Armed Protesters take over Fed owned Building

http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/03/us/oregon-wildlife-refuge-protest/index.html

Yep. Another chapter in the Cliven Bundy saga. Protesters have taken over a Federal building in Oregon, claiming the government is using unfair tactics to try and get them to sell them their farmland. Shit hit the fan when ranchers where arrested for arson. The ranchers claim they where doing it to kill off invasive crops and to prevent wildfires. The protesters think the arrest was the government trying to punish ranchers.

Shit gonna go down folks

 

[AnOminous]

A lesson to be learned by the next prosecutor, and there will be a next one. This sort of victory is only going to encourage the SovCits and the Bundy clan in particular. I'm curious as to what hair-brained scheme they're going to come up with next.

They still have another trial upcoming in February for the previous standoff. One hopes the prosecution doesn't fuck it up, but it features some of the same bullshit, difficult to prove conspiracy shit.

 

[Piss Clam]

They weren't charged with being stupid. They weren't even charged with trespassing, or vandalism, or all the things they actually did. They were charged with an absurdly specific conspiracy that required the government to prove they conspired with the specific intention of impeding government employees from doing their job, which they failed to prove to the satisfaction of the jury.

Why the prosecution chose to do this is a mystery to me.

Because the conspiracy charge is a felony...stripping them of their rights to vote and own guns.

They also went for the other felony charges.

All they need is one to stick.

 

[AnOminous]

Because the conspiracy charge is a felony...stripping them of their rights to vote and own guns.

They also went for the other felony charges.

All they need is one to stick.

There were only three sets of charges. One of them was that goofy conspiracy thing. The other was federal firearms charges, which for some reason also didn't stick. Maybe the guns themselves were legal. I don't know. There was also something about stealing security cameras, which the jury hung on.

One of them (guns in a federal facility) does look like kind of a no-brainer, but the other (using a gun in a crime of violence) pretty much required them to prove Count 1. Without that, no crime of violence, so no crime of violence committed with a gun. The other two are what the jury hung on.

It's a really short indictment: http://media.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/other/2016/03/09/SUPERSEDINGINDICT3916.pdf

While sometimes brevity is the soul of wit, when you have a weeks long course of conduct the entirety of which was unbroken criminality, a six page indictment looks downright fucking lazy.

 

[Piss Clam]

There were only three charges. One of them was that goofy conspiracy thing. The other was federal firearms charges, which for some reason also didn't stick. Maybe the guns themselves were legal. I don't know.

Generally unless you are LEO you are not allowed to carry firearms on a refugee . It wasn't until a few years ago that retired LEO were allowed to carry on lands administered by the DOI.

It appears Malheur has an exception, because they allow hunting at the refugee:

Weapons
Archery bows and firearms that are dismantled, unloaded and cased may be transported through the refuge on public roads. Persons possessing, transporting, or carrying firearms on National Wildlife Refuges must comply with all provisions of state and local law. Persons may only use (discharge) firearms in accordance with refuge regulations

https://www.fws.gov/refuge/malheur/visit/visitor_activities/hunting.html

 

[AnOminous]

Generally unless you are LEO you are not allowed to carry firearms on a refugee . It wasn't until a few years ago that retired LEO were allowed to carry on lands administered by the DOI.

It appears Malheur has an exception, because they allow hunting at the refugee:

Okay. So it looks like they charged them with a law they weren't even breaking, another law that required they prove a conspiracy (guns while committing crime), then they failed to prove that conspiracy. Then they charged them with stealing some stuff and/or damaging it. Maybe it wasn't even damaged, and if it's those cameras, they didn't leave with them or anything, so I'm not sure how they were stolen.

So I think people (not here) should lay off the jury because they came to the right decision.

 

[DragoonSierra]

Were any of the normal shit they could have been charged with felonies?

This is really, REALLY not a good thing. I'm expecting the next 'incident' the Bundy's are involved in to have a body count of at least three or four.

Doubt it. Thats a good way to look bad and get sent to jail. The Bundy's themselves seem to care about optics. And both sides know they have to tread carefully since Waco. Someone who isnt Bundy though probably will kill someone.

 

[Male Idiot]

A Bundy's secret weapon is the socks.