Rural America’s victory over Trumpian “inner city” federal government… liberating the snack-loving sovereignty of Euro-American land appropriators from the hegemony of Washington DC and its BLM (not#BLM) lackeys in a stunning victory of Country and Western sovereign law.
Apparently it’s OK for like-minded individuals operating as self-governing agents to coordinate a “Conspiracy to prevent by ‘force, intimidation, and threats’ employees of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and BLM from carrying out their duties.” And not one snack-loving, armed Bible-toter had to endure an assault by LRAD, tear-gas, or attack dogs… because Privilege.
The jury must have ignored the Wilderness Woodstock of RWNJ secession groups that were drawn to the siege, despite the weakness of a conspiracy.
Will the possibility of lesser charges help deter the potential not for insurrection, but the lawlessness that RWNJ accuse the Feds of fomenting, even as the divergent agendas of county sheriffs only encourages warlordism and the feudal vigilantism of localist states.
A sad comparison to the protests at DAPL, because unarmed native peoples must be more dangerous than radical religious land extremists. Pray Hard.
“We are just so excited,” Angie Bundy, Ryan’s wife, told the Guardian after the verdict was announced.
“We’ve been praying hard, and we knew they hadn’t done anything wrong.”
“This means that God answers prayers, that God cares about man’s freedom. This is huge.”
PORTLAND — In a thorough defeat for federal prosecutors, jurors on Thursday acquitted the leaders of a standoff at a national wildlife refuge in Oregon of conspiracy and possession of firearms at a federal facility.
Neal Wampler, one of the defendants, called the acquittals a “stunning victory for rural America.”
The verdicts followed a five-week trial of the group who took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.Standoff leaders Ammon and Ryan Bundy and five others were charged with conspiring to impede federal workers from their jobs at the refuge.
This case is part of a broader Justice Department prosecution of Bundy family members, who have emerged in recent years as major figures in the militant movement to try to turn more federal land over to local control.
The second — and far higher-stakes federal prosecution — is scheduled to get under way in February in Nevada, when Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy, their father Cliven Bundy and 15 defendants face conspiracy, assault, weapons and other charges that could result in decades of prison time.
More Armed Trespassing on Federal Land ahead?
Following the verdict, attorney Marcus Mumford was tackled by marshals after he pressed for the release of his client Ammon Bundy, who is under indictment in Nevada.
Seven defendants: Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy, Shawna Cox, Kenneth Medenbach, Jeff Banta, David Fry and Neil Wampler.
Primary charge faced by all seven: Conspiracy to prevent by “force, intimidation, and threats” employees of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and BLM from carrying out their duties.
Other charges faced by some defendants: Theft of government property, use and carry of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
Prosecutors sought to keep the case more narrowly focused on a group of people who took over a wildlife refuge that didn’t belong to them.
“This case at its core is about the rule of law,” prosecutor Ethan Knight told the jury during closing arguments. “The defendants picked and chose which laws apply to them, which laws they will abide by. That is why we are here.”
A total of 26 people were charged in connection with the occupation, with 11 pleading guilty, and others, including Washington resident Darryl Thorn, facing trial next year.
The charges in the Nevada case result from the April 2014 Bunkerville standoff over federal efforts to round up family cattle on public lands over the failure to pay grazing fees.
www.seattletimes.com/...