Today, I unsubscribed from an e-mail newsletter entitled The Free Thought Project. I had first subscribed to it a month or so ago, attracted by its coverage of police killings in the United States. However, it had begun to show signs of extremism and untrustworthiness. In particular, a 9 / 11 truther themed article raised my BS antenna.
However, the straw that broke the camel’s back was an article that placed the Oregon militia which seized a federal building over this weekend, supposedly in support of ranchers convicted of arson, on the same footing with Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality activists. Quoth Matt Agorist, the author of the article:
On both the right and the left, there have been heartening examples of unlikely groups of citizens coming together to peacefully resist the police state.
He further argued that those who argue for the government to take forceful action against a domestic insurrection are “no better than ISIS.”
My Gut Reaction: If you carry guns and take over a federal building, you forfeit the right to call yourself peaceful.
More below the fold….
There is no debate over the fact that the militia that instigated the Oregon standoff are armed. As the LA Times reports, Jon Ritzheimer, one of the “protestors”, confirmed their possession of weapons to journalists, stating
"We will not fire unless fired upon, but we will stand and defend the Constitution," Ritzheimer said. "Yes, there are some people that are armed. We need to defend our rights. That's what the 2nd Amendment is there for, people."
Furthermore, Ian K. Kullgren, a local reporter in Oregon, has spoken with Ryan Bundy, son of Cliven Bundy and one of the militia’s leaders, who stated the militia’s willingness “to kill or be killed if necessary,” as Kullgren reported in a tweet.
These are not peaceful protestors, Mr. Agorist. They are domestic terrorists who have expressed a willingness to kill law enforcement personnel. Moreover, they are led by members of a family whose previous stand off with law enforcement indirectly led to the killings of two Las Vegas police officers.
To bolster his case, Agorist omits a few pertinent details, such as the fact that the ranchers whom the Bundys and their militia are supposedly supporting have pointedly rejected their help, and deny any relationship with the protest.
I hope the standoff resolves peacefully. That said, if the militia refuses to leave the building, the government has the right to use force to drive them out. Being opposed to police brutality does NOT mean opposition to the lawful use of force to enforce the law, especially against a small scale insurrection. Agorist’s attempt to conflate the two causes is beneath contempt.