Posted on 01/03/2016 1:54:57 AM PST by Nachum
A group of militiamen on Saturday occupied the headquarters of a national wildlife refuge in Oregon in support of two brothers who are slated to report to prison on Monday on arson charges - and the protesters don't plan on leaving any time soon, saying it's 'kill or be killed' time.
Militia members claimed to have as many as 150 supporters with them at the Malheur National Wildlife refuge building in Princeton, which is federal property managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service that was closed for the holiday weekend.
They later rescinded the number and said they would not disclose how many people were in the building, because of 'operational security'. Local reporters have said that there only appears to be a dozen cars outside of the building.
'We're planning on staying here for years, absolutely,' Ammon Bundy, one of the occupiers, told the Oregonian via telephone. ‘This is not a decision we've made at the last minute.'
Ammon Bundy and his brother Ryan, who is another occupier, are the sons of of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a 2014 standoff with the government over grazing rights.
The occupation came shortly after 300 marchers paraded through Burns, Oregon, about 50 miles away, to protest at the prosecution of father and son Harney County ranchers Dwight Hammond Jr and Steven Hammond, who were ordered returned to prison by a federal court which ruled their original sentences were insufficient.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
The list, Ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
This situation is the closest I’ve felt to a civil war breakout since the first Bundy standoff in Nevada.
May the bullies be put in their place and this family restored to peaceful living.
Sometimes I wish the situations like this were clearer cut. But I’ll have to say that I never heard of folks being sent back to jail for the reason that their sentences were not long enough. WTF is that all about? And what’s up with the arson charge? Did they just burn off some underbrush really. Or did they cause a big forest fire that burned houses and killed people?
Those are all good questions. I am going to read up on the situation as it seems it may be quite an important one in several ways that may affect our future.
Seen elsewhere: “they put the father in prison in bend, then the next night they put him in prison in Portland. its a very long drive all the way to Portland. like across the state. Portland is almost to the ocean. that was purely to intimidate him and his family, obviously. poor old man handcuffed in a police car for that long.”
This won’t end well.
"Dwight Hammond, 73, and Steven Hammond, 46, said they lit the fires in 2001 and 2006 to reduce the growth of invasive plants and protect their property from wildfires.
The two were convicted of the arsons three years ago and served time — the father three months, the son one year.
But a judge ruled their terms were too short under federal law and ordered them back to prison for about four years each.
Ammon Bundy, an Idaho militia leader, said that while the occupiers were not looking to hurt anyone, they would not rule out violence if police tried to remove them, the Oregonian reported.
Bundy's brother Ryan Bundy, who is also an occupier, told the Oregonian that they're 'willing to kill and be killed' if necessary, adding that the federal officials' actions have been 'in violation of the constitution'.
'The best possible outcome is that the ranchers that have been kicked out of the area, then they will come back and reclaim their land, and the wildlife refuge will be shut down forever and the federal government will relinquish such control,' Ryan Bundy told the Oregonian.
He added: 'What we're doing is not rebellious. What we're doing is in accordance with the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land.'
The brothers said, however, that their real goal is to simply start a movement. It is unknown what types of weapons are now at the refuge building, but there are no hostages in the area.
'The facility has been the tool to do all the tyranny that has been placed upon the Hammonds,' told the Oregonian.
Ammon Bundy posted a video on his Facebook page asking for people to come help him. Below the video is this statement: "(asterisk)(asterisk)ALL PATRIOTS ITS TIME TO STAND UP NOT STAND DOWN!!! WE NEED YOUR HELP!!! COME PREPARED."
Ammon Bundy said the group planned to stay at the refuge indefinitely.
'The facility has been the tool to do all the tyranny that has been placed upon the Hammonds,' the Oregonian quoted Ammon Bundy as saying."
"Dwight Hammond, 73, and Steven Hammond, 46, said they lit the fires in 2001 and 2006 to reduce the growth of invasive plants and protect their property from wildfires.
The two were convicted of the arsons three years ago and served time — the father three months, the son one year.
But a judge ruled their terms were too short under federal law and ordered them back to prison for about four years each.
Ammon Bundy, an Idaho militia leader, said that while the occupiers were not looking to hurt anyone, they would not rule out violence if police tried to remove them, the Oregonian reported.
Bundy's brother Ryan Bundy, who is also an occupier, told the Oregonian that they're 'willing to kill and be killed' if necessary, adding that the federal officials' actions have been 'in violation of the constitution'.
