How long law enforcement officials can allow the standoff to continue
The armed but white thieves trespassing at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge are begging to be arrested and evicted, and law enforcement is still standing around daydreaming.
The militiamen occupying a wildlife refuge in eastern Oregon have adopted increasingly bold and risky tactics in their protest against the federal government, raising questions about how long law enforcement officials can allow the standoff to continue.
Why do law enforcement officials want to allow the standoff to continue? Why are they asking how long they can keep doing that, instead of not doing that? If those people were not white, we know damn well they wouldn’t be sipping their 10th cup of coffee instead of arresting the thieving gun-having criminals.
Now entering their third week of occupying the Malheur national wildlife refuge in rural Harney County, leaders of the militia appear to be testing the patience of the local sheriff’s department and the FBI by brazenly commandeering and in some cases destroying public property while escalating their anti-government rhetoric.
Community leaders and government officials inOregon and beyond say they fear there could be major damage at the refuge and elevated safety risks for employees and local residents if the militia continues to stand its ground, seemingly emboldened by the continuing lack of consequences.
And nothing happens. A child has a toy gun in a park and blammo, he’s dead ten seconds after the cop car arrives. A pack of men have a lot of real guns in a national wildlife refuge, and they’re left in peace to trash the refuge and threaten the federal workers. It’s just nuts.
On Friday evening, Rodrique said she was horrified to learn that the militia, led by Nevada rancher Ammon Bundy, had paved a road through part of the wildlife sanctuary. That move came days after occupiers destroyed part of a US Fish and Wildlife Service fence, to allow cattle to freely graze on public lands the federal government controls.
Militiamen have also removed cameras at the refuge they claim the FBI was using for “surveillance”. LaVoy Finicum, an Arizona rancher and one of the main spokesmen for the militia, showed up to a Saturday morning press conference carrying a basket filled with black cameras.
“Do you not get tired of the mass surveillance in this country?” Finicum told reporters. “This, in my opinion, is unreasonable search.”
At wildlife refuges? No, I don’t. Vandals could go there to trash the place, poachers could go to shoot or capture wildlife. I want the managers to keep an eye on things.
Finicum and other militiamen seemed undeterred by the Oregon state police’s arrest on Friday of occupier Kenneth Medenbach, 62, who drove a government vehicle off the refuge to the local Safeway supermarket in the town of Burns, 30 miles away.
He drove a stolen car to Safeway. Even the forgiving police couldn’t let that slide. But if they drive their own cars? Oh by all means! No problem!
When driving their own vehicles, however, high-profile militia leaders have had no difficulty entering and leaving the compound. In fact, Finicum and Ryan Bundy, Ammon’s brother, recently left the refuge and drove out of Oregon and were then able to return to the occupation without facing any contact with law enforcement, Finicum told the Guardian.
If that’s true it’s just beyond disgusting. Why are they letting these fuckers get away with this?
In addition to his criticisms of the federal government, Finicum slammed Harney County officials for denying the militia access to a community building in Burns, where the occupiers want to present their plans to local residents. Members of a so-called Harney County Committee of Safety, who have worked with Bundy and say they want to take over his cause, are threatening to file a complaint against the county for refusing to allow the militia to use its buildings.
Do these white men feel entitled? I think we can safely say they do.
Just a general point: does anyone else find it a bit… cute… when the most infantile blatherings are described as if they were damning criticisms? Oh, a bunch of idiots that are actively trying to bring down the federal government were forbidden the use of government property and they
threw a tantyslammed the council in response.I think a large part of the reason why nothing is being done is because, in the past, when law enforcement has actually done something about heavily armed crazy white people holed up in compounds (Ruby Ridge, Waco, etc.) there is an enormous public outcry (from people on both the Right and the Left) and the crazy people become martyrs.
I think The Great God Pan has the right of it, more-or-less; there are doubtless racial dynamics at play, especially in the *local* police force’s disengagement, but the federal response has been tempered by a long and bloody history of having to kill an awful lot of these kinds of people to get them to give up the ghost. (Waco in particular stands as a high water mark of ego-driven violence and needless bloodshed instigated by an anti-government fanatic.)
As you imply, Ophelia, were these brigands in the bird sanctuary identifiably non-white, it is very likely that all levels of law enforcement would’ve handled this differently. But, then again, the idea of a large group of non-white people actively taking up arms against the US government is laughable precisely *because* it is an exercise in privilege, of exactly the sort that non-white people in the United States lack.
These assholes *want* a standoff. They want a chance to shoot at other human beings, and I don’t doubt that some of them actually want to die for what they see as a cause of liberty and justice, as deluded as that is. By refusing to engage, by waiting them out, “the Feds” are almost certainly hoping that they will peter away and can be dealt with piecemeal. (I’m hoping they’ve learned their lesson that just leaving these nutjobs alone will only encourage them to pick a higher-value target next time.)
The stakes are low, at least this time; the terrorists have no hostages, at least not physically, and they are not near any population centres. They do, however, have a superfluity of firearms and a cavalier eagerness to use them. That means actively apprehending these men entails a high risk (if not a virtual certainty) of a widely-publicised massacre that will only serve to enflame that segment of the population sympathetic to their cause, and to alienate those opposed to it.
To be sure, these men need to serve serious jail time. (I’d also love the irony of their cattle all being confiscated as a partial payment-in-kind for what the Bundys owe in grazing fees.) But that will only happen when the siege dissolves, not if it is broken.
Hmm. I’m not really concerned about if these asswits insist on being martyred. However, I worry about them damaging irreplaceable artifacts and scientific information.
Like HAMAS, these creeps have a ‘heads I win, tails you lose’ arrangement. If they’re tolerated or ignored, they’re Champions of Liberty. If the law is enforced, they become Martyrs of The Cause. The audience they are playing to will be whipped up into a deeper frenzy no matter what happens.
The stakes aren’t that low. The place is a wildlife refuge. The trespassing thieves are systematically damaging it. It’s also full of Native American artifacts, which should be protected from armed trespassing thieves. There are also the personnel records which the armed trespassing thieves are known to be rummaging through, which puts all the employees at Malheur in danger.
So he had to get to Safeway to stock up on chips, root beer and cookies?
John – probably, since they have all the lube, sex toys and gummy penises that they could possibly need.
Mental illness treatment is terribly underfunded in this County. These poor loons cannot afford their medication.
Is there a way to put lorazepam and Wellbutrin in the drinking water?