when one chooses to live as an outlaw and adopt the ways of the wild west
taking over property that doesn't belong to them they run the risk of being
killed or murderedd if one chooses to use the melodramatic rflare.
Chuck
-----Original Message-----
From: Roger Loran Bailey (Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Monday, February 15, 2016 6:35 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] ‘The truth will come out: Finicum was flat
murdered’
http://themilitant.com/2016/8007/800755.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 80/No. 7 February 22, 2016
‘The truth will come out: Finicum was flat murdered’
BY SETH GALINSKY
Working people should denounce the cold-blooded Jan. 26 killing of
Robert “LaVoy” Finicum by Oregon State Police and the FBI; the frame-up
conspiracy charges against Ammon Bundy and others who took part in the
occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge; and the frame-up of
Dwight and Steven Hammond, two Harney County, Oregon, cattle ranchers,
imprisoned for a second time on the same bogus arson charges dating back
to 2001 and 2006.
“The truth will come out. LaVoy was just flat murdered,” Tad Houpt, the
owner of a small logging company, said by phone Feb. 7. Finicum and
Bundy were traveling to a Jan. 26 community meeting that Houpt helped
organize in John Day, Oregon, when they were intercepted by the cops.
Bundy initiated the refuge occupation Jan. 2 to draw attention both to
the frame-up of the Hammonds and to U.S. government land policies that
have been undermining the livelihood of ranchers and farmers.
The persecution of the Hammonds outraged small ranchers and farmers
throughout the West — controlled burns are common to control invasive
plants and to prevent the spread of wildfires.
Despite serving the sentence imposed by the trial judge, the Hammonds
went back to jail Jan. 4, because of a U.S. Appeals Court ruling that
their sentences didn’t meet federal minimum rules.
After the trial the U.S. Bureau of Land Management vindictively revoked
the Hammonds’ grazing permits, threatening the survival of their ranch.
Meanwhile, the Oregonian reported Feb. 6 that the scanty official
information and one grainy video released on the killing confirm many
aspects of the accounts by Shawna Cox and Victoria Sharp — who were in
the pickup truck driven by Finicum.
According to both of them, the cops first fired one shot at the vehicle
they were in after Finicum initially pulled over. Finicum then shouted
out to the cops, “I’m going to see the sheriff,” a reference to Sheriff
Glenn Palmer of Grant County, who was also scheduled to be at the John
Day meeting and has been quoted in the press as saying the Hammonds
should be freed.
Finicum tried to drive away, but was soon forced off the road again. The
Oregonian reports that the FBI admits lethal force was used when the
truck “approached the checkpoint,” that is, even before the vehicle
crashed into the snow bank and Finicum gets out with his hands up.
Much of the capitalist press justifies the killing and prosecutions by
labeling Finicum and Bundy as extremists and outside agitators.
“To his detractors,” the New York Times said, “he was a doctrinaire
leader of an illegal protest that is deeply opposed by many who live
near the refuge.” The paper conveniently leaves out that most people in
the area support the demand to free the Hammonds and are sympathetic to
their opposition to the government land policies. Many local residents
visited the refuge, met Finicum and Bundy or donated food and supplies
to the occupiers.
Some 1,000 people attended Finicum’s funeral in Kanab, Utah, Feb . 5.
While pretending to be objective, the Times’ description of the scene
plays on many of its readers’ prejudices. After the service there were
“cowboys on horseback and members of so-called patriot groups wearing
camouflage and carrying small weapons,” it reports.
The Times did quote one rancher from Nevada, Diana Clark, at the
funeral. “All of us ranchers feel like we’re backed into a corner,” she
said. “And it’s hard to get anyone to acknowledge our needs, and so they
gave us a platform.”
At least 22 smaller protests against the killing of Finicum took place
Feb. 6, from Florida to Washington. One common placard was “Hands Up,
Don’t Shoot,” a slogan first popularized by protesters against police
brutality after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in
2014. At events in John Day and Prineville, Oregon, dozens of local
ranchers participated.
Meanwhile, federal prosecutors have now indicted 16 supporters of the
occupation with conspiracy to “prevent by force, intimidation and
threats, officers and employees of the United States Fish and Wildlife
Service … from discharging the duties of their office” at the wildlife
refuge.
The list of what the indictment calls “overt acts” to further the
conspiracy is proof itself that the prosecution is a frame-up.
The first “act” it lists is an Oct. 5 meeting where Ammon Bundy warned
Harney County Sheriff David Ward that if the Hammonds went to jail there
could be “extreme civil unrest.”
Although the occupiers are not accused of pointing their weapons at
anyone, the indictment claims that they “brandished and carried
firearms.” Oregon law allows the open carrying of firearms.
Bundy released a statement from prison Feb. 6, noting that the
occupation was civil disobedience. He encouraged those “who disagree
with my speech” or dislike his ideas to engage in civil discussion. “If
you do not advocate for government to tolerate ideas that it hates, then
the First Amendment and free speech mean nothing,” he said. “Arm
yourself with ideas. … Argue and disagree. Be free.”
Supporters of the Hammonds continue to organize. A new online petition
calling on President Barack Obama to free the Hammonds had 3,341
signatures as of Feb. 9. The Oregon Cattlemen’s Association is asking
that donations be sent to: The Hammond Family, c/o Sandra Carlon at US
Bank, 493 N. Broadway, Burns, Oregon 97720.
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