Cheers for sheriff who tells armed group to ‘go home’
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Harney County Sheriff David Ward arrives to a community meeting at the Harney County fairgrounds on Wednesday in Burns, Ore.
BURNS, Ore. » Cheers erupted at a packed community meeting in rural Oregon when a sheriff said it was time for a small, armed group occupying a national wildlife refuge to “pick up and go home”
The group objecting to federal land policy seized buildings at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday. Authorities have not yet moved to remove the group of roughly two dozen people, some from as far away as Arizona and Michigan. The group also objects to a lengthy prison sentence for two local ranchers convicted of arson.
“I’m here today to ask those folks to go home and let us get back to our lives,” Harney County Sheriff David Ward said Wednesday evening.
Schools were closed following the seizure of the refuge because of safety concerns in this small town in eastern Oregon’s high desert country and tensions have risen. Ward told the hundreds gathered at the meeting he hoped the community would put up a “united front” to peacefully resolve the conflict.
Group leader Ammon Bundy has told reporters they will leave when there’s a plan in place to turn over federal lands to locals.
Several people spoke in support of Bundy and his followers at Wednesday’s meeting.
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“They are waking people up,” said 80-year-old Merlin Rupp, a long-time local resident. “They are just making a statement for us, to wake us up.”
Earlier Wednesday the leader of an American Indian tribe that regards the preserve as sacred issued a rebuke to Ammon’s group, saying they are not welcome at the snowy bird sanctuary and must leave.
“The protesters have no right to this land. It belongs to the native people who live here,” Burns Paiute Tribal leader Charlotte Rodrique said.
Bundy is demanding that the refuge be handed over to locals.
Rodrique said she “had to laugh” at the demand, because she knew Bundy was not talking about giving the land to the tribe.
The standoff in rural Oregon is a continuation of a long-running dispute over federal policies covering the use of public lands, including grazing. The federal government controls about half of all land in the West. For example, it owns 53 percent of Oregon, 85 percent of Nevada and 66 percent of Utah, according to the Congressional Research Service.
The Bundy family is among many people in the West who contend local officials could do a better job of managing public lands than the federal government.
The argument is rejected by those who say the U.S. government is better equipped to manage public lands for all those who want to make use of them.
Among those groups are Native Americans.
The Burns Paiute tribe has guaranteed access to the refuge for activities that are important to their culture, including gathering a plant used for making traditional baskets and seeds that are used for making bread. The tribe also hunts and fishes there.
Rodrique said the armed occupiers are “desecrating one of our sacred sites” with their presence at refuge.
Bundy’s group, calling itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, says it wants an inquiry into whether the government is forcing ranchers off their land after Dwight Hammond and his son, Steven, reported back to prison Monday.
The Hammonds are long-time local residents who have distanced themselves from the group Bundy’s group. They were convicted of arson three years ago and served no more than a year. A judge later ruled that the terms fell short of minimum sentences requiring them to serve about four more years.
At the emotional community meeting Ward, the county sheriff, said he understood the problems some had with the ranchers’ court case. However he said people needed to express but their anger peacefully and lawfully.
“I’ve got my own frustrations, we’ve got visitors in town that have their frustrations, but there’s appropriate ways to work out our differences,” he said.
Petty reported from Portland, Oregon.
18 responses to “Cheers for sheriff who tells armed group to ‘go home’”
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Just wait them out. Cut off the utilities; it’s not up to the taxpayer to warm them or provide them electricity. Don’t let anyone in (with “snacks”). Don’t let anyone out without them laying down arms and being arrested for trespassing. And stop the press conferences since publicity is what misnamed “patriots” seem to want.
Your medieval ways reminds me of how Hawaii would handle a crisis. Uncouth.
It’s not a “crisis”… it’s ridiculous. Kind of like your multiple trolling posts everyday.
This isn’t a “crisis.” This is Ammon Bundy and his ragtag group of wannabe militia members twisting the law to suit their views. The Hammonds did not ask for their “help” or presence. It’s time for Bundy and his band to go home to their families.
It’s also a bunch of welfare kings trying to make some noise.
How about we talk about the MILLION dollars in grazing fees his family just straight refuses to pay for that every other rancher did?
Funny how they protest the Federal Government, yet their leader got a half million dollar loan for his business from the Federal government.
None of our fringe extremist rightists here want to talk about those yet ardently defend these cancers upon our society.
Why. Thank you. For a moment, I thought that only my puppies read my trolling.
And your suggestion to end this is?
He doesn’t have one. Just starve them out.
Winston’s inbred cousins plan as well as he does. They don’t have spare socks or snacks, so they will end up in the same place Winston does: Wrong, cold and hungry.
Mike, you are diametrically incorrect. In Medieval times, both European and Japanese, the protest would be over by now and the heads would be on pikes.
Agree, ignoring their actions by passive action on the part of the officials will frustrate them as it will deny them of a platform. They crave media attention, let them pursue through the justice system their claim. Armed conflicts only fuels the fire for naught.
Thugs need constant adult supervision.
The land belongs to the local indigenous people. Take out the trash! Arrest them and remove them. They do not belong there.
The problem is that white trash is EVERYWHERE and you can’t just throw them out. The other thing is, they consider all the Fed lands as “their home” so the whole notion of telling them to go home is ridiculous. Only way to get rid of them is to bring all the different “white terrorists” together at that location with as much guns and ammos as they want and leave them alone for a few days.
In Hawaii, the authorities come early in the morning with an army of police. That’s worth cheering.
In this case, I believe that the assertion of the indigenous people of the area that the “well regulated Militia” is “desecrating one of our sacred sites” is entirely valid.
Cellodad, exactly where in this story does the term “well regulated Militia” come up? That Native Americans don’t want the armed occupiers/group on the wildlife refuge is clearly stated in the article, but nowhere is this snippet from the 2nd Amendment mentioned. We all know you’d rather the 2nd Amendment be erased from the Bill of Rights, but you do yourself and Native Americans a disservice by making a dishonest association in your post.
They protest that they represent a “Militia” and that the Federal Government is behaving unconstitutionally. They are asserting their supposed “right” to bear arms and occupy Federal lands. To me, they don’t look much like what the Constitution alludes to in the Second Amendment as a “well regulated Militia.” (Oh yeah, please send snacks and more money for beer-binges.)
I have never mentioned anywhere that I would “rather the 2nd Amendment be erased…” There’s another one you’re just making up. (Actually, I enjoy the shooting sports as long as they involve putting holes in paper.) I will offer that none of the Rights enumerated in the first 10 Amendments has ever been construed as absolute by the US Supreme Court over the past couple of centuries.
In short, get a grip, try not to be so sensitively doctrinaire and go open a cold one.
Joe Oshaugnessy, an Arizona militiaman, actively sought volunteers through social media to join the occupation of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, but he kept the money he had raised for himself and spent at least some of it on a drinking binge. His fellow rodeo clowns tearfully announced that Oshaugnessy, who is known as “Capt. O,” had left the refuge Wednesday and was instead staying at a motel nearby — as some others associated with the militants have apparently been doing, according to sources.