Yes, the feds had a plan for Malheur

The Reality-Based Community ^ | 1-26-16 | Mark Kleiman

[Gandalf the Mauve]

One of the occupiers of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is dead after a shoot-out with federal and state authorities. Eight of the crew, including ringleader Ammon Bundy and his brother, were pulled over while driving to a meeting in a neighboring county. Five of the survivors, including the Bundys, have been arrested, and a sixth man was arrested in a nearby town. The officers had arrest warrants charging several of the occupants of the car with "conspiracy to impede or injure an officer," a less serious charge than "seditious conspiracy" but still good for up to six years.

It's possible that they're in much worse legal trouble than that: the death of their co-conspirator might well be covered by the felony murder rule. The fact that the person killed was one of them has no legal significance; in general, if a group of people agrees to commit a felony which could reasonably be expected to put lives at risk, and someone dies, all are liable to the charge of first-degree murder.

The feds have announced that the remaining occupiers are free to leave the refuge: as long as they do so at once.

In the aftermath of the takeover, there was considerable grumbling that the Administration had not moved with sufficient force to retake federal property, especially after having been forced to back down in the Bundy Ranch confrontation. But it looks as if slow-walking the process worked well, giving the occupiers time to become a national laughingstock.

A recent story focused on the activities of the Hammonds, whose five-prison sentences this crew was protesting, made it appear that the Hammonds got no more than they deserved after a long career of not only ignoring the law but threatening violence against those who were trying to carry it out. In polite company, one does not threaten to wrap a man's son in barbed wire and throw him down a well. So far as I know, none of the pundits and politicians who expressed sympathy for the Hammonds -- all, for some reason, on the Red Team -- have expressed any sympathy for the federal officials they terrorized for years.

In this case, both the local sheriff and the governor of the state were on the side of sanity. Unfortunately, that was not the case in the Bundy Ranch confrontation. Of course I hope that the feds have a plan in their back pocket to collect the judgment against Cliven Bundy, and even perhaps a plan to indict, arrest, and try some of the people who pointed loaded weapons at federal law enforcement agents two years ago. But I'm not sorry that a bloodbath was avoided, even at some damage to the majesty of the law. And while I can't imagine that Barack Obama or Attorney General Loretta Lynch will ever claim -- or get -- the credit for how deftly the current confrontation was managed, they amply deserve it.

[Gandalf the Mauve]

It appears that the Feds were being "crazy like a fox" to allow these guys to stew a lot longer than I would expect them to tolerate some armed trespassers barging in and taking over a federal facility.

[Texas Fossil]

You did not post the true web address.

Bye Bye Troll

From your post:

“But I’m not sorry that a bloodbath was avoided, even at some damage to the majesty of the law. And while I can’t imagine that Barack Obama or Attorney General Loretta Lynch will ever claim - or get - the credit for how deftly the current confrontation was managed, they amply deserve it.”

—

You’re one sick dude.

[RedHeeler]

Ain’t you something.

Scribble away.

[Gaffer]

The officers had arrest warrants charging several of the occupants of the car with "conspiracy to impede or injure an officer," a less serious charge than "seditious conspiracy" but still good for up to six years.

Well, it seems the Feds did eventually learn something 20+ years on since the Waco Massacre. Get them (i.e., Koresh) on a trip into town instead of playing Cowboy Nazi like the ATF (IIRC) storming the compound (got their asses handed to them) when they could have waited. What ATFs cowboy action got us eventually was 82 people killed, 22 of them children at the hands of Janet Reno (Bill/Hillary) and the FBI.

[Sirius Lee]

the majesty of the law.

No sane person would utter the phase and then in the next breath bring up barky and lynch as it's prime exemplars. The author needs a butterfly net.

[MamaTexan]

A recent story focused on the activities of the Hammonds, whose five-prison sentences this crew was protesting, made it appear that the Hammonds got no more than they deserved after a long career of not only ignoring the law but threatening violence against those who were trying to carry it out.

So you aren't just a blog pimp, but you're clueless, too.

The federal judge at the trial that originally sentenced them thought the TERRORIST charge for accidentally burning some acreage in a brushfire was bogus.

But I guess things like trials, juries and judges just don't mean anything to some people.

[Texas Fossil]

Author’s bio

http://luskin.ucla.edu/mark-ar-kleiman

Says it all.

[Smokin' Joe]

It's the FBI Gordon Kahl tactic, reserved for farmers and ranchers.

[Ray76]

Weren’t they going to a public meeting in neighboring Grant County Oregon? The sheriff of that county, Sheriff Glen Palmer, has worked to defuse the situation.

[MamaTexan]

Oh - and this is the REAL 'plan' the feds have for Malheur -

Clinton Foundation took massive payoffs, promised Hammond Ranch & other publicly owned lands to the Russians

[MamaTexan]

Weren’t they going to a public meeting in neighboring Grant County Oregon?

Don't hold your breath, Ray. The newbie hasn't made a single reply since posting this drek.

[namvolunteer]

IBTZ!

[fruser1]

Weren’t the oathkeepers going to stop the feds?

[Texas Fossil]

No, I think I read a statement that they were present to prevent the Militia groups from doing something stupid and it ending like Waco.

Now the Oathkeepers single representative is charged in a federal crime. Guess we will see how that plays out.

Do note, the conspiracy approach is the very same approach taken in the Waco Twin Peaks Biker shooting charges. That one did not end well either. I suspect the BATF was responsible for the Waco fiasco again.

They are now silent about their participation there. And they were not mentioned in the recent arrests in Houston of the top Bandito members.

The FBI has a much better reputation than the BATF in this type of situation.

Nothing about this is good for anyone.

[Darksheare]

http://www.us-mining.com/oregon/harney-county/uranium-mines

Yeah, the feds have a plan alright.

[DaveA37]

“......... the occupants of the car with “conspiracy to impede or injure an officer,” a less serious charge than “seditious conspiracy” but still good for up to six years..... “if a group of people agrees to commit a felony which could reasonably be expected to put lives at risk, and someone dies, all are liable to the charge of first-degree murder.”.......

How convenient for the gubmint, create a “setup” where the Bundy’s and their followers will be GONE for a long time. The person shot was the governments “sacrifice” in order to get the rest of the group off the streets for the rest of their lives. “Tin Hat” theory some might say but I would put absolute NOTHING past this government.

[Darksheare]

Considering that the original Bundy Ranch standoff was over a corrupt deal between Harry Reid and the Chinese over building a solar plant on the land...
...and the land in dispute here involved uranium mining..
..uranium mining connected to the Clinton Foundation deal...
It doesn’t surprise me at all.

[null and void]

No Waco here, the fed are’t going to burn down their own building.

[null and void]

At no point in history has any government ever wanted its people to be defenseless for any good reason ~ nully's son

The biggest killer of mankind

Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!

To get onto The Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping List you must threaten to report me to the Mods if I don't add you to the list...

"We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded." Barack Hussein Obama, 7/2/2008

They don't call it a Civil Defense force, that would imply we need (or perhaps that we deserve) defense. The official name is National Civilian Community Corps.

I think of it as the NatCCC, or more simply, as the NatCs...

[Lazamataz]

Deaar troll,

My only regret is that you, yourself, were not killed.

Perhaps someday.

I will rejoice.