Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward said in a statement Sunday that the group of armed protesters came to town under false pretenses.
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Prime Minister to visit flood-hit communities
There are over 150 other flood warnings and alerts in place across the area and other parts including Wales and the Midlands. A man uses a canoe to make his way through flooded streets in York city center after the River Ouse bursts its banks Sunday.
The militia members took over the unoccupied headquarters of Malheur National Wildlife Refugee late on Saturday, the Oregonian newspaper reported. There the armed group remains Sunday, occupying the federal building in protest of what it sees as government overreach on rangelands throughout the western United States. He said, “This is not a time to stand down”. “When you have a big win like they did at the Bundy ranch, it emboldens people….”
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Ryan Bundy and another of Ammon Bundy’s brothers are also among the occupiers, according to The Associated Press.
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The group was led by Ammon Bundy, a rancher whose family became a symbol of anti-government sentiment in 2014 when his father, Cliven Bundy, inspired a standoff between armed anti-government activists and federal officials seeking to confiscate cattle grazing illegally on federal land in Nevada.
The occupation of a portion of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge 30 miles southeast of Burns, Ore., followed a peaceful march for ranchers Dwight Hammond, 73, and Steven Hammond, 46, who are scheduled to report to federal prison in San Pedro, Calif., on Monday after being convicted of arson, according to the Oregonian.
“I feel we are in a situation where if we do not do something, if we do not take a hard stand, we’ll be in a position where we’ll be no longer able to do so”, he said.
The wait-and-see reaction from authorities has led many to scrutinize the different treatment of armed, mostly white protesters in OR compared to the heavily armed and swift reaction to protesters in Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore. “They don’t belong to the federal government”. And they don’t like that uncertainty.
At Sunday’s news conference, Ammon Bundy said the refuge’s creation was “an unconstitutional act”, one that removed local ranchers from their lands, thrusting the county into an economic depression. The government still hasn’t collected the more than $1 million he owes.
The Bundys and their supporters insist the federal government is overstepping constitutional boundaries by owning public lands.
The standoff briefly made Cliven Bundy a conservative darling, and it ended when officials with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management opted to stand down and allow Bundy to continue to graze on the federal land. Numerous protesters provided reporters with names such as “Fluffy Unicorn”, or “Jimmy Joe”.
“The fact is, it’s a paradox being a rugged individualist dependent on the government – unless you’re John Wayne”, Robbins says.
Two days after taking over a federal building, armed protesters in OR are refusing to budge until they get what they want.
The animus harbored by the two Hammond men for federal land agencies dates back decades. The issue traces back to the 1970s and the Sagebrush Rebellion, a movement during the 1970s and 1980s that sought more local control over federal land in the American West. But even before that, the Hammonds bristled at the authority of managers of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
The seeds of the current situation were sown in 2001 and 2006.
But according to Billy J. Williams, the acting US attorney in OR, the Hammonds were rightfully convicted after setting fire to about 130 acres of public land in an attempt to cover up poaching. “The people of the republic are exhausted, and it starts right here in this parking lot, guys”. The law, which was passed in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, struck the judge presiding over the sentencing as too harsh – and off-base in this instance. ‘I will not disclose, ‘ he said. “I am not supposed to use the word “fairness” in criminal law”. They served prison terms of three months and one year respectively, and were ordered by a federal judge in October to return to prison. The federal government wanted the full five years, appealing the shorter sentences and eventually winning that appeal in 2014.
Some local residents feared the Saturday rally would involve more than speeches, flags and marching. “Given the seriousness of arson, a five-year sentence is not grossly disproportionate to the offense”. Susan Hammond said her husband and son would surrender themselves as ordered.
Oregon Public Broadcasting reports that the Hammonds plan to report to jail on Monday.
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Ammon Bundy told The Oregonian by phone that the protesters had no intention of leaving anytime soon.
