Cliven Bundy's three sons, as part of a band of six to twelve gun toting right wing militia types, apparently mostly out-of-state domestic terrorist instigators, have taken over a federal building, the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters, using the pretext of the impending return to jail of two arsonists convicted of burning over 130 acres of federal land.
There was a peaceful protest by about 300 marchers, protesting the re-incarceration of Harney County ranchers, Dwight Hammond Jr. and Steven Hammond, who were convicted for starting fires on federal land-- fires that put life at risk and damaged over 130 acres. The two criminals, who purportedly started the fires to hide evidence of poaching that they'd been perpetrating, had already served four months for one and a year for the other, but an appeals court found that the sentence had been too lenient and they were not allowed to avoid serving the minimum sentence of five years.
It appears that three sons of Cliven Bundy, as well as a handful of other right wing extremist militia types have camped out in the federal building, which was unoccupied when they took it over. They say they will stay "for years."
The video, below lays out the picture pretty well.
RT @DIGeneHunt: Just to be clear, these hicks are the actual factual dictionary definition of terrorists.
#OregonUnderAttack https://t.co/… at https://t.co/…
— William Nagel (@CTO1ChipNagel) January 3, 2016@IanKullgren Men with guns saying they'd kill people to protect their views. Sounds familiar. #ISIS #Oregonstandoff #oregonunderattack at
— Stephen Sidlo (@StephenSidlo) January 3, 2016In the video below they're saying that regulations and government interference have caused Harney County Oregon to fall from the most prosperous to the least prosperous county in Oregon, and that they'll stay to fight government interference, until Harney County becomes the most prosperous again--due to their intervention. Ammon Bundy has put out a call for supporters to come...bearing weapons.
OpEdNews.com has, as part of its mission, the support of activism. But I don't think this fits the profile. Activism, including civil disobedience, is non-violent. When guns and threats of killing are added to the mix, protest becomes terrorism.
Here's what the FBI says:
"Domestic terrorism" means activities with the following three characteristics:
- Involve acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law;
- Appear intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination. or kidnapping; and
- Occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S.
18 U.S.C. - 2332b defines the term "federal crime of terrorism" as an offense that:
- Is calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion, or to retaliate against government conduct; and
- Is a violation of one of several listed statutes, including - 930(c) (relating to killing or attempted killing during an attack on a federal facility with a dangerous weapon); and - 1114 (relating to killing or attempted killing of officers and employees of the U.S.).
If the perpetrators of this terrorism were #blacklivesmatter or Muslim, we all know how differently this would be handled. The federal government and local authorities are handling this gently. The outcome of this situation should be imprisonment of all parties who were carrying weapons while engaging in illegal acts--taking over a federal building and threatening violence. When a crime is committed, possession of a weapon during its commission usually makes the sentence worse. That should be the case here, too.
Here's a video of the message from two of the militia members
The following video was published as a Flash video, which are no longer allowed. Here is the video link: VIEW VIDEO (in a new browser window)
This action has been referred to as "the tip of the spear." I believe it. There are tens of thousands of right wing militia types who want a civil war. They are the most dangerous people in America and should be arrested at every legal opportunity. There is a huge difference between peaceful protest and armed occupation with threats of killing. Again, if they were Muslim, with weapons stores and taking a public building, they would be arrested, if not summarily executed and placed in a maximum security prison in solitary.
And here's Ammon Bundy's explanation of why, at least by the FBI definition, he's engaging in terrorism(my words):
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