Rancho Deluxe Enters the 21st century

If we remember, our young rustlers, Sam Waterson and Jeff Bridges, took an old buffalo rifle to fell the cows on a ranch of a wealthy man and were apprehended by Slim Pickins, who used the old tricks of the trade from the cowboy West. Our young rustlers ended up at a prison farm tending the horses.

Today, Rancho DeLuxe, one of Tom McGuane's finest Hollywood creations, gets a remake. The Daily Mail of the U.K. writes that Sheriff Kelly Janke of North Dakota became the first American lawman to use an unmanned Predator to nail the dangerous Brossart family. This was the first reported use of a predator by local law enforcement officials without prior congressional approval or a search warrant.

The Brossart family had a reputation of being armed and being anti-government separatists who lived on a sprawling farm with a house, a trailer and two RVs.

The problem was that the Brossarts wouldn't give up three cows and their calves that wandered on their farm during the summer. The sheriff rounded up some deputies and arrested Mr. Brossart for failing to report stray livestock and then came back to collect the lost cattle only to be confronted by the three sons who confronted the officers with rifles and shotguns.

The sheriff then sumoned a MQ-9 Predator B drone from nearby Grand Forks Air Force Base, where it had been patrolling the Canadian border. Using a handheld device, the sheriff picked up video footage that tracked the movements of everyone on the farm. After 16 hours, he saw that the Brossarts had put down their weapons. Dressed in SWAT gear, they stormed the compound and arrested the three sons.

The police recovered the cattle, valued at $6,000. All the Brossarts face several felony charges and have repeatedly not shown up to court after posting $250,000 in bail.

Sheriff Janke said his operation would not have been possible without the intelligence provided by the predators. "We don't have to go in guns blazing. We can take our time and methodically plan out what our approach should be.", he told the Los Angeles Times.

All the surveillance occurred without a search warrant because the Supreme Court ruled that anything visible from the air, even on private property can be subject to police spying. No one asked about the having federal government predators serving at the beck and call of local law enforcement. Nor did anyone ask how much did this all cost compared to the $6,000 in cows.

I think I'll stay with Slim Pickens. He was a better sport.