He shouted out that he and other people in the Harney County town don’t want Bundy, his brother, Ryan Bundy, and other militants to continue their occupation.
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Cowboy Dwane Ehmer, of Irrigon Ore., a supporter of the group occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, rides his horse at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Friday, Jan. 8, 2016, near Burns, Ore.
The current misguided reaction on the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, protesting federal government oversight on public lands, is nothing more than a modern-day land grab.
Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward met face-to-face with the group’s leader, Ammon Bundy, on Thursday to try to bring a peaceful end to the occupation.
During a press conference on Friday morning, Bundy seemed to soften his position, saying: “We will take that offer but not yet and we will go out of this county and out of this state as free men”.
The leader of a small, armed group occupying a national wildlife refuge in OR says the activists have no immediate plans to leave.
“We’re friends, but we’re operating separately”, Rapolla, a former Marine who helped defend the Bundys in 2014 in their standoff with the USA government at their Nevada ranch, told Reuters in an earlier interview.
Bundy said his group poses a threat to no one.
“I’m here to talk to give you guys the opportunity to leave the county peacefully and get back to your families”, Ward said, after acknowledging that he understands the group’s desire to be heard.
A man stands guard after members of the “3% of Idaho” group along…
“They just keep an eye on everything that is going on to make sure nothing stupid happens”, Bundy told The Oregonian on Friday afternoon outside refuge headquarters. “That’s what I wanted to post on Facebook, ‘Quit bitching on your electronic devices and come down here and see these people because they are not how they are portrayed in the media'”.
“It was instigated by outsiders whose tactics we Oregonians don’t agree with”.
Federal law enforcement agents and local police have so far kept away from the occupied site, maintaining no visible presence outside the park in a bid to avoid a violent confrontation.
Ward got a lot of support during a packed community meeting Wednesday night.
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At that meeting, local residents said they sympathized with the armed group’s complaints about federal land management but disagreed with their tactics and called on Ammon Bundy and his followers to leave. The father and son were convicted of arson and given five-year prison sentences. The ranchers Dwight Hammond and his son Steven Hammond distanced themselves from Bundy’s group and reported to prison Monday.
