Ammon Bundy and 7 Oregon Protesters Held; LaVoy Finicum Is Reported Dead

[Takka 13,376]

 

Ammon Bundy, the leader of an armed seizing of a federal wildlife refuge in rural eastern Oregon, was arrested and one person was killed Tuesday afternoon in a traffic stop in rural Oregon, the F.B.I. and the Oregon State Police said.

 

Seven other people, including Mr. Bundy’s brother Ryan Bundy, were arrested, the authorities said. Another person was hospitalized with injuries that were not life-threatening.

 

The authorities did not identify the man who was killed, but a member of the Nevada State Assembly, Michele Fiore, who has been a supporter of the Bundy family, said on Twitter that it was LaVoy Finicum. Mr. Finicum had become a de facto spokesman for the occupiers.

 

The confrontation came after more than three weeks of growing tension and anxiety that put the tiny community of Burns — about a five-hour drive from Portland — into an international debate about homegrown right-wing militias, public lands and constitutional rights. Mr. Bundy, 40, and a group of his followers, adopting the name Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, about 30 miles southeast of Burns, in Harney County, on Jan. 2.

 

Community leaders demanded that the group leave, but several members were still occupying the refuge Tuesday night, and on Wednesday morning, local media reported that roadblocks had been set up to limit access to the refuge.

 

The Bundy brothers and supporters were arrested along Highway 395 outside Burns around 4:25 p.m., officials said.

 

Ammon Bundy and some of his group had been expected at a community meeting Tuesday night about 70 miles away in John Day, Ore., about 100 miles north of the Malheur refuge in Grant County, a county adjacent to Harney. Mr. Bundy was to be the guest speaker. They never arrived.

 

For weeks, there was deep uncertainty as to how, when or, some said, even if law enforcement agents would take action. On Tuesday, the authorities appear to have strategically timed their stop of the protesters so that it was away from the refuge. The sheriff of Grant County, Glenn Palmer, had expressed sympathy for the occupation — saying that “the government is going to have to concede something” to the protesters, such as dismissing the F.B.I. from the area and releasing the Hammonds, the father-and-son ranching team whose imprisonment on arson charges was a rallying point for the Bundys.

 

Members of the protest group had been suggesting in recent days that they might find a more sympathetic ear in Grant County, and that they might try to expand their activities there. Their plans to travel to John Day, which is linked to Malheur by a single highway, were well known in the area.

 

The Bundys and the other occupiers contend that the federal government had illegally taken land in Oregon and elsewhere around the West from ranchers and other private landholders over the decades, and they demanded that it be returned to local control. They also said they were supporting two local ranchers imprisoned for setting fires that spread to federal land.

 

Oregon’s governor, Kate Brown, who has called on the federal government to enforce the law, asked Oregonians on Tuesday night to be patient as the investigation unfolded. The refuge is operated by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

 

The F.B.I. and the Oregon State Police said that Mr. Bundy, his brother and three other people, including Shawna Cox, 59, of Kanab, Utah, and Ryan Waylen Payne, 32, of Anaconda, Mont., were arrested on a state highway, but they provided no further details. Ms. Cox and Mr. Payne were prominent in speaking for the refuge. Also arrested on the highway was Brian Cavalier, 44, of Bunkerville, Nev.

 

The authorities said only that shots were fired during the course of the arrest. Two other people: Peter Santilli, 50, of Cincinnati, and Joseph Donald O’Shaughnessy, 45, of Cottonwood, Ariz., were arrested later in Burns, and John Eric Ritzheimer, 32, turned himself in to the police in Peoria, Ariz., the authorities said. All of the defendants face a federal felony charge of conspiracy to impede officers of the United States from discharging their official duties through the use of force, intimidation or threats.

 

At the refuge, a spokesman said they would wait out the night. Jason Patrick, an occupier, said that several people were still inside and that the mood was “prepared but calm.”

 

“They said ‘peaceful resolution,’ but now there is a dead cowboy,” he said, adding that he believes the F.B.I. was “hellbent on war.”

 

Mr. Patrick would not say whether the occupiers would stay at the refuge in the long term.

 

“The plan is peaceful resolution through the night. Ammon says the sunlight is the best disinfectant,” he said. “We’ll let the sun shine and see what’s up.”

 

Mr. Bundy’s family became a symbol of antigovernment sentiment in 2014 when his father, Cliven Bundy, inspired a standoff between armed local activists and federal officials seeking to confiscate cattle grazing illegally on federal land in Nevada.

 

At the refuge, a 188,000-acre expanse of high desert sage that is known as one of the great migratory bird viewing areas of North America, vehement determination and low-key, soft-spoken declarations of belief mixed like oil and water on any given day. Supporters of the occupation — Mr. Santilli, in particular — were openly belligerent to counterprotesters and other opponents of the occupation. On one recent day, when an environmental group came bearing signs denouncing the occupation, Mr. Santilli screamed in their faces.

