Right now, NONE of us know exactly what happened out on that road other than the fact that Finnican was shot to death by law enforcement. His death MAY have been justified. It also MAY not have been. Everyone is an instant expert without an autopsy report by a medical examiner or coroner, without the audio on that tape taken on the ground by one of the agents in on the kill. No audio was taken? REALLY???? Was he tasered as some seem to claim seeing on the drone tape? If so, before or after he was shot? How many shots and what direction for each? Competent forensic evdence is our friend IF we are seeking the truth (whatever it may be) rather than a favored pre-ordained result. And there will be a legion of other legitimate questions to be answered as to this disturbing incident as to which there have been soooooo many conflicting stories.
LaVoy Finnecan is dead and that won't change just because we are all in a hurry to draw conclusions. Our conclusions, his prematurely terminated life.
My ears and my eyes are too old to trust as arbiters of what is on the videotapes or on the audio that triggered this thread (apparently). I shall therefore depend on the eyes and ears of reliable sober and objective folks younger than I. Those folks may still disagree and maybe this will have to go to a civil trial claiming that the government and its agents inflicted a wrongful death on LaVoy Finnican. OR, challenged to cough up all the evidence, tapes, memos, written orders, resumes of officers involved and anything else relevant to the case, after interrogatories have been served and answered, and documents and other physical evidence produced, the government may make a multimillion dollar settlement as it did in the Ruby Ridge case OR the Finnican family may withdraw its civil action when possessed of all relevant evidence. Right now, we simply do not know.
I might add that the law enforcement officers, if charged with crimes, have the same right to due process of law as any other citizen, including the right to a jury trial and the right to be found guilty, if at all, only by a unanimous verdict by jurors convinced of guilt "beyond a reasonable doubt." Right now, they and those involved at this nature center, are "not guilty in the contemplation of our law." They, all of them, will remain so unless and until so convicted by a jury, according to the standards of our laws.
The justifications you cite for the killing of Finnican, as I understand the facts, are NOT adequate justification at law for killing him.
It is a factual determination yet to be made by a jury as to whether he "reached into his jacket." If he did and they so determine, whether as to criminal charges against the LEOs or civil matters against them, that justification would be the best in show but it STILL has to be proven and their are a LOT of conflicting interpretations as to just what happened.
"He should not have driven off." Perhaps, but, driving off is rather disproportionate to any attempt to justify executing him by the roadway.
"He should not have told the world that he would rather die than give up." This too would have to be proven but it won't be because it is irrelevant as a justification for killing him. Being a damn fool is not, in and of itself, a capital offense or an offense at all.
"He should not have participated in taking over the government building." I certainly agree that neither he nor anyone else should have taken over that building. There was nothing at all proportional to be gained by doing so. I don't at all have a grip on the underlying controversy over some of their friends being sentenced hard for arson charges although that seems a bit fishy as government behavior. Seizing some silly federal nature center wa a futile gesture from the get go and one that put its perps and LEOs at unnecessary risk for nothing that one might articulate. Again, however, being damn ools should not, in and of itself, trigger impromptu capital punishment or the risk thereof.
Was Cliven Bundy even present at either the nature center OR in the vehicle. I am under the impression he, like Vladimir Putin, Amelia Earhart and Judge Crater, was not present. Irrelevant. If you are referencing the much earlier confrontation at Cliven Bundy's ranch, that resulted in the government backing down, at least for the time being.
"He should not have been hanging out with the Bundys. Perhaps not but he had a First Amendment Freedom of Association given to him by God and which the government is bound to protect and not attack. At the time he was killed he was fleeing a vehicle on a public highway in deep snow and not hanging out with anyone. Finnican likely ought not to be dead but he is. Charlie Manson still lives. Go figure! I find Sharon Tate ad her guests and the LaBiancas to be a lot more sympathetic victims than the government and its temporary loss of control over some closed down nature center.
I have a general sympathy for LEOs but my patience with the FBI is wearing a bit thinner after Waco, Oklahoma City and Ruby Ridge.
my patience with the FBI is wearing thin over their failure to indict Hillary Clinton
Good stuff.