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 – a Mormon father with 11 children– 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’ve lived in this state most of my life and watched it self destruct with all the libs who have taken it over. SAD
I’m still surprised we weren’t gunned down when we ‘occupied’ the headgates at Klamath Falls or in Jarbidge.
While I know the IRA were popular with my Celtic brothers in Boston I don’t think Americans would cotton to an IRA style American group.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3389222/posts
Go to link for interview. Other details of the witness account are easily checked.
I remember that Courage.
Go here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3389222/posts
If you haven’t listened yet, listen to the interview.
“not received in a sympathetic manner”
Agreed. Too many folks read the bumper sticker and just move on. The eco cause is blindly accepted by many now. By the time it really screws everyone, it may be too late to do anything about it.
This was one.
Oregon Shooting Eyewitness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y92PvMFL0Eg&feature=youtu.be
Play up the mother nature angle protest. Having burly middle aged men with beards and guns and having them cry on youtube is just a fail in my opinion.
Early eyewitness accounts had the Gentle Giant of Ferguson being gunned down while unarmed and with hands raised, too, and people swallowed that whole. Before long the truth came to light and the whole story changed. So if it's OK with you I'll wait a while for the details to come out before I make any judgment calls on this one.
“Waco II”
Waco II was the Twin peaks setup and massacre.
Waco III?
Probably, Was Lon Horiuchi involved? Our government just loves
using snipers and drones against us.
The eyewitnesses in the Fergusen case were what proved the claim of hands up don’t shoot to be false. That and forensic evidence.
There is no reason to think the same would not be true here.
There are a variety of details. All can be checked for accuracy, as can the shots in the body.
Has cattle grazing technology really changed much over the centuries? I guess you can now ride the range on an ATV instead of a horse, but it doesn't seem to me that the economics have fundamentally changed.
“”This guy was over 70 and he was “”charging””
No - that’s the age of the guy being sent back to prison that the protest is about.
This is the guy who was killed:
“”LaVoy Finicum, a 55-year-old Arizona rancher””
Like Bill Ayers?
I believe the woman.
The first to hit the media is the “remembered” truth.
55 year olds don’t do a lot of ‘rushing’ either.
Not in the NFL anyway.
“I wish they would litigate this and get a SC ruling to stop these confrontations.”
The SC will rule in favor of the federal government.
But an early "eyewitness" came out with the hands up/don't shoot nonsense. It was really the forensics that proved him wrong. I'll wait for the science on this one as well.
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