More signs that the System is crumbling.
Carl Jarvis
On 1/24/16, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://themilitant.com/2016/8004/800402.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 80/No. 4 February 1, 2016
(front page)
Oregon ranchers demand ‘Free the
Hammonds,’ debate occupation
BY SETH GALINSKY
“I’ve been here 70 years and Dwight and Steven Hammond are the nicest
people that ever walked a foot of this earth,” rancher Merlin Rupp said
to cheers and applause at a Jan. 6 community meeting in Burns, Oregon.
“They got the rottenest deal there ever was.”
Dwight Hammond, 73, and his son Steven, fellow cattle ranchers, returned
to federal prison in California Jan. 4 to serve additional time on
frame-up charges of “maliciously damaging” U.S. property by fire, which
the government prosecuted under the 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective
Death Penalty Act. They had set two backfires on their ranch, one to
protect against an approaching wildfire and the other to destroy
invasive juniper growth. They burned a total of 140 acres of federal land.
The fires took place in 2001 and 2006, but federal officials didn’t file
charges until June 2010. In previous decades, the government had bought
up land around the Hammonds to expand the Malheur National Wildlife
Refuge, but the Hammonds refused to sell their ranch.
Their case gained national attention after a small group of armed
protesters led by Ammon Bundy occupied buildings at the nearby wildlife
refuge following a peaceful demonstration of 300 Jan. 2. Bundy, the
owner of a truck maintenance business in Arizona who has been involved
in other land fights with the federal government, calls his group
Citizens for Constitutional Freedom. He says the occupation supports the
Hammonds and opposes federal control of land.
Forcing the Hammonds to prison a second time for the same charges is
seen as grossly unfair by ranchers and workers in the area, increasing
anger over the conduct of federal government agencies that control more
than half the land in Oregon and 75 percent in Harney County. Grazing
cattle and getting water on federal land is critical for area ranchers,
large and small, but they face bureaucratic rules and fees every step of
the way, including pressure to give up their land.
Government officials have tried to whip up sentiment against the
occupation. At the Jan. 6 meeting, Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward asked
for a straw poll on who wants “to work this out peacefully and would
like these folks to go home.” Most at the meeting raised their hands,
according to the Burns Times-Herald. At the same time, many said they
were sympathetic to the occupiers’ demands.
“Whether you agree or disagree with Bundy’s movement, he has given
Harney County our biggest and best platform to get our message out,”
rancher Mitch Siegner told the meeting.
Trial judge Michael Hogan sentenced Steven Hammond to two concurrent
one-year sentences and his father to three months of imprisonment. The
judge rejected imposing the five-year minimum sentence set in the
terrorism statute, saying it would be grossly disproportionate to the
severity of charges and “would shock the conscience.”
The Hammonds reached a verbal agreement with prosecutors not to appeal
the case, and also agreed to pay fines for the fires and to give the
federal government first opportunity to buy their ranch if they put it
up for sale. But prosecutors appealed anyway and the U.S. Court of
Appeals ruled in their favor. The Hammonds were ordered back to prison
to complete the five-year sentence minus time served.
As the occupation continues, tensions and disputes have escalated. Some
rightist armed “patriot” groups who offered to help were turned away by
Bundy, but remain in the area.
After LaVoy Finicum, a spokesperson for the occupiers, addressed a Jan.
16 press conference at the wildlife refuge, Kieran Suckling grabbed the
microphone to demand they leave “public land.” Suckling is the executive
director of the Center for Biological Diversity, based in Tucson,
Arizona, which focuses on preserving endangered species.
Various groups who said they spoke for animals, birds and the
environment held protests against the occupation Jan. 19 in Seattle and
Spokane, Washington; Boise, Idaho; Portland, Oregon; and other Northwest
cities. Signs at the rallies included “Bird Lives Matter” and “Arrest
the Occupiers,” but not a word about the problems facing ranchers,
working farmers and workers in eastern Oregon. Residents who support the
Hammonds or express sympathy with the demands of the occupation report
they have been followed by police or FBI agents, who have set up a
command post in town.
Bundy had said he would hold a community meeting Jan. 15 and announce
his “exit plans,” but local officials denied him use of the county
fairgrounds or other public buildings in Burns.
Vanessa Leathers-King, a hairstylist who is active in efforts to defend
the Hammonds, organized a protest of more than a dozen people in Burns
Jan. 18, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, to protest denial of the right
of local residents to hold meetings in public buildings. Signs quoted
King, including “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent.”
The protest would have been bigger, she said in a video posted on the
web, but “A lot of people here are afraid to stand up and put their
names in. They’re worried about job loss.” She added that some local
businesses told workers not to say anything about the dispute.
On Jan. 19 local officials organized another community meeting. Bundy
and others involved in the occupation attended but did not speak. County
Judge Steve Grasty looked at Bundy and said, “It is time for you to go
home.” Some in the gymnasium chanted, “Go, go, go.”
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