Thread: Armed militia group attempting to overthrow the government

JAN 21 2016, 12:18 AM ET

Oregon Governor: Feds Told Us To Keep Quiet About Standoff

by TIM STELLOH

In her first lengthy public comments on the armed occupation of a wildlife refuge in Oregon, Governor Kate Brown said Wednesday that the federal government had urged state officials to "limit" their public comments about the standoff.

"To avoid escalating the situation, I have complied," Brown said at the end of a roughly four-minute speech to introduce her 2016 policy agenda. "I would not want to say anything to compromise their efforts to resolve the situation."

But the situation in Burns, a town close to the refuge, is "absolutely intolerable," she said.

"The very fabric of this community is being ripped apart," Brown said, adding that she had "conveyed these very grave concerns directly" to the Department of Justice and the White House.

"Federal authorities must move quickly to end the occupation and hold all of the wrongdoers accountable," she said.

Brown also plans to seek funding during next month's legislative session to "offset" the cost of the response to the occupiers — about $100,000 per week, she said.


Oregon Gov. Kate Brown. Don Ryan / AP, file

Brown has weighed in on the armed protest once before on Jan. 7, with a brief statement that called on the group to "decamp immediately."

So far, they have not.

The occupiers took over a federal building at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on Jan. 2 with a stated goal of reversing the prison sentences of two men who were convicted of committing arson on federal land.

Two days later, the FBI announced that it was working with local and state officials to "bring a peaceful resolution to the situation" at the refuge.

"Due to safety considerations," the agency said in a Twitter post, "we will not be releasing any specifics with regard to the law enforcement response."


The Harney County sheriff has accused the protesters of intimidating and harassing local residents and federal employees, and two men were arrested last week for stealing a U.S. Fish and Wildlife vehicle and possessing a firearm as a felon.

At a Tuesday community meeting, with protest leader Ammon Bundy in attendance, residents tussled over the occupation. At one point, the crowd broke into applause and chanted for the group to go home.

But this comment became another applause line,NBC affiliate KTVZ reported: "Until changes come about, I'd rather see the Bundy's stay here."

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/...andoff-n500901

1/21/16

FBI and Oregon standoff leaders begin negotiations to end refuge occupation

‘We the People’ petition White House to arrest Bundy

Online petition seeking 100,000 signatures

KOIN 6 News Staff

Published: January 23, 2016, 6:49 am Updated: January 23, 2016, 9:13 am

Mark Heckert of Puyallup said he studied at Oregon State and frequented the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge wants the militia out, Jan. 11, 2016 (KOIN)

Related Coverage

• Ammon Bundy media demands nixed by FBI
• Ammon Bundy: Possible ‘war among people’ brewing
• Bundy to Harney County officials: ‘Get in line’

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — An online petition to President Barack Obama urges the president to “end the armed occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge immediately.”

“We the People” is the First Amendment platform hosted on the White House website for citizens to bring issues directly to President Obama’s attention. If a petition reaches a certain level of signatures, the White House will issue a response — but won’t necessarily act on it.


Ammon Bundy and other militia members met with the FBI at the Burns Airport before going into town for lunch, Jan. 21, 2016 (KOIN)

This petition, which also wants to know “why the area has not been isolated,” has garnered more than 16,000 signatures from their stated goal of 100,000.

The leader of the militia, Ammon Bundy, is the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who led an armed standoff with federal officials over cattle grazing on land around his ranch.

The US Constitution

Ammon Bundy and his militia took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on January 2. Others have joined since then in a stated ploy to get the federal government to return the land to Harney County. Most of the people in this militia are from other states.

On Saturday, two ranchers from other states are expected to rescind their land-grazing agreements with the federal government in a so-called signing ceremony at in the Malheur Refuge conference center. This signing ceremony “will double the amount of ranchers” standing up for their rights, militia spokesperson LaVoy Finicum said earlier this week.


Oregon Gov. Kate Brown outlines her 2016 policy agenda at a press conference at the State Capitol in Salem, Ore., on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016. (Molly J. Smith /Statesman-Journal via AP)

Gov. Kate Brown sent a letter Thursday to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI Director James Comey, urging them “to end the unlawful occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge as safely and as quickly as possible.”

In a statement Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley said it was “long past time for this illegal occupation to end and for the people of Harney County to get their lives back.”

The Democrat said he hopes authorities could peacefully resolve the situation and hold Bundy’s group accountable.

