A leader of the Orego…
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“I’m here because the citizens of Harney County have asked me to come out and ask you folks to peacefully leave”, Ward said, offering the protesters a “safe escort” out. The leader of an American Indian tribe that regards an OR nature pre…
The local sheriff policing the occupation of a wildlife refuge in OR said he has received numerous death threats since armed militia took over the remote government outpost over the weekend.
The man behind the armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge comes from a Mormon family that has been challenging government authority for at least two decades.
The Bundys say they want the federal government to turn over its land holdings in the area to local counties and states and that they will leave after they have accomplished their goal.
The occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge began Saturday, two days before father-and-son ranchers Dwight Hammond Jr., 73, and Steven Hammond, 46, were to report to prison for setting fire to federal lands in 2012.
As protesters continue to engage in a standoff against the government at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, conservatives agree the events have elevated the debate over federal land ownership. But Harney County Sheriff David Ward raised a more troubling issue.
“We feel like we need to make sure the Hammonds are out of prison, or well on their way”.
The Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service offices are also shut down.
“We can’t have armed rebellion”, he said.
“I’ve seen this before, and it only ends in bloodshed”, Atkins said.
– Harney Cty. Sheriff (@HarneyCoSheriff) January 7, 2016Sheriff Ward asks Ammon Bundy to please leave and respect the wishes of Harney County residents.
Meanwhile, Oregon Governor Kate Brown released a statement on Thursday decrying the activities of Bundy’s militia and ordering the group to “decamp immediately and be held accountable”.
The meeting took place on the sheriff’s home turf, and he has already established himself as an opponent of the occupiers, who labeled him “an enemy of the people”.
Rodrique and other tribe members addressed the public during a press conference on Wednesday, where they discussed how the ranchers insulted the history of their own land struggles with the USA government. The FBI is reportedly monitoring the situation and the agency has said it wants “to bring a peaceful resolution to the situation”.
“There becomes a time when, when people are ignored to the point where they’re frustrated, they don’t know what else to do”, Bundy said.
Schools were closed following the seizure of the refuge because of safety concerns in the small town in eastern Oregon’s high desert. As with the protest organized in support of Cliven Bundy, who owes taxpayers more than $1 million in grazing fee payments, supporters intimate that any attempt to remove them might lead to violence.
Authorities have not yet moved to remove the group of roughly 2 dozen people, some from as far away as Arizona and MI. This rural county was thrust into the national spotlight when a protest in support of two local ranchers convicted of federal arson charges splintered, and a group of armed militants took over a federal wildlife refuge.
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The Hammonds are long-time local residents who have distanced themselves from the group Bundy’s group.
