An unpredictable new chapter in the wars over federal land use in the West unfolded Sunday after a group of armed activists split off from an earlier protest march and occupied a national wildlife refuge in remote southeastern Oregon.
The activists, led by rancher Ammon Bundy, set themselves up in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge 30 miles southeast of here, defying the organizers of a rally and march held Saturday in support of two local ranchers set to report to federal prison Monday to serve a sentence for arson.
Some of the occupiers said they planned to stay indefinitely. Harney County Sheriff David M. Ward said authorities from several law enforcement organizations were monitoring the situation.
“These men came to Harney County claiming to be part of militia groups supporting local ranchers,” Ward said in a statement Sunday. “When in reality these men had alternative motives, to attempt to overthrow the county and federal government in hopes to spark a movement across the United States.”
The occupation revealed deep divides among some Western ranchers who want freer rein over federal lands but are split on whether to achieve those goals peacefully or more confrontationally.
This group is part of the Cliven Bundy clan who felt they could cheat us of their rent money on federal lands. Back in 2014 their followers shut down traffic on interstate 15 and vowed to shoot federal marshals. It seems that the feds caved.
Organizers of Saturday’s rally said several hundred protesters marched through Burns, a ranching town of fewer than 3,000 residents, in a show of support for Dwight Hammond, 73, and his son Steven Hammond, 46, who after decades of clashes with the federal government were sentenced in October to five years in prison.
But, at the rally’s end, Ammon Bundy and an estimated dozen supporters declared they would take up arms and occupy a federal refuge building in protest. Amanda Peacher, a reporter for Oregon Public Broadcasting, reported that the men had entered a building at the refuge that was unstaffed over the weekend.
“We’re out here because the people have been abused long enough, their lands and their resources have been taken from them to the point that it is putting them literally into poverty,” Ammon Bundy, clad in a brown rancher hat and thick flannel coat, told reporters Sunday morning, his breath forming small puffs of cloud in front of him as it hit the cold Oregon air.
Someone needs to explain the difference between these clowns taking over a federal wildlife refuge and someone taking over the State Department. Both are acts of terrorism. Period. Here in Virginia, if you want to raise a herd of cattle, you let them graze on YOUR land. Can you picture some farmer bringing his cattle onto the Manassas Battlefield property?
They should all be arrested and charged with domestic terrorism. You don’t just take over public property. Shades of OWS.
Meanwhile, the longest armed standoff in American history ends, and neither law enforcement or the individuals realized the cause had been removed: http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/local/texas-news/2016/01/08/15-year-armed-standoff-quietly-ends-outside-dallas/78452414/
@Moon-howler
Moon,
You are conflating two separate things.
HAMMOND did not take over a refuge NOR did he request the Bundys to do so. In fact, the Hammond family requested that the Bundy family NOT get involved.
I think the Bundy event is stupid and that they are all idiots.
Their past behavior is listed in the link and their sentencing is due to overreach by calling them terrorists.
@Pat.Herve
Funny how the local authorities had no problem with the charges and dismissed the fires as not being dangerous.
@Cargosquid
Why am *I* conflating? The original article has nothing from me about the Hammonds. The last I heard, they were heading back to jail.
This conflation of the Hammonds with the Bundys.
You stated that: Cargo can bellow about justifying the Hammond behavior till the cows come home. The point is, he can’t justify the take over of the wildlife refuge.
The point is that I’ve never tried to justify the OCCUPY Refuge event.
Nor did I attempt to justify the Hammonds.
What I showed was the argument for the idea that the Hammonds are being railroaded.
BLM is reported as burning ranches and livestock.
http://www.examiner.com/article/blm-burns-land-unsupervised-feds-burn-ranchers-home-and-cattle-alive
More and more, it seems that the BLM is even more outlaw than the ATF.
Almost.
I know that BLM isn’t particularly popular in the west However, articles like that just seem extreme and anti government to me.
Did you find any mainstream media reporting this issue? I tend not to believe this kind of single sourced information.