“Law enforcement inaction up to this point is an egregious violation of public safety and emboldens their erroneous assertions that the US Government has no Constitutional Authority,” the online petition states. “Please end the siege of the refuge and arraign Ammon Bundy as soon as possible.”

http://koin.com/2016/01/23/we-the-pe...-arrest-bundy/

Forum over Oregon standoff canceled over safety concerns

14 hours ago

BURNS, Ore. (AP) — A judge who planned to host a community meeting Monday over the standoff at an Oregon wildlife refuge has canceled it due to safety concerns.

Harney County Judge Steve Grasty said in a news release authorities had become aware of plans to protest the meeting and block the entrance to the county senior center, where it was to be held. Earlier Grasty had said that a no-guns policy would be strictly enforced at the meeting.

A spokeswoman for the county said Sunday afternoon she didn't have further information about the safety concerns or specifically who intended to block the senior center entrance.

An armed group led by Ammon Bundy has been occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge since Jan. 2 to protest federal land use policies. Oregon lawmakers have been increasing their pressure on federal authorities to step in and end the occupation.

http://news.yahoo.com/no-guns-policy...201205350.html

1/26/15

Ammon Bundy, three others arrested SHOTS FIRED

1 killed, 1 injured during arrest of Ammon Bundy, leader of Oregon standoff
​
@ Ammon Bundy, three others arrested SHOTS FIRED

JAN 25 2016, 11:07 PM ET

Oregon Occupation: Man on Way to Join Bundys Threatens to Kill Officers on Camera

by ALEX JOHNSON

An Oregon man in military camouflage threatened to kill federal and state law enforcement agents when he was stopped Monday on suspicion of DUI while on his way to join anti-government protesters occupying Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

In a confrontation recorded on police video, the man, identified as Joseph Arthur Stetson, 54, of Woodburn, was stopped shortly before noon (3 p.m. ET) at Hines Food Market in South Hines, the Harney County Sheriff's Office said.

• Embed

Man Intending to Join Oregon Protests Arrested for DUI 3:24


In the 10-minute video, the encounter starts out politely enough, with Stetson and a state trooper, who wasn't identified, calling each other "sir." Stetson was armed with a firearm, which turned out to be a pellet gun, authorities said.

Stetson tells the trooper he's a retired colonel in the U.S. military who served in Central America in 1980 — he boasts twice that his service record was "sealed by Ronald Reagan" — and that he's on his way to serve as a bodyguard for protesters led by Ammon and Ryan Bundy, who've occupied the land refuge since the beginning of the year.

Related: What Is the Occupation in Oregon Really All About?

But after about five minutes, as troopers and local officers move to place him under arrest, Stetson becomes agitated, referring to President Barack Obama and officers on the scene as "Nazis" in a tirade spiked with crude expletives.

"I'll kill all of you," Stetson can be heard saying on the video.

When the remarkably restrained state trooper advises him that "I don't think you want to do that," Stetson replies, "If I come out of jail I'm going to kill you."

Eventually, it took multiple officers to wrestle Stetson — who's listed in police records as 6 feet tall and weighing 235 pounds — into a police vehicle.

• Embed

From Waco to Oregon, Here Are Some Notable Standoffs with the Feds 2:39


Authorities said he kicked the vehicle so violently during the struggle that one of its doors was significantly damaged.

Stetson was being held on $5,000 bail Monday night in the Harney County jail on initial charges of resisting arrest, according to jail records.

Related: Meet Ammon and Ryan Bundy, Activists Leading Oregon Occupation

State prison records show that Stetson pleaded guilty to first-degree burglary and was convicted of menacing in a 2009 incident in which he destroyed a mobile home in Portland in what authorities called a domestic rampage.

Several other homes in the area were evacuated before Stetson surrendered after a standoff with Washington County sheriff's deputies. At the time, he was sentenced to 75 days in jail and two years of probation, according to state records.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/...camera-n504216

Federal agents seal off occupied Oregon refuge after leaders arrested, one killed in shootout

By Mark Berman and Sarah Kaplan
January 27 at 11:40 AM

Armed Ore. occupation escalates to shooting, arrests and a death
Play Video1:54
Federal agents moved early Wednesday morning to seal off a remote wildlife refuge in Oregon, hours after authorities arrested several leaders of the armed activists who had seized the land in a shootout that killed one of the group’s most prominent members.

In the weeks since the group began its occupation, local and federal law enforcement officials had called for the occupation to end peacefully. On Tuesday, after these calls and attempts at negotiations went nowhere, authorities moved to arrest several group members while they were away from the compound. A total of eight people were arrested, at the shootout and other locations.

