Hundreds of Armed Right-Wing Militia Members Take Over Federal Building

occupied the Lincoln Memorial

If a band of frustrated Black-Lives-Matter activists had armed themselves and occupied the Lincoln Memorial on Martin Luther King Day, federal agents would not be as patient. The Feds are showing remarkable restraint in the Oregon case.

So let me see if I understand this...Cruz says precisely the right thing

“We should have a federal government protecting the liberty of the citizens,not using the jackboot of authoritarianism to come against the citizens.”

The Lincoln Memorial is not the same as a building in the middle of nowhere.

Federal authorities in a stand-off with armed, self-styled militiamen in eastern Oregon have been told to avoid a violent confrontation, in line with official U.S. policy after deadly clashes in the 1990s, said three Obama administration officials.

The FBI said in a statement issued on Sunday it is taking the lead in working to bring a peaceful solution to the situation at the Oregon refuge but declined to release specific information due to safety considerations.

The Oregon occupation differs from previous standoffs because the militants have occupied a public building, a tactic more commonly used by left-wing extremists, said Mark Pitcavage, who monitors extremist groups for the Anti-Defamation League.

Re: BillRM (Post 6101618)
BillRM wrote:
The Lincoln Memorial is not the same as a building in the middle of nowhere.

Fair enough. I'll change my hypothetical and have the Black-Lives-Matter people occupy Mount Rushmore then. That's in the middle of nowhere, too. Are you still expecting the same reaction?

Addressing reporters at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge, Ammon Bundy, the leader of the occupation, said the group believes the federal government had “gone beyond the boundaries of the Constitution” and pushed “people into poverty” by denying private ranchers full use of public lands.

“We have a lot of work to do to unwind the unconstitutional land transactions and unwind the land claims that the federal government hast on these lands,” Bundy said, adding that the group has chosen to call itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom.

“We are not making demands,” Finimuc said. “We are here to work. These buildings here, they belong to Harney County, they belong to the state of Oregon. These are public lands. We’ve come here to restore these ranches. We would love to see the hundreds of ranchers who’ve lost their land return to their land.”

Bundy, said the family had been persecuted because they refused to sell their land to the federal government.

“This effort started by understanding that a ranching family in Harney County has been put under duress by several federal agencies,” Bundy told reporters. “Those agencies have desired for many years to acquire their ranch, and the Hammond family has refused to sell it, because they want to pass their ranch on to their children and grandchildren.”

“They don’t intend to come upon us,” Bundy said of law enforcement.