 

Mr. Santilli was recording a live stream on Tuesday when he was taken into custody as he tried to re-enter the refuge. Supporters who were in a vehicle with him said in the video that they had been trying to evacuate some women and children.

 

Ms. Cox, in an interview inside a building at the refuge a few days before her arrest, also vowed to stay until the federal government handed it over to local control. “When the people come and take their rightful position, then we can go home,” she said. “They are coming; it’s just taking a little while.”

 

Harney County, which has only about 7,100 people spread out over an area roughly the size of Massachusetts, has a small hospital in Burns, the biggest community. Law enforcement officials did not say where the injured person was treated. But St. Charles hospital in Bend, about 150 miles west of the refuge, was on lockdown Tuesday night, with no one other than patients and employees able to enter. There were 10 police cars and one fire truck in front. Two police officers with assault weapons were in the foyer. Officials would not confirm if any victims have been airlifted there.

 

Source

[Iggy 688]

It's a damn shame someone had to die over something that should never have taken place to begin with.

The people who occupied the refuge ILLEGALLY are nothing more or less than domestic terrorists.

Let us hope that this will come to a peaceful end now without further bloodshed.

[Weps 1,378]

The people who occupied the refuge ILLEGALLY are nothing more or less than domestic terrorists.

 

Phew, that's some piping hot hyperbole you've got there. 

[NeX 1,756]

This guy is just fantastic.

 

“I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” he said. Mr. Bundy recalled driving past a public-housing project in North Las Vegas, “and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids — and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch — they didn’t have nothing to do. They didn’t have nothing for their kids to do. They didn’t have nothing for their young girls to do.

“And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” he asked. “They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”

[Iggy 688]

Phew, that's some piping hot hyperbole you've got there.

It is indeed, just wanted to get my point across and I don't think I'm wrong.

[DiSiAC 1,347]

Yallqaeda leader is now a walmartyre.   

[Weps 1,378]

It is indeed, just wanted to get my point across and I don't think I'm wrong.

 

Oh, so you're not dealing in facts, just social justice parlance. 

 

The label "Domestic Terrorism" is tossed around by Twitter users, Tumblrites, Redditors and a good portion of the media like it's a buzzword or hashtag.

 

In reality, domestic terrorism is a VERY serious matter and a VERY serious charge.

 

Under the Patriot Act domestic terrorism is defined as;

 

"activities that (A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the U.S. or of any state; (B) appear to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and © occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S."

 

None of these apply to this situation as it stands, because at this time there isn't evidence that Ammon Bundy's group did any of the following;

 

-preform any acts that endangered human life that was in violation of criminal law. 

 

- intimidate or coerce a civilian population.

 

- influence government policy by intimidation or coercion.

 

- affect the conduct of the government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping.

 

What I find most interesting, is that I didn't see you placing the same label on "rioters or protesters" during the Baltimore and Missouri riots, when said "rioters or protesters" violated each of the stipulations listed under the Patriot Act that qualify as "domestic terrorism". (The destruction and actions by the "rioters and protests" are very well documented in a slew of legitimate media sources)

 

Which leaves me to assume you known absolutely nothing of what has gone on in Oregon over the past three weeks, but have simply parroted what you hear from social media.

 

As it stands, the US Government has only charged the individuals in the Oregon Standoff with;

 

Conspiracy to impede officers of the United States from discharging their official duties through the use of force, intimidation or threats.

 

Now, before anyone jumps in and starts arguing. What Ammon Bundy and his band of followers did was ludicrous and stupid. I do not support what they've done, but this post isn't about that, it's about not throwing around nonsense people hear and continue to parrot without a single fact to support it.

 

If and most possibly when the US Government charges the group with domestic terrorism, is when they can be referred to as domestic terrorism.

[WaeV 5,049]

Attention-seeking would-be martyrs they may be, but I agree with Weps they don't seem to be terrorists.

 

The guy who did the Planned Parenthood shooting, on the other hand, is a terrorist. (By Weps' criteria above)

[Weps 1,378]

Attention-seeking would-be martyrs they may be, but I agree with Weps they don't seem to be terrorists.

 

The guy who did the Planned Parenthood shooting, on the other hand, is a terrorist. (By Weps' criteria above)

 

Exactly, Robert Dear is a domestic terrorist under the Patriot Act. 

[tarikja 918]

The guy who did the Planned Parenthood shooting, on the other hand, is a terrorist.

If that is true then the English language is certainly lacking some terms.

Or is the motive and mental health of the perpetrator known? Because I wasn't following that incident.