During the Bundy Ranch Stand-off a dispute between the Michigan Militia and another right-wing activist group, The Oath Keepers, nearly led to a shoot-out.
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“These men came to Harney County claiming to be part of militia groups supporting local ranchers, when in reality these men had alternative motives to attempt to overthrow the county and federal government in hopes to spark a movement across the United States”, said the statement from David Ward, sheriff of Harney County, where the refuge is located.
They are not happy about having these people here.
That means ranchers can graze their cattle, miners can use their mineral rights, loggers can cut trees, and hunters and fishers can shoot and cast, he said. The group believes that federally managed land should belong to the locals who live there.
“I’m glad they took the refuge because it’s 30 miles away”.
The brothers are calling on anti-government militia members from all over the country to join the building’s seizure. “But it’s a scary thing”.
“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.
According to the newspaper, prosecutors alleged that in 2001 and 2006, the Hammonds committed arson on federal land and that the fires were started to destroy evidence that the men were hunting deer on federal lands. The two were ordered back to prison to serve four years each.
Ammon Bundy told NBC’s TODAY on Monday that the occupiers have no intention of committing violence unless the government intervenes.
Nevertheless, Bundy stressed to The Daily Caller in a phone interview that those occupying the refuge are armed but not violent.
On Sunday afternoon, several pickup trucks blocked the entrance to the refuge and armed men wearing camouflage and winter gear used radios to alert those at the refuge buildings when reporters were allowed onto the property. “And so we felt it was every necessary to take a stand to make sure that this doesn’t continue to happen in other areas”.
An FBI spokesperson says they are working with local law enforcement to bring a peaceful resolution to the standoff at the refuge.
The agency said it would not be providing details of its response because of “safety considerations for both those inside the refuge as well as the law enforcement officers involved”.
So they took control of the federal wildlife refuge, saying they will control it “as long as it takes” and will fire on anyone who tries to enforce the law and throw them out. “But I don’t want anybody hurt”.
“It’s weird – I woke up this morning expecting the town to be crawling with this and that agency. Five generations of ranchers that had been on the Steens, kicked them off”, he said. The biggest difference since the takeover is the undercurrent of worry, he said. “But you don’t see any of it. They’re keeping a low presence”, Landon said.
Bundy added, “They were threatened for speaking to me by the U.S. Attorney’s Office”.
Tension has been building for weeks in the Burns, Oregon, area over the case of Dwight and Steven Hammond. They were upset over the looming prison sentences for local ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond.
The Hammonds have received support from local residents, but the most vocal groups are from outside the area.
Bundy is the son of Cliven Bundy, a Nevada rancher whose family staged a 2014 armed protest against federal land management officials that ended with authorities backing down, citing safety concerns. Ammon Bundy has criticized the US government for what he called a failed legal process.
Armed militia men took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
He and other protesters from out of state came to Burns last month.
Ammon Bundy has said there would be no violence unless the group was challenged by authorities.
Protesters marched to the Hammond house on Saturday, January 2, 2015. “Neither Ammon Bundy nor anyone within his group/organization speak for the Hammond Family”, lawyer W. Alan Schroeder wrote to Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward, according to the network.
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Regardless of the outcome of the standoff, it doesn’t change anything for the Hammonds, who will report to prison on Monday. “We gave our word that’s what we would do, and we intend to act on it”, he told The Associated Press last week.
