government views as a major factor in the standoff.

“My counsel (to Bundy) was: You have no legal standing; you choose not to go to federal court and argue your case,” Gillespie said. “But he would not recognize the federal government. So dealing with him wasn’t making a lot of success.”

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