After the exchange of gunfire on a highway, Ammon Bundy, the group’s leader, and others were arrested on federal charges. Other members of the group remained at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, but before the sun rose over a remote swath of eastern Oregon previously best known for its bird-watching, authorities said they were blocking access to the federal land.

In a statement, the FBI and Oregon State Police said that they had established checkpoints along key routes to the refuge and that anyone who tries to travel inside would be arrested. Officials said people leaving the refuge would have their names confirmed and vehicles searched, but they did not say whether those people would be arrested.

[What we know about the occupied federal building in rural Oregon]

The FBI had refrained from making arrests on the refuge because it did not want to be seen as storming the compound, and officials had publicly said they sought a peaceful resolution. Up to this point, law enforcement has not impeded the travel of occupiers, a law enforcement official said Wednesday.

“But as we call for a peaceful resolution, we’re hoping that people on the refuge will now depart,” said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing situation.

The standoff began Jan. 2 when a group, led by Bundy, went to the refuge after a protest over the imprisonment of two local ranchers convicted of committing arson on public lands. The ranchers’ case provoked a heated response in Harney County, where the refuge is located, and caught the attention of a wide swath of anti-government activists far beyond its borders. Among the hundreds who flocked to Burns to express their outrage were Bundy and his brother, Ryan Bundy.

After the rally, Ammon Bundy issued an impassioned call to arms to his fellow protesters.

“Those who want to go take hard stand,” he declared, according to people in attendance, “get in your trucks and follow me!”

A small splinter group drove to the refuge, located about 30 miles south of Burns, and a rotating cast of occupiers has remained holed up there ever since.

Shortly before 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, federal agents and the state police went to arrest Bundy and several other occupiers while they were on Highway 395. Gunshots were fired, and one of the occupiers was killed, authorities said. It was not immediately clear who fired the fatal shots.

Bundy and his brother, Ryan, were among those taken into custody. One person was injured during the arrests and was treated at a local hospital before being released into the FBI’s custody; the Oregonian newspaper reported that Ryan Bundy was injured.

The FBI and Oregon State Police have also not said yet how many shots were fired, who fired them or identified the person who was killed. The person killed was later identified as LaVoy Finicum, who was a spokesman for the group, according to occupiers as well as Nevada assembly woman familiar with the occupiers and a Facebook page for Bundy’s father’s ranch. Finicum’s daughter also told the Oregonian that he was killed.

[LaVoy Finicum, who said he would rather die than be arrested]

Gary Hunt, a board member of a militia network known as Operation Mutual Defense who arrived Sunday from California to support the occupiers, told the Oregonian that those still in the compound “have decided they’re going to hold their ground.”

But there is some confusion about who is leading the occupation now that Ammon Bundy is under arrest, Hunt added. Still, by Wednesday, people at the compound showed no signs that they were leaving.

Five people were arrested following the shootout. Later Tuesday afternoon, FBI agents in Burns also arrested Joseph Donald O’Shaughnessy, 45, of Cottonwood, Ariz., and Peter Santilli, 50, a Cincinnati man known for livestreaming refuge events. Hours later, FBI agents in Phoenix arrested Jon Ritzheimer, 32, who turned himself in to authorities. The other people arrested were Brian Cavalier, 44, of Bunkerville; Shawna Cox, 59, of Kanab, Utah; and Ryan Payne, 32, of Anaconda, Mont.

The eight people who were arrested Tuesday face federal felony charges of conspiracy to impede officers of the United States from performing their official duties through force, intimidation or threats.

The standoff in Oregon has stretched on for weeks, and questions have lingered about why federal agents did not immediately move to physically intercede. In the past, federal agents moving into places like Ruby Ridge or Waco, Tex., during standoffs led to numerous deaths, and officials have changed the way they respond to such events.

So the stalemate in Oregon persisted. Then, on Tuesday afternoon, the Bundys and several other occupiers reportedly left the refuge to attend a community meeting 100 miles away in John Day, Ore. About halfway to their destination,the FBI and the Oregon State Police ordered them to stop.

Authorities did not describe precisely what happened next, though the Oregonian reported that Ryan Bundy and Finicum resisted orders to surrender. Ultimately, gunfire broke out.



Arianna Finicum Brown, the daughter of LaVoy Finicum, the de facto spokesman, told the Oregonian on Tuesday that her father was the man killed during the exchange of gunfire.

“My dad was such a good, good man, through and through,” Brown told the Oregon paper. “He would never ever want to hurt somebody, but he does believe in defending freedom and he knew the risks involved.”


