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.
A local sheriff in an adjoining country warned of this on Sunday or Monday. HE indicated that he feared that the Feds were ultimately going to kill people to force an end.
My question...and one I am attempting to get an answer to...is why the Bundy’s decided to drive to John Day for this meeting. They are not foolish or stupid, or ignorant. They know the types of surveillance the Feds have at their disposal. Driving all that way to John Day was bound to open them to extreme risk of exactly what happened.
If I can find out any info on that I will of course share it.
In my own opinion, after they had several national interviews and were able to get a very clear...and IMHO reasoned...message out, they should have sought to step back and use other means of online organizing to plan and then implement protests across the west, culminating in a large protest in Washington DC. but they chose to stand firm at the refuge, which is very remote, in the hopes of getting the Hammonds released and change in the land policy of these agencies as a result of that pressure.
With this administration, I felt it had little chance of working that way. But the message they delivered had reached a lot of people and could have generated a much larger movement for the Hammonds and the land issues.
Oh well...they had every right to protest and to do it in the way they felt was best.
“I am wondering what motivated them to try and drive to John Day?”
I’m puzzled too. Why would several people, who know they’re targets for arrest, drive around an area they know is swarming with hostile cops out to get them? It’s like they wanted a confrontation.
There should not have been a murder just because they were protesting land ownership by the federal government.
If we find the ID of the trigger, then that would also be interesting.
Why go to John Day for a meeting unless someone had agreed to it being set up? No one goes ‘hoping’ to find a meeting when they arrive.
You are right. Something stinks.
The media only defends black thugs who were trying to take an officer’s gun away with him, not long after attacking a physically small store owner or manager.
Wrong. At twin peaks you had a gangster gun fight break out in a family plaza
I believe there was a meeting set up.
But by who? And why?
We already know that the protestors had been infiltrated.
On the other hand, they may have also found that the feds were planning a large raid on the refuge and were attempting to keep that from happening by moving to another location.
We just do not know.
The Occupy Wall Street movement occupied govt lands with impunity.
These guys were treated with force that led to killing.
Double standard?
Exactly.
Something motivated this...and we need to find out what it is. Ultimately...we will.
This is as important as Waco
As important as the ranch standoff
More important than the campaign
The feds just killed a guy for protesting their ownership of federal land.
The protesters had hurt no one; they hadn’t even inconvenienced anyone.
Had the cops shot one occupy protester, Crosby Stills and Nash would have reunited to write a song against it.
Think they’ll write one for this dead man?
” The Constitution does not give the Federal government authority to permanently hold lands.”
But it does give them the power.
He charged the police officers. There are two eye witnesses in the convoy that made that clear.
“Hands up” my ***”
... and then the fifth-column media describe the strong-arm thug as an unarmed youth and shows a grade-school picture of him.
Its quite likely the feds or their representative requested the meeting and offered up some juicy terms.
Federal & State agents see ‘civilians’ as criminals and terrorists they just haven’t arrested yet. They have no respect for anyone not affiliated with the govt.
Why didn’t the government do this to the Occupy people?
Much more at The Oregonian, which has been covering from the beginning.
www.oregonlive.com/
They were on the way to a public meeting as they had done a few times before to discuss the situation with the locals.
Feds and State police pulled them over to arrest them.
None of us should ever forget this. Remember this the next time you see black criminals looting, burning, spitting in law enforcer’s faces and being given “room to destroy.” Where were all the people that “supported” these ranchers?
And protesting and hurting nobody is worthy of being shot by those in power.
Why would they shoot the guy?
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