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.
Remember, in most land seizure / Eminent Domain cases, many states require that the seizing party pay for your lawyer FROM THE OUTSET of the case. You don’t have to win, just object to the taking, and they pay for your lawyer.
Never try to fight a case like this without:
1: Getting a good EXPERIENCED lawyer NOW.
2: Getting your Congressman involved NOW.
3: Documenting EVERYTHING on multiple videos starting NOW.
4: Having lawyer send a certified letter that he/she and only he/she is to be the recipient of any communications sent to you by the gmvt, and by Certified Mail only. That stops the “well, they weren’t home, so we left the notice on the door” BS.
PS, had a lawyer friend who loved to break Gmvt’s chops.
Instead of the old formal English closing of a letter: I remain, your obedient servant.... he would end his letters with “You remain my obedient servant....”
Thanks.
ANY taking of land under Eminent Domain requires reasonable compensation for the same. In this case it was fraudulent and a written contract was broken. BTW I never disputed the need for their power line and actually the terms were in good faith on our part negotiated without any legal hearings. IOW the agency came to us, made a offer we considered reasonable, and we did it according to written terms.
It went sour when they changed plans on their tower configurations and decided to just try and ram it through in hopes landowners were stupid or too scared of TVA to try and stop it. I was the only one at first to say Oh No You Aren't. The Camcorder was legal. It was on my property {not their R.O.W.} and I was using it to record all my statements with camera running with a time stamp so they could not say I made any harmful threats.
TVA has a long standing history of abuses some even condoned by the later Senator Howard Baker and the late Congressman John Duncan Sr. where land was taken for Tellico Lake well above and beyond full pool and flood stage to sell to developers for multimillion dollar lots. The first test of the Endangered Species was not as such about the welfare of the Snail Darter in the Little Tennessee River rather it was about a region where citizens were using it to sue TVA to bring some accountability for long standing abuses. The lake even by TVA's own admission was not needed, was not ever going to generate enough power to justify cost, and they could not justify it. Someone higher up had political connections and wanted a lake and lake front property for gated communities.
My concerns with the powerline on my place proved correct. While I did save my home because I stood my ground then and there, the major once in 100 year flood TVA caused did not get it the next spring. How did TVA cause it? By poor reclaiming policies they used cutting a R.O.W. on a steep ridge about a mile long and 500ft wide. I've lived where I'm at basically over 55 years. Some of my neighbors were in their 90's. They never witnessed mud boiling up out of the springs like that powerline had caused. It likely cost two persons downstream their life. We'd all seen much harder rains for a longer time but this flood was different. No previous storms much more severe and longer in intensity had done this before.
TVA had failed to properly reclaim my land after their clear cut and ensure the new cover foliage needed to prevent this had taken root. They failed even after that flood as well. The flooding was about 100ft in elevation below the powerline.
I went to their Inspector Generals Office and showed them pictures. This was after their Right of Way Crew said it wasn't their problem nor responsibility. Two days later it was replanted in game cover by TVA. They suddenly located the liquid seed trucks they said they didn't have.
Good line, and good advice prior. Thanks!
“I despise this government.”
The good thing is we do not have to do anything for it to collapse...I think this is the year.
watch his video he admits he saw nothing and was only “quoting” someone else that is still locked up.
He also admits that he only recently arrived there about three weeks ago.
Yes, I found them disconcerting also>
Interesting. You must be a terrorist, then, because this is on your FR main home page: < I am a disobedient individualist. Habitual line crosser.
Sure smells like it came from under the bridge, doesn’t it?
The post has been removed. I hope I find the reason in more comments in this thread. Thanks, tho.
Has an EXPERIENCED attorney told you that you have run all your compensation possibilities?
Good luck
Pinging out to all y’all; copy it down, archive it, however you can!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3389155/posts?page=134#134
And he was smart and knew what to say, and he was only visiting the reserve, and he didn’t get public visibility, and .....
WRS has this purported eyewitness recording at the link
https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2016/01/27/malheur-link-dumpopen-thread-27jan/
Was LaVoy Finicum Shot w/Hands in the Air? Eye Witness Audio Testimony Here...
mtnforge | January 27, 2016 at 09:14 | Reply
Max posted this audio clip from Victoria, (recorded from her phone by unknown reporter interviewing her), Victoria was in the vehicle sleeping beside Ammond when ambush began, Victoria claims feds opened fire on them, they only had side arms in the vehicle, nobody resisted or brandished their pistols. She claims no one had a chance, that Ryan was shot as he had his hands and head out the window, as they all did who could reach. When the feds began shooting them LeVoy tried to drive out of the kill zone as they where being hit with bullets, they collided with a snow bank, Levoy got out with his hands up and was shot dead and as his body was lying on the pavement was shot multiple times, Ryan was further wounded as they lay on the floor of the truck, Victoria clams they where hit at least 120 times. She claims the woods where lined with agents, shooting came from two distinct angles, that there where more vehicles than you could count waiting when she and her friends where stopped.
It sounds really ugly. Sounds like the feds bushwhacked them and intended to kill them if the account of all the rounds hitting them is accurate. Victoria’s account sounds as genuine as anything I have listened to.
Video embedded here. Was running as of this comment post.:
http://forum.maxvelocitytactical.com/forums/topic/ammon-bundy-arrested-and-shootout/
It is worthwhile clicking through and listening to audio. If what she was saying is true, the leadership was lured to an FBI ambush and the killing was just plain old FBI murder of a target suspect.
Ruby Ridge & Waco were a massive overreach by public servants that caused deaths of innocent citizens. It’s like these situations are set up to result in the unnecessary use of deadly tactical force. The rules of engagement need to be exposed and disclosed. Our Bill of Rights are under assault.
Lighten up Francis
You are correct JB
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.