'The best possible outcome is that the ranchers that have been kicked out of the area, then they will come back and reclaim their land, and the wildlife refuge will be shut down forever and the federal government will relinquish such control,' Ryan Bundy told the Oregonian.
He added: 'What we're doing is not rebellious. What we're doing is in accordance with the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land.'
The brothers said, however, that their real goal is to simply start a movement. It is unknown what types of weapons are now at the refuge building, but there are no hostages in the area.
'The facility has been the tool to do all the tyranny that has been placed upon the Hammonds,' told the Oregonian.
Ammon Bundy posted a video on his Facebook page asking for people to come help him. Below the video is this statement: "(asterisk)(asterisk)ALL PATRIOTS ITS TIME TO STAND UP NOT STAND DOWN!!! WE NEED YOUR HELP!!! COME PREPARED."
Ammon Bundy said the group planned to stay at the refuge indefinitely.
'The facility has been the tool to do all the tyranny that has been placed upon the Hammonds,' the Oregonian quoted Ammon Bundy as saying."
The jury convicted both of the Hammonds of using fire to destroy federal property for a 2001 arson known as the Hardie-Hammond Fire, located in the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area. Witnesses at trial, including a relative of the Hammonds, testified the arson occurred shortly after Steven Hammond and his hunting party illegally slaughtered several deer on BLM property. Jurors were told that Steven Hammond handed out “Strike Anywhere†matches with instructions that they be lit and dropped on the ground because they were going to “light up the whole country on fire.†One witness testified that he barely escaped the eight to ten foot high flames caused by the arson. The fire consumed 139 acres of public land and destroyed all evidence of the game violations. After committing the arson, Steven Hammond called the BLM office in Burns, Oregon and claimed the fire was started on Hammond property to burn off invasive species and had inadvertently burned onto public lands. Dwight and Steven Hammond told one of their relatives to keep his mouth shut and that nobody needed to know about the fire.
Ping
Portland and Bend are about 3 hours apart. Portland is 1.5 hours from the coast.
Portland is at the north end of the Willamette Valley, at the convergence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers. Bend is just over the mountains that form the eastern side of the Willamette Valley. The coastal range forms the western side of the Willamette Valley.
HOWEVER... Burns is much further away from Portland than Bend. It is 5 hours from Portland. I think your source is pretty mixed up. It makes no sense to take someone from Malhuer County to Bend. That is about a 7 hour drive, from the eastern border 2/3 to 3/4 of the way across the state. Burns makes more sense.
Correct me if I’m wrong but the Hammonds have asked Bundy and his mob to go away, right? They have said they don’t want their help or support?
So the feds are punishing the men for protecting their own property by burning off flammable vegetation somit couldn’t catch fire and destroy their homes and other structures on their land eh? And in a controlled burn situation like farmers do almost every year, Sounds like feds trying to flex some muscle. In other words common sense has been completely flung out the window and its come down to bow to me and surrender or else moment for them. Yep, sounds like the Obama administration...
Damn. Remaining comments self censored.
Something about this story doesn’t smell right. That part of Oregon has pretty sparse growth. It is hard for me to imagine enough fuel to sustain the kind of fires they are talking about.
I think the informers are lying through their teeth. Juniper burns pretty hot, but you only see small clumps of it here and there.
What we are not hearing about is what created the obvious antagonism with the feds. My guess (because I am familiar with similar stories) is the feds would not allow them to destroy the invasive plant species that were reducing the graze. The feds are supposed to maintain and improve the grazing, but they rarely, if ever, do. They probably did a range assessment and noted the encroachment by the invasive species. Then either said they were going to reduce the number of animals allowed to graze (AUMs) or fine them for not maintaining the grazing properly - even though the feds are supposed to do it and are paid by the ranchers for “range management” (usually loosely interpreted by the feds as “cattlemen harassment”)
This kind of behavior is standard procedure. The feds tend to view the ranchers as adversaries and rarely form cooperative working relationships with them.
They invite these situations with their “high-horse”, heavy-handed approach.
The feds could help themselves immensely and avoid these confrontations, if they, as public servants, chose to work with the ranchers instead of against them. They are often young, with an “I’m with the government, I have a college degree, so I know more than you do and I will by God make you listen to me” attitude. Which doesn’t go over very well with guys who have been watching grass, graze and browse like their lives depended on it since the fed whippersnapper’s daddy was in diapers.
Waco II. We even have another ugly female Attorney General.
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