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Militia Group Takes Over Federal Building In Eastern Oregon Because “The Lord Was Not Pleased”

ramonmercado

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Militia Group Takes Over Federal Building in Eastern Oregon Because “The Lord Was Not Pleased”

Anti-government militia member releases video pledging to drive to Oregon: "I want to die a free man."

A group of anti-government militia members have occupied the headquarters and visitors center of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Ore., apparently seeking to provoke a standoff with the federal government.

Several of the right-wing militia members are sons of Cliven Bundy, a Nevada cattle rancher whose fight with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management sparked an armed confrontation with federal officials in 2014.

Militia members have been traveling to the town of Burns, Ore. in recent weeks in support of Harney County rancher Dwight Hammond, Jr. and his son Steven Hammond, who in 2012 were convicted of arson for setting fires on federal land where they had poached deer. (The wildfires burned 139 acres of Bureau of Land Management property in 2001.)

In October, a federal judge sentenced the pair to five years in prison.

The Oregonian reported earlier this week on escalating tensions as the Hammonds' prison date approached.

JJ MacNab, who has covered right-wing extremists for Forbes magazine,first reported this afternoon that militia members had seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters. They appear to be led by Ammon Bundy, one of Cliven's sons.

The building that Bundy and his cohorts have occupied is this headquarters and visitors center 30 miles south of Burns. It was closed for the weekend.

In a YouTube video released Dec. 31, Ammon Bundy says that God directed him to go to Oregon, a state he had never visited before.


"I began to understand how the Lord felt about the Hammonds," Bundy says in the video. "I began to understand how the Lord felt about Harney County and about this country. And I clearly understood that the Lord was not pleased with what was happening to the Hammonds… If we allowed the Hammonds to continue to be punished, there would be accountability." ...

http://www.wweek.com/2016/01/02/mil...tern-oregon-because-the-lord-was-not-pleased/

A Right-Wing Christian Fundamentalist Uprising. This all revolves around a bunch of people wanting to seize Federal land and shoot game on Federal land whenever they want.
 
All the police have to do is wait.
They'll get hungry and come out.
 
All the police have to do is wait.
They'll get hungry and come out.

Guys like this are likely to have plenty of supplies and will no doubt have a working generator etc. This could take months and quite possibly end in a Waco/Ruby Ridge style massacre.

What the article posted above doesn't make clear is that the Hammonds had already served prison terms for their crimes, but after their release a judge increased their sentences and ordered they be returned to prison. It is this which has sparked the current stand off.
 
Oregon sheriff says militia members want to overthrow the government

The sheriff of Harney County, Oregon, said that militia members who seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters on Saturday are not there to show solidarity with a local ranching family.

"These men came to Harney County claiming to be part of militia groups supporting local ranchers, when in reality these men had alternative motives to attempt to overthrow the county and federal government in hopes to spark a movement across the United States," Sheriff David Ward said in a statement. The militia members said they were protesting the fact that Dwight Hammond Jr. and his son, Steve, of Burns, Oregon, were convicted of arson after burning 139 acres of federal land.

Reporters estimate that 12 to 25 men took over the building on Saturday. Ammon Bundy, the son of Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher who clashed with the government over grazing rights, is one of the protesters; however, a lawyer for the Hammond family told KOIN 6 News that Bundy and the others at the headquarters do not speak for them. BuzzFeed reports that the militia members said they plan to stay in the building until the land is turned over to local residents.

http://theweek.com/speedreads/597209/oregon-sheriff-says-militia-members-want-overthrow-government
 
There's going to get thoroughly Waco'd.
 
I Studied Oregon’s Militia Movement. Here’s 5 Things You Need to Know
Spencer Sunshine | January 3, 2016
‘Patriot’ groups are a spinoff cult of white supremacists.

FacebookTwitter

While the news of the Bundy gang forcefully taking over a federal building in Oregon may come as a surprise to some, the occupation is part of a larger pattern for those who have studied far-right political movements. Here are five points that provide a greater context for why this is happening, who the occupiers are, and who actually supports their radical viewpoints.

