Do they do this so often that they have a different name for it?
Some miners in Alaska want the feds to start digging for answers.
A task force including members of 10 state and federal law enforcement agencies descended on a gold mine in the tiny town of Chicken (pop. 17) last month, in what locals described as a raid.
“Imagine coming up to your diggings, only to see agents swarming over it like ants, wearing full body armor, with jackets that say “POLICE” emblazoned on them, and all packing side arms,†gold miner C.R. Hammond told the Alaska Dispatch. “How would you have felt? You would be wondering, ‘My God, what have I done now?â€
A spokesman for the federal Environmental Protection Agency did not deny that agents wore body armor and carried guns, but said it was not a “raid.”
I want to know exactly what the EPA guy thinks that is then, because it sounds like a description of a raid to me. Does his distinction arise because it didn’t happen at a residence?
Less than 50 years ago there would have been some dead agents. These government employed eco-warriors are lucky Alaska has tamed.
Been through Chicken a couple of times. Polite folks, with pretty much everyone we saw being armed. Not much in the way of services. I was doing a road-trip to Eagle to go hunting. the fact that they have anyone up there doing anything but looking for claim jumpers is just stupid; is it any wonder the locals don’t exactly look at them with smiles on their faces. It would be interesting to see what happens the first time a van-load of them suddenly “disappears,” and ain’t nobody saw nuthin’.
Alaska is a big place. Too bad it was so many agents otherwise I think the locals might have been tempted to employ “the three S’s.”
Yeah, it seems as if those country folks must not be old school pioneer types…
Merle