Looks like it's just about over! One shot dead as FBI arrests Oregon occupation leader, others (Click link to article) By Curtis Skinner and Dan Whitcomb One protester was shot dead and eight others were arrested on Tuesday after authorities confronted members of an armed group that has staged a month-long occupation of a federal wildlife reserve in Oregon, activists and officials said. The FBI said gunshots rang out after officers stopped a car carrying protest leader Ammon Bundy and others near the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Activists said Robert LaVoy Finicum, a rancher who acted as a spokesman for the occupiers, was killed. FBI agents were setting up a perimeter on Tuesday night around the wildlife refuge, where some people were still holding out, continuing their protest against federal control of large tracts of the country, a law enforcement official told Reuters. One of the remaining occupiers, Jason Patrick, told Reuters by phone they would stay until the "redress of grievances". “I've heard 'peaceful resolution' for weeks now and now there’s a cowboy who is my friend who is dead – so prepare for the peaceful resolution,” Patrick said. The takeover at Malheur that started Jan. 2 was a flare-up in the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion, a decades-old conflict over the U.S. government's control of millions of acres of territory in the west. Protesters say they are defending the Constitution. Federal officials said they had probable cause to arrest Finicum, who told NBC News earlier this month that he would rather die than be detained. Protest leader Ammon Bundy and four other senior members were taken into custody following the confrontation along Highway 395, near the reserve in northeast Oregon around 4:25 p.m. local time (0025 GMT), the FBI said. A sixth person was arrested by Oregon State Police in Burns, Oregon, about 1 1/2 hours later. The FBI said a seventh person was later arrested, 50-year-old Peter Santilli, a journalist who livestreamed events at the refuge. The FBI said they also arrested an eighth person in Peoria, Arizona, in relation to the occupation. All of those arrested face federal charges of conspiracy to use force, intimidation or threats to impede federal officers from discharging their duties, the FBI said. The protester Patrick likened Finicum’s death to the killing of Tamir Rice, an unarmed 12-year-old African American boy fatally shot by police outside a Cleveland recreation center in 2014. The officers were not charged. "The government can kill who they want for whatever reason they want with impunity," Patrick said. Asked how the occupiers would respond to law enforcement entering the refuge he did not indicate a clear plan. "I don't know what to tell you but if somebody saying 'peaceful resolution' comes in and points guns at me..." he said before trailing off. The Oregonian reported that Bundy had been en route to a community meeting in John Day, Oregon, where he was scheduled to be a guest speaker, when authorities stopped his vehicle. The newspaper said 43-year-old Ryan Bundy, Ammon's brother, suffered a minor gunshot wound. (Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Julia Edwards in Washington, Jonathan Allen in New York and Victoria Cavaliere in Los Angeles; Editing by Lisa Shumaker, Sara Catania and Andrew Heavens)
Having lived in Oregon off and on since 1969 (about 30 years worth), I find this entire situation a troubling one. Finding a peaceful resolution to the issues revolving around this decades-old Sagebrush Rebellion and the Federal Government should NOT have to take decades and decades to resolve. I'm saddened that life was lost - especially when life didn't need to be lost. And it's a crying shame that this disagreement called the "Sagebrush Rebellion" has gone on for so long. Something isn't right when groups of people have grievances with the Federal Government, where the Feds are not able to resolve this in a timely manner. To me, this is the travesty of the situation. The needless loss of life is the travesty in our people's inability to settle their issues with the Feds. What mechanisms can be put in place today so as to avoid this in the future? What mechanisms can be put into place today that WILL allow people's issues to get a full and timely redress in the Federal system without having to take decades and decades - and millions and millions of dollars? V/R, nwlivewire
Once you pick up a gun and resort to violence/shooting at police or anyone else you are no longer a "protester" my eyes. You become a terrorist. I'm all for the right to bear arms and the right to peacefully protest.....but when these two rights are mixed you are sending out some very mixed signals and you will make people nervous. And if you pick up weapons and forcefully take over a government office....and make comments like this: don't come asking for my sympathy/support when one of you gets killed. The guy killed got what was coming to him. Not one time in this article does it say that these " peaceful protesters" were unarmed or that they did not fire at the FBI first. No, they can't. If you shoot at them first they have every right to put one between your eyes. If these guys were unarmed and didn't fire first these guys would be screaming about it to the world. Since they know the FBI likely has video of the stop and evidence showing the "protesters" shot first and the guy had publicly said he would rather die than be detained, they aren't going to say that. There is a right way and a wrong way to protest government land ownership, they are choosing the wrong way. Example of the right way: have 100 people walk into the government office unarmed and handcuff themselves to something solid. People will sympathize with you and offer support. Only an idiotic redneck would think that using firearms (in today's world with public fear of mass school shootings and terrorism) would get people on their side. If they thought they could take on the government themselves they deserve a Darwin award. TL/DR: They should have went a little more Gandhi and a little less Bin Laden.
Going Gandhi is a much better way to go than going "Commando". Even so, I still ask: What mechanisms can be put in place today so as to avoid this in the future? What mechanisms can be put into place today that WILL allow PEOPLE'S issues to get a full and timely redress in the Federal system without having to take decades and decades - and cost millions and millions of dollars? I hate to say this, but it seems these days, as an everyday small group of people, it's very difficult to get the Feds to move on anything. You stand a way better chance of getting to a TIMELY resolution and redress of Federal issues if you are a big Corporation with big money behind you.... After all, Corporations are people. So what are real people nowadays? Are we now counted as slaves like in the old days - are we now likened and treated as if we are 3/5 of a person? Yeah. I know the questions are rhetorical in nature and of course, no answer(s) here can possibly solve what has happened. But I am still saddened over this loss of life and at how "militarized" all sides have now become.... And the Federal side of the house is rapidly echoing how many injured Veterans feel about the VA system when they have claims that take 10 or 20 years to adjudicate - "Delay, Deny, We Hope You Die". V/R, nwlivewire
100% agree. Both sides are so entrenched and unwilling to budge to come to an equitable resolution on any meaningful issue anymore it seems. That is truly sad IMO.