1. It’s actually a land grab — with guns
Despite the talk about supporting the Hammond family in Burns, Oregon, the takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters is actually part of a long-standing campaign by radical right-wingers to dismantle federal land ownership in the West. Some elected officials are working through mainstream channels to get lands transferred to state or county governments, or to allow them equal say over their use. But the Malheur takeover seems to be an attempt to spread a tactic of armed federal land takeovers. These armed groups are part of the “Patriot movement”—the successor to the 1990s militia movement—which has seen a rebirth since the election of Barack Obama in 2008. ...

http://linkis.com/usuncut.com/news/Vejed
 
Here is an extensive 2014 article concerning the Bumdy ranch standoff, from the Southern Poverty Law Center
https://www.splcenter.org/20140709/war-west-bundy-ranch-standoff-and-american-radical-right
It may be helpful in understanding the current situatiion.

The article also contains a timeline of militia activity up to that point.

(I really dont want to cause any offence here, so I want to warn that the SPLC is a pro-civil rights pro-tolerance organization. If you dont agree with that view, you may want to avoid the article.)

ETA - info from justice dept. re: the Hammonds resentencing for arson conviction
http://www.justice.gov/usao-or/pr/e...convicted-arson-resentenced-five-years-prison
 
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Here is an extensive 2014 article concerning the Bumdy ranch standoff, from the Southern Poverty Law Center
https://www.splcenter.org/20140709/war-west-bundy-ranch-standoff-and-american-radical-right
It may be helpful in understanding the current situatiion.

The article also contains a timeline of militia activity up to that point.

(I really dont want to cause any offence here, so I want to warn that the SPLC is a pro-civil rights pro-tolerance organization. If you dont agree with that view, you may want to avoid the article.)

ETA - info from justice dept. re: the Hammonds resentencing for arson conviction
http://www.justice.gov/usao-or/pr/e...convicted-arson-resentenced-five-years-prison

Thanks Ulalume - very informative article. I see it has an Agenda 21 (discussed elewhere on the board) reference in there as well!

I'll admit to being surprised that the militia movement is still such a big (and apparently growing) thing. I'd always thought of it as having had its heyday in the 90s.

The current standoff seems to involve locals, whose primary concern is what they see as the shabby treatment of the Hammonds, along with Bundy and others who have quite a different motivation.
 
What the article posted above doesn't make clear is that the Hammonds had already served prison terms for their crimes, but after their release a judge increased their sentences and ordered they be returned to prison. It is this which has sparked the current stand off.
I didn't know that.
Sounds like they have a perfectly valid grievance.
 
Here is an extensive 2014 article concerning the Bumdy ranch standoff, from the Southern Poverty Law Center
https://www.splcenter.org/20140709/war-west-bundy-ranch-standoff-and-american-radical-right
It may be helpful in understanding the current situatiion.
Very interesting article.
Agenda 21 is really at the core of this.
It doesn't help that most of the people in rural America fall into various categories that immediately put them in opposition with the federal government. Far right/fundamentalist Christian/racist/KKK/survivalist... etc.
If you look at Youtube for example, these people see themselves as 'true American patriots' and are plotting a civil war.
We all know what the outcome will probably be, and it's not pretty.
 
Very interesting article.
Agenda 21 is really at the core of this.
It doesn't help that most of the people in rural America fall into various categories that immediately put them in opposition with the federal government. Far right/fundamentalist Christian/racist/KKK/survivalist... etc.
If you look at Youtube for example, these people see themselves as 'true American patriots' and are plotting a civil war.
We all know what the outcome will probably be, and it's not pretty.
It's similar to the UK liberal metropolitan elite deciding what is best for rural UK - for instance law changes to allow companies to remove minerals under your land or the overturning of local democracy to allow fracking license. Both 'for the greater good' (i.e cash).

Both these and the US situation are forms of colonialism and those with material loses to consider will resist pretty hard, rightly so, who are any of us to enforce what's best for another? In the US though they have guns. As you say, it's not going to be pretty.
 
It's similar to the UK liberal metropolitan elite deciding what is best for rural UK - for instance law changes to allow companies to remove minerals under your land or the overturning of local democracy to allow fracking license. Both 'for the greater good' (i.e cash).
Yes, and all the while, we (the little people) are not allowed to do what we want with our land.
 
I didn't know that.
Sounds like they have a perfectly valid grievance.

Even in the UK the CPS can and does appeal sentences which are believed to be lenient. A higher court then rules on the issue. It often results in people being returned to prison. Thats what has happened in this case.
 
It's similar to the UK liberal metropolitan elite deciding what is best for rural UK - for instance law changes to allow companies to remove minerals under your land or the overturning of local democracy to allow fracking license. Both 'for the greater good' (i.e cash).

