The residents of Harney County gathered last night for their weekly meeting about Ammon Bundy and the armed militants he brought to their community. Bundy and the militia have made numerous requests to hold a meeting in a county building to address the community, but the local officials aren’t having it. They’ve said time and time again that they will not allow Bundy and his criminals to use their facilities. After all, this group of armed occupiers has repeatedly called for people like Judge Steven Grasty to be arrested and tried for treason. Last night, Judge Grasty took the microphone to address the crowd and he stepped right to Ammon Bundy and told him he’d be “happy to meet him any place outside my county.” In short, Judge Grasty ain’t taking no shit from Ammon Bundy.
Watch Judge Grasty take on Ammon head on, see the crowd largely turn on Bundy and read on below about the heated, angry comments from other community members at the meeting:
“Go home!” That was the overriding theme from the community members gathered in the high school gymnasium. Many in the crowd were appreciative that Bundy brought some of the land issues to the forefront of the people’s minds, but time and time again they asked the militia to leave.
The two speakers below really exemplify how torn the community is over the Bundy occupation. The first makes it clear she wants the feds to leave and the Hammonds to come home. The next woman explodes in anger about federal minimum sentencing laws being the problem all over the U.S. and how dare the Bundy crew show up at their meeting when they should be in prison. Watch:
More on the meeting from The Oregonian:
But the audience of perhaps 300 people had plenty to say, and it seemed the cork had come out of the county.
One woman said she appreciated the attention Bundy has brought to rural issues but told him, "Get the hell out of my county."
Another man gestured at Bundy and gave him the same message.
"Are you happy you did this to our community?" he said.
Another woman, shaking in anger, called out Bundy for the fear he's caused in local schools, which closed for a week after the occupation began. She yelled across the gym at him, telling him to leave and "go to jail where you deserve to be!"
Another resident took the microphone to ask what many of you are wondering—why are the armed occupiers allowed to travel freely? Why do they have power, WiFi, cell service? Watch this man bring up some of these very points:
The crowd may be divided, but they were clear on one thing—it’s time to go home (or prison).
Yes, Ammon Bundy and his merry band of armed occupiers never got a chance to address the crowd. They simply slipped off into the night, back to their armed occupation of federal facilities.
And so the whole mess continues. You can see all of the impassioned, angry and sometimes quirky comments during the meeting in the full video.
[Note: the video of the women discussing the Hammonds and federal sentencing were added after publishing]