Lavoy Finicum (top), Ammon Bundy (left) and Ryan Bundy (Associated Press)

But Jason Patrick, an occupier who remained at the Malheur refuge Tuesday night, told The Washington Post that the arrests don’t change his group’s demands. He wouldn’t say how many people remain at the refuge, or who else was with him, but he said they don’t plan to pick up and leave because of the day’s events.

“Right now, we’re doing fine,” he told The Post by phone.
“We’re just trying to figure out how a dead cowboy equals peaceful resolution.”

Patrick and another occupier both confirmed to The Post that Finicum was the man who died. And on Tuesday night, the Facebook page for Bundy Ranch — the site of a confrontation between the Bundy brothers’ father, Cliven, and the Bureau of Land Management in 2014, that involved Bundy supporters aiming guns at federal agents — posted a statement condemning what they described as Finicum’s “murder.”

The 54-year-old rancher from Cane Beds, Ariz., had previously told NBC News that he’d rather die than be arrested. On Wednesday, his followers were portraying him as a martyr “who stood for your children’s liberty.”

Talking to The Post in mid-January, Finicum explained that the armed group planned to remain at the refuge, which is operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, until all 187,000 acres of it were “returned” to Harney County and private ownership.

“It needs to be very clear that these buildings will never, ever return to the federal government,” he said at the time, a white cowboy hat perched atop his head, a Colt .45 pistol holstered at his hip.


Traffic stop turns deadly after shootout with occupiers of Oregon refuge


View Photos


Several arrested, one dead during shootout with armed activists in Oregon.

[The Oregon refuge occupied by Bundy is one of the first wildlife sanctuaries in the U.S.]

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) said the occupiers’ presence at Malheur cost taxpayers about a half-million dollars.

They were also accused of destroying government property and harassing law enforcement and Burns residents.

Meanwhile, a wide-ranging debate has raged nationally over the causes of the occupation, the nature of its participants, the role of government, the purpose of public land and the appropriate response to an armed takeover of a federal building.

At the center of it all has been a long-running conflict over land use in the West, where huge swaths of the landscape are publicly owned.

“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 the morning after he and his fellow occupiers moved into the Malheur headquarters. He announced that the occupiers aimed to help ranchers, loggers and others who wanted to use the previously protected land, which the Bundys believe should never have been controlled by the federal government in the first place.

“We will be here as a unified body of people that understand the principles of the Constitution,” he said.

[Armed activists in Oregon touch off unpredictable chapter in land-use feud]

In Oregon, more than half the land in the state is federally controlled. The government issues permits for grazing, mining and logging — major sources of income in the rural part of the state where the Malheur refuge sits. But it also lays down environmental regulations and restrictions to protect wildlife, threatening the livelihoods of actual people, some in Oregon say.

“What people in Western states are dealing with is the destruction of their way of life,” B.J. Soper, a father of four from Bend, Ore., who was once a professional rodeo rider, told The Post in early January. “When frustration builds up, people lash out.”

The rally in defense of the Hammonds was largely the outcome of that frustration. But even people who had attended the march were dismayed by the Bundy brother’s next move.

“It’s anarchy. … What we have here is old-style thinking, that might is right,”said Len Vohs, former mayor of Burns. Pointing out that the Bundys and most other occupiers weren’t even from Burns, he added, “the majority of us support the Hammonds, but we don’t need outsiders telling us what to do.”

On Jan. 4, two days into the Malheur takeover, the two ranchers convicted of arson turned themselves into federal custody without incident. In a news conference that afternoon, Harney County Sheriff David Ward told the occupiers it was time to leave.

“To the people at the wildlife refuge: You said you were here to help the citizens of Harney County. That help ended when a peaceful protest became an armed occupation,” he said. “The Hammonds have turned themselves in. It’s time for you to leave our community, go home to your families and end this peacefully.”

[Why veterans look at the Oregon occupation and see ‘loose cannon clowns’]

Criticism of the takeover made for strange bedfellows: Oregon’s Democratic governor, conservationists and members of the Paiute tribe (who consider the area of the refuge sacred ancestral land) issued calls to end the occupation of the refuge. But so did a “patriot movement” known as the “Three Percenters,” which pledges armed resistance to anything that infringes on the Constitution.

The standoff prompted some mockery — people sent the occupiers glitter bombs and sex toys — and sympathy from others. It also sparked a debate about how the occupiers would be treated if they were African American or Muslim, rather than white.

