Posted on 02/03/2016 10:16:01 AM PST by Jack Black
Many years ago I was a passenger in a car driven by my brother. He cut off a car leaving a gas station, the car followed us about 1/2 a mile to our destination. The occupant got out, ran up ripped open the drivers door and pulled my brother (a smallish 16 year old at the time) out of the car bodily. Turned out the fellow driving was a LEO (Harbor Master) in an unmarked car. He was also not in uniform. Shortly there after a marked police car showed up, with uniformed police officers.
The police wrote my brother a ticket for failure to yield to a police officer or some such. The ticket was thrown out by the DA when my brothers lawyer pointed out that in Michigan one is only required to stop for either an officer in a marked vehicle, or an officer in an unmarked vehicle in uniform. Mere flashing lights and guy in blue jeans is not sufficient (or was not at the time) to indicate to a driver that they were required to stop.
Now, look again at the video of the police ambush in Burns. In both the first stop, and the subsequent roadblock ambush. In the first stop the two vehicles pulling him over appear to be completely black with no markings. They have no lightbar, only a couple flashing lights behind the grill. We don't clearly see the people in the vehicles. Were they in recognizable uniforms of the local police or State Patrol? Or were they dressed all in "ninja black" perhaps with POLICE stenciled on the backs of their uniforms?
In the second stop you have three trucks blocking the road, none appear in the least bit to be law enforcement vehicles.
You know you are supposed to stop for vehicles marked like THIS:
And obey the lawful commands of people dressed like THIS:
First, lets look at the vehicles used in the initial stop: 
They have no visible police markings, do not have lightbars, and do not look like and typical unmarked police vehicles (such as the ubiquitous plain white Ford Crown Victoria). The only indicator of them having an official function are the one red and one blue flashing lights hidden in the grill.
Now lets go to the roadblock used to facilitate the ambush. there are No visible police logos in this picture, at the second stop:
I do not see any flat brimmed police hats.
Also, not the absence of road flares, safety signs, warning cones or any other device warning motorists to slow down. Any tow truck driver in the state would do a better job of marking a road closure than these guys did.
In summary it is not at all clear to me from looking at these pictures that the drivers of the target vehicles had an obligation to stop at either juncture.
Should LaVon's family choose to bring suit for his death I think they will have a good case based on the flagrant failure of the supposed law enforcement officers to properly identify themselves.
According to the survivors there were no commands given via PA at the first stop either.
If I were stopped on a rural highway in the middle of nowhere by two black SUV's with no markings, non-uniformed drivers, and given no identification or verbal commands I would probably drive away too.
The behavior of the US law enforcement in this respect is reminiscent of something you would see in a Latin American country, where police act as free-lance strong arm units, operate shadowy death squads, and use poorly marked roadblocks for nefarious purposes.
This is not in the tradition of American law enforcement.
This was not a pursuit following a crime (such as a bank robbery or something) where in emergency un-marked or civilian vehicles might be pressed into service. This was a highly planned operation that included air-support. Given that one can only assume that the choice of using all unmarked vehicles and non-uniformed officers was intentional.
Why? My surmise is that they hoped to engender exactly the response they got, to escalate what should have been a simple traffic stop into a "felon fleeing arrest". It certainly has many indicators of a pre-planned setup with malicious intent on the part of the agencies directing it.
If a car is behind you, would you necessarily be able to tell if the driver is in uniform?
CWII Ping, for my vanity posting on the recent shooting in Eastern Oregon.
Grateful for your analysis......Pure ambush with intent to murder.
Good thread ... and shared on my FB
“none appear in the least bit to be law enforcement vehicles.”
Exactly.
See LameCherry for some information.
Ammon Bundy was going to the largest venue around to talk about his returning home. Bretzing (sp?) knew about it, as did DC.
“Timmons was a setup.” (Mark Wahlberg in one of his movies).
Imagine being stopped by an SUV on a very remote road, and the driver gets out and he's dressed in all black military fatigues.
My first instinct is not to look for my insurance forms, it's probably to figure out if I can get the hell out of there.
Of course, given what was going on I'm sure they had an idea what was going on.
It also appears likely at this point that the driver of the other vehicle was a LEO plant. So, his reaction was different because he was in on the setup.
Well then, What is it?
We have to call it SOMETHING.
Yes, exactly. I concur.
And if you were several weeks into a stand off with police after seizing federal lands you'd be a complete idiot to think the car with flashing red and blue lights following you on federal property was anything but the cops.
Why do people keep insisting Finicum was not a man of his word when he said he wasn't going to prison? All this effort to suggest he was too ignorant to realize that was the police behind him? Show some damn respect.
Look in the back of the black government pickup at the roadblock in your last photo.
What is in there? Traffic signs? Shields?
They also had a police dog.
Why didn’t they use it?
A guy stumbling in deep snow would be easy for a dog to take down.
Great points, I had never considered this aspect!
Do you have an example of the context of Finicum's alleged statement about not going to prison that can be verified? Maybe he was referring to where he saw this heading.
Certainly their 'seizing federal lands' in an out of the way rural setting deserved as much patience as the democrat/socialist/progressive/leftist/commie tools were provided, don't you think? In our imperfect world?
Not getting dropped 13 seconds after you get out of your vehicle with your hands up.
I might think they were shadowy Federal black-ops intent on assassinating me, and not police.
BTW, state highways crossing national forests, not sure those are "Federal lands", I think the State owns the right-of-ways for them. I can say for sure they are patrolled by the State Patrol here in Oregon. BLM rangers don't pull people over for speeding, their old green trucks are not set up for that.
Big Bump, very good observations. Can you put it in a format that can be posted on social media? I don’t know how, I am not a media maven, just something as compelling as this deserves to be seen far beyond FR. Thx.
"I'm not going to end up in prison," said Mr. Finicum, 54, who often appeared at news conferences wearing a broad cowboy hat on his head and a sidearm on his hip. "I would rather die than be caged."
Not getting dropped 13 seconds after you get out of your vehicle with your hands up.
He should have conducted himself like the others if he wanted to go to jail with the others. Instead he fled, attempted to crash through a roadblock, exited his vehicle and reached with his right hand toward where he typically wore a 9mm on an under the shoulder holster. That's straight up 'suicide by cop'. I sincerely don't understand the efforts to spin his actions any other way. Listen to the what the man said, they are consistent with his actions and his fate.
Law Enforcement failed in this instance.
The standard is that no one is shot.
We have an American citizen who is dead.
Law enforcement failed.
It is not loyalty to law enforcement to accept incompetence. It is merely being loyal to incompetence.
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