Both these and the US situation are forms of colonialism and those with material loses to consider will resist pretty hard, rightly so, who are any of us to enforce what's best for another? In the US though they have guns. As you say, it's not going to be pretty.

This case relates to Federal Land. On three separate occasions the people involved lit fires on their own land which spread to Federal Land. They also shot deer out of season on Federal Land.
 
At least 150 armed white men have seized control of a federal building outside of Burns, Oregon. They are led by a cadre which includes Ammon and Ryan Bundy. They are the sons of Cliven Bundy, the rancher who led a successful armed rebellion against federal law enforcement officers in Nevada last year. Since that event, Ammon and Ryan Bundy have been traveling the United States, meeting with other white “militia” groups, and inciting violence against the federal government.

The Washington Post reports:

“Those who want to go take hard stand, get in your trucks and follow me!” Ammon Bundy declared to rally-goers at the conclusion of Saturday’s event, according to several people who were in attendance. Not long afterward, the group had taken over the federal wildlife preserve.

Harney County Sheriff David M. Ward said authorities from several law enforcement organizations were monitoring the ongoing incident.

“These men came to Harney County claiming to be part of militia groups supporting local ranchers,” Ward said in a statement Sunday. “When in reality these men had alternative motives, to attempt to overthrow the county and federal government in hopes to spark a movement across the United States.”

Several of the men occupying a federal wildlife preserve in Oregon have even recorded “goodbye” videos to their relatives in anticipation of being killed in battle with the United States government. Others have threatened to use deadly force if local police or other government forces attempt to remove the protesters from the land and building they have occupied.

The actions taken by Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy, and their supporters in Oregon are the very definition of terrorism and armed insurrection.

It would seem that the year 2016 has begun with a strident example of unapologetic white privilege in action.

[Oregon is a perfect place for such a gesture, as it was admitted to the Union in 1859 with a constitution that explicitly banned blacks from the state. Black Americans were barred from moving to Oregon until 1926. The Ku Klux Klan and other white terrorist organizations used violence and other forms of intimidation in their (failed) efforts to prevent black Americans from settling in the area. At present, white nationalist organizations continue to claim the area as a foothold and primary base of operations.]

http://www.salon.com/2016/01/04/the...t_the_heart_of_the_new_bundy_family_standoff/
 
What is at stake in the government’s handling of the armed occupation of a small outpost in Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge?

On the one hand, a potential conflict between law officers and the armed militiamen headed by Ammon Bundy has left many in Burns, Oregon, feeling ill at ease. “I’m worried that there’s a trigger-happy idiot out there,” Burns resident Candy Tiller told Oregon Public Broadcasting last week. “And maybe a law enforcement officer or somebody else makes a move that makes him think they’re pulling a gun and he’s going to shoot. It worries me. It brings me to tears. I don’t want that. I don’t want that for anybody.”

The same report describes Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward losing sleep amidst death threats issued against him by supporters of the Hammond family, two of whom face prison sentences for setting fires on federal land. Meanwhile, even militia-sympathetic residents are expressing concern over the antagonistic tactics taken up by the Bundy group. For the sake of residents whose schools are now closed and who are living in a state of heightened anxiety, and of local law enforcement whose resources are being drained by the militia’s activities, it is critical to resolve the occupation as soon as possible.

https://newrepublic.com/article/126963/oregon-next-waco
 
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.... most of the people in rural America fall into various categories that immediately put them in opposition with the federal government. Far right/fundamentalist Christian/racist/KKK/survivalist... etc.
Sorry, Myth. I take issue with this generalisation. Most rural Americans are mundane folk with families and worries of their own that have nothing to do with the extreme fringes thrust into our eyes by media.
 
They're fortunate being in America - this is the penalty for what they did in Australia - Egoists, all of them.

Criminal Code 2002 405
Causing bushfires Intentionally or recklessly causes a fire and is reckless about the spread of the fire to vegetation or property belonging to someone else 15 years or 1,500 penalty units or both
 
@MungomanII Seems fair.

Can you explain "penalty units" please?

Certainly Frideswide, according to The Crimes Act 1914 a penalty unit is AU $180.00


The government will index penalty units every three years based on the consumer price index.
 
They tacitly accept that. The occupiers are appealing for supplies and messages to be sent to them - by USPS (a government agency).
 
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