Bundy says the group is here for the people of Harney County, adding “it might take a bit for people to realize that”.
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Occupation leader Ammon Bundy repeated his call at a press conference Monday for a panel to investigate the conviction, saying the Hammonds had been forced to report to prison “for a crime they did not commit”.
Bundy borrowed $530,000 in 2010 for his company, Valet Fleet Service LLC, according to public records on usaspending.gov. Valet Fleet Service is a truck maintenance company in Arizona.
Bundy denied he was being hypocritical about the loan because it “was an effort in assisting the people in using their rights”.
He said they planned on staying at the refuge as long as it takes.
“We came very well-prepared”.
“I get why they’re here”, Wright said of the occupiers.
And that’s a smart decision by authorities, analysts say.
But Bundy doesn’t speak for the Hammonds, who have disavowed his protest.
“There is no real reason, at this point, to go in”. MSNBC Law Enforcement Analyst and Retired ATF Special Agent in Charge Jim Cavanaugh details how officials could address the situation.
He said federal authorities have learned that lesson the hard way.
“A lot of people think their land’s being stolen by the government”, Strickland said. “Their land and their resources have been taken from them to the point where its literally putting them in poverty”. “The only thing that would force them to change that would be if these people posed a life-and-death threat to someone”. “The Department of Justice has the lead on any investigation of federal crimes that may have been committed”. Ward urged the group to disperse peacefully.
“Due to safety considerations for both those inside the refuge as well as the law enforcement officers involved, we will not be releasing any specifics with regards to the law enforcement response”.
For the moment, the federal government was doing nothing to remove them, but the FBI said it was monitoring the situation.
The tweet was later deleted.
Republicans were eager to support the elder Bundy’s standoff with federal officials in 2014 until the rancher made several racist remarks to the media.
CNN has referred to them as armed protesters, militia members and occupiers.
Ryan’s brother, Ammon Bundy, accused multiple federal agencies of pursuing the Hammond family because they have refused to sell their ranch. “But I don’t want anybody hurt”, he said.
“I’m hoping most of it’s just muscle, trying to push”, Landon said.
What little the militants had, they lost over the weekend when they tried and failed to glom onto the cause of freeing Dwight Hammond and his son, Steven, two Oregonians convicted of setting fires on federal land in 2001 and 2006.
The two were convicted of the arsons three years ago and served time – the father three months, the son one year.
But the father-and-son ranchers have distanced themselves from the group.
Three-quarters of Harney County’s land is federally owned, a reality that, here and elsewhere in the West, has long fueled debate about the ownership and management of federal lands. And while the milita group insists they are acting in support of the Hammonds, the Hammonds say they don’t want the protesters at the refuge. “This is not a time to stand down”, he said in the video.
Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward has told people to stay away from the area.
Currently, the Federal Bureau of Investigation seeks to resolve this “armed occupation” in eastern Oregon.
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The Hammonds have set themselves apart from the armed movement, and from Bundy in particular. “It’s time for you to leave our community and go home to your families and end this peacefully”.
