Posted on 01/27/2016 5:55:49 AM PST by xzins
Four days after taking the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Oregon, LaVoy Finicum, a 55-year-old Arizona rancher told NBC News that he'd rather die than spend his days in prison.
"There are things more important than your life and freedom is one of them," he said in early January as he sat huddled in a blue tarp outside of the wildlife refuge keeping watch with his gun in his lap. "I'm prepared to defend freedom."
Finicum told NBC that night that he was staying outside to ensure that the FBI could find him if they came to arrest him.
Finicum was shot and killed Tuesday night when law enforcement stopped two cars carrying standoff leaders on their way from the refuge to a meeting in Grant County. Ryan Bundy, another militiaman, was shot and transported to the hospital, but did not suffer any life-threatening injuries, according to The Oregonian.
Before Finicum's death was even confirmed, supporters rushed to portray him on social media as a martyr who, according to unverified accounts, had his hands up and was unarmed when he was shot. Law enforcement sources told CNN that Finicum and Ryan Bundy were the only two leaders who did not surrender during the confrontation.
Finicum had taken a strong interest in land disputes with the federal government after he stood at Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy's side during his confrontation with the Bureau of Land Management in 2014. After returning home to Arizona, Finicum â a Mormon father with 11 childrenâ made a decision. He was no longer going to write a check to the federal government for his grazing fees.
At the refuge, Finicum became a spokesman for the militiamen, fielding questions from press and helping plan events like one Saturday where ranchers were invited to come to the commandeered refuge to sign "declarations of emancipation" from the federal government, documents asserting they would no longer pay grazing fees. According to the Oregonian, Finicum had incurred about $12,000 in fees with the BLM.
In a video posting just hours before his death, Finicum described why the militiamen were still holding onto the refuge after more than three weeks and after local officials and community members had asked them to go. Finicum said that the occupation was intended to push back on the federal government's overreach.
"They do not want to let go of this," Finicum said. "They do not intend on loosing here and we do not intend on giving it back to them."
But Finicum's participation in the standoff had taken a toll. Back home in Arizona, child services had removed four foster children from his family's care, a move Finicum characterized as retribution. Oregon Public Broadcasting had reported that Finicum made most of his income from fostering.
Before Oregon, Finicum kept a website One Cowboy's Stand For Freedom where he documented his beliefs, his family and his ranch.
Finicum writes on the website that "he has drawn a line in the sand and that line is the Constitution in its original intent."
He also had written a cowboy thriller about the chaos of the American West after an electromagnetic pulse collapses the country's infrastructure called "Only By Blood and Suffering." The novel traced a family as each grown child navigated the new world and fights back against the overreach of the federal government.
I clicked the link but it says “not found”.
Was this eyewitness independent of the fbi/bundy group?
I’m getting a ‘page not found’ on that. Is the link correct?
“”Suggest you see new post âMilitant Shot and Killed While Charging Police, Driver Says. (Finally an eyewitness account)””
How does that relate to a gun fight? “Charging” = what?
I read an eyewitness account - one of the drivers of another car going to that meeting - he said the ones who were later shot had taken off in their pickup and were about a mile UP THE ROAD...he must have had good eyesight!
“no one wanted it”
Eco Nazis want it to keep people out of it, in their war against humanity.
There's a difference?
You know how tight the political alliance between the Inner City Ghetto and the Virgin Wilderness is.
This guy was over 70 and he was ‘charging’.
Riiiighht....
Truly sad, no, that a student sit-in @ some college for ‘grievances’, stated in their Communist manifesto, gets more air-time, print-space and debate than the ILLEGAL/unconstitional ‘federal’ lands, otherwise EMPTY ‘occupation’, BLM takings and sell-out of country under authority of law...
If the feds had “normal” “arrest mode” intent, they would’ve been wearing body cameras to ensure no one made incorrect claims for propaganda purposes.
If they were not wearing cameras, or the vid is not release, it will be a great telling-fact that this was a murder, not a justifiable shooting.
Sorry. It is on http://libertynews.com/ and the link says “eye witness claims”.
If you would like more information about what's happening in Oregon, please FReepmail me.
I lost my Oregon list when my computer crashed last year, so please send me your name by FReepmail if you want to be on this list.
Name an eyewitness other than LE/Bundy ... if you/they can’t then it’s BS
Ya’ll know what is scary? Not a peep from news, not a friggin cricket or a frog croaking, nothing today.There is a serious agenda all over and it’s just slamming us either to submission,or death.
Thanks for the link, I had actually went back to find it.
Same story says witness posting story on facebook was driver of one of the vehicles involved in shooting.
That’s why I am dubious.
We really just don’t know now. We need to see body cam vids.
Feds, knowing this is probably a hot potato situation would have had cams. If not, they probably planned on killing someone from the get go and they wouldn’t want that recorded.
The article also says that the Fibbers fired 100+ shots ... yet they also said it was a “routine traffic stop” ... same kind of “routine traffic stop” that Bonnie and Clyde experienced.
Article says 120 shots fired, ALL from LE/FBI. None fired from the Bundy bunch.
Wow.
I read an article last night that allegedly Ammon Bundy called his wife and told her that story. It was relayed to the media by a third party, so plenty could have been lost in the story telling the more people involved in the chain of the story.
They were likely wearing audio, who knows about video. I think they are supposed to have a press conference late this morning. Supposedly state troopers were involved in the traffic stop.
2016 is the 100th anniversary of the Easter Uprising in Ireland where local people took a stand against a distant, tyrannical government. After six years in which the local people assassinated government soldiers and officers the people finally won what they were fighting for.
Just thought I’d mention that.
Listen very closely to his tale...
He mentions HRT vehicles, Lenco Bearcats as the assault vehicles.
The Lenco Bearcat is a Mine resistant armor plated “police” assault vehicle.
Second depending on who was talking, he was arrested and at least 200 Yards away and NEVER SAW WHAT HAPPENED.
Everything he says is true, he says came from someone else, that is still in FBI custody.
Given the distance,(over 200 yards away) his condition (facedown and in handcuffs on the road) and that everything he says happened comes from someone that cannot speak for themselves, there is no way his statement would be admissible in a court of law because it is hearsay and not even credible hearsay at that.
What is happening here is that a stranger who by his own admission only arrived there three weeks ago, and didn’t see anything is setting the narrative for the media’s (and the FBI’s) account of what actually happened.
I just posted an interview with a girl in the car. It’s on frontpage sidebar for the time being.
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