Meanwhile, federal authorities did little to dislodge the Bundys and their followers as the occupation stretched into days and then weeks. On Jan. 4, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said that the takeover was a “local law enforcement matter,” though the FBI had already said it was taking the lead the situation.

Some worried that the prolonged success of armed standoffs like those at Malheur and Cliven Bundy’s ranch in 2014 would only encourage further showdowns. Brown and local officials in Burns demanded to know why U.S. officials hadn’t taken action.

[‘Who knows what they’re stomping on?’: Tribe worried about Ore. refuge artifacts]

Last Thursday, Brown sent a letter to the FBI Director James Comey and U.S. Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch asking them “to end the unlawful occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge as safely and as quickly as possible.”

The news of the arrests was met with relief from conservationists and public officials. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) applauded the law enforcement response in a statement Tuesday night.

“I am pleased that the FBI has listened to the concerns of the local community and responded to the illegal activity occurring in Harney County by outside extremists,” he said in a statement. “The leaders of this group are now in custody and I hope that the remaining individuals occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge will peacefully surrender so this community can begin to heal the deep wounds that this illegal activity has created over the last month.”

Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, has spent the past two weeks in Burns following the occupation. He also issued a statement to Oregon Public Broadcasting on Tuesday after hearing the news.

“I’m saddened to see this standoff culminating in violence,” it said. “But the Bundys and their followers showed up armed to the teeth and took over lands that belong to all American people. We hope and pray those remaining at the compound surrender peacefully and immediately. Here’s hoping cooler heads now prevail in southeastern Oregon and we can return to a semblance of peace and civility.”

But an image posted on the Bundy Ranch Facebook page condemned the violent outcome.

“Tonight peaceful patriots were attacked on a remote road for supporting the constitution. One was killed,” it read. “Who are the terrorists?”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...d-in-shootout/

UPDATES

News conference: A news conference is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Wednesday in Burns. U.S. Attorney Billy Williams, FBI Special Agent in Charge Greg Bretzing and Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward were to address reporters.

View image on Twitter

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Beth Nakamura
✔@bethnakamura

Several armored vehicles & what appears 2 b a black hawk at airport in Burns. Cops @ entrance #Oregonstandoff
8:56 AM - 27 Jan 2016

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At the airport: The Burns airport now contains a black helicopter and several armored vehicles. Police in paramilitary gear and carrying scoped rifles are patrolling the entrance.

Roads still closed: This morning law enforcement authorities have stopped letting anyone past the barricade on Oregon 205, preventing anyone from accessing the wildlife refuge headquarters, including area ranchers.

Wes Land, a ranch hand in Burns, waited from his pickup on the roadside along Oregon 205 waiting for the chance to go to work.

Land's boss, Diamond Rancher Buck Taylor, runs cattle on land directly adjacent to the refuge. He was headed to that property to do his morning chores when officers manning a police blockade turned him away.

"I got to go out and feed cows," Land said from the drivers seat as he waited for word along with his border collie, Jack. "I just want to go down and do what I'm supposed to be doing, but they just keep telling me the roads closed."

The cows are usually fed by 7 a.m. When he is able to reach them, Land said he expects attitude from the 350 hungry animals.

Check back here for more updates.

http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-sta...upants_he.html

FBI releases video of Oregon occupier's shooting death


The FBI and Oregon State Police traffic stop and shooting of Robert “LaVoy” Finicum in Oregon on Tuesday. The footage has been edited.


Matt Pearce Contact Reporter

The FBI released video Thursday that shows law enforcement during a traffic stop this week fatally shooting of one of the armed men who occupied an Oregon wildlife refuge.

In the video, Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, 55, drives a white truck into a snowdrift, nearly striking a law enforcement officer. He gets out of the vehicle and can be seen lifting his hands in the air and then lowering them toward his body before at least one Oregon State Police officer shoots him.

Finicum had a loaded 9-millimeter handgun in his pocket, an FBI official said.

See the most-read stories this hour >>

The encounter took place Tuesday on a highway several dozen miles from the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

The video was taken from an aircraft. It's not clear exactly when Finicum died.


Read more on the Oregon standoff at national wildlife refuge

Until now, officials had given no information about the fatal shooting as law enforcement officers stopped and arrested several protesters who had occupied the refuge in Oregon's high desert near Burns.

The FBI's account of the shooting at a news conference in Oregon on Thursday comes after unverified claims from two witnesses said Finicum sped away from law enforcement before he got out of his vehicle and was shot.

Four people are still thought to be occupying the refuge.

This story will be updated.

VIDEO @ link. http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